CHINESE judge charged with corruption died in his cell from "adult sudden death syndrome", Xinhua news agency said today.
Investigators said Li Chaoyang, 38, had been unco-operative while in detention in Xing'an county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwestern China.
"Cuts on his face and other injuries" had been caused by a fall during an escape attempt, they said.
Li, a judge with the local Pingle County Court, was detained on March 23, accused of taking bribes.
Shi Shaosen, head of the Guilin municipal law enforcement supervisory section and chief investigator in the case, said the prisoner had not been maltreated.
"Li Chaoyang's sudden death conforms with adult sudden death syndrome," said Mr Shi, citing a forensic report.
Li's relatives had claimed there were wounds on his body, a gash across his lip and one of his front teeth was missing. They questioned the cause of his death and wrote about it on a blog.
The investigation found that Li had been "mentally unstable", would not stop shouting and refused to return to his cell after exercise. Investigators said Li had attempted to escape many times and detention centre officials had had to shackle him.
"The investigation proves Li Chaoyang's case was handled according to legal procedures and strictly according to the law," Mr Shi was quoted as saying.
"There were no reports that torture was used to extract a confession, or bodily harm caused by guards, or an assault by cell mates."
#3
Unfortunately, this doesn't spread as much as avian flu. Seeing a rash of senior geriatric officials befallen by adult sudden death syndrome would be entertaining interesting. Betcha they'd quickly return from any [insert the excuse here] recess to reconvene the Senate to pass a gazillion level funding bill for an immediate cure.
LOS ANGELES Sony Corp. on Monday issued an apology for using a freshly slaughtered goat as a prop at its "God of War II" video game launch party in Athens, a publicity stunt that has outraged animal rights activists.
. . . because every video game should come with a fresh goat carcass.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/01/2007 18:30 ||
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said Monday.
Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an "Old Higue"the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.
The woman, who has not been identified, was beaten to death and her remains were found on Saturday in a village 15 miles east of Georgetown, police said.
Police have arrested three people and are questioning others, Superintendent Balram Persaud said.
"We are still investigating," he said.
Some expressed surprise at the persistence of belief in Higues, a creature said to take the shape of an old woman who can shrink herself to enter victims' homes through a keyhole.
#1
The villagers didn't watch enough horror movies. You can't beat a vampire to death. The correct ways to kill them are to drive a piece of wood through their heart, expose them to sunlight, holy water, garlic and silver bullets.
#4
Hehehe...not all vampires are killed in the good ole' tradition of Hollywood horror movies or European legend.
The Higue, it seems, can walk in daylight, turn itself into a ball of fire to fly, can shed its skin, and shrink itself down to enter houses at night. In order to catch it, you throw uncooked rice on the floor. As the Higue enters the house, without its skin, it steps and the rice and must then count each and every grain by picking them up. If any of the grains fall onto the floor again, it has to start counting all over again. Thus, you can catch the thing counting rice grains in the house in the morning.
You kill it by beating it to death with coconut straw brooms (it has no skin so this reportedly burns).
Not all lycanthropes are killed by fire or silver bullets either.
Notify Sheryl Crow! Somebody took her advice.
Toilet paper is becoming a sought after commodity at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility after officials began limiting inmates to one roll at a time to trim costs.
Officials say the prison has long had a limit, but they learned recently that it hadn't been enforced. Increased enforcement began this month.
Under the prison policy, inmates are restricted to four rolls of toilet paper each month or on an "as-needed" basis.
#2
They should install bidets for the prisoners. Just a low-pressure stream of water that comes out of the wall after you push a metal button, with a drain on the floor underneath it. Then wash your hands after.
#5
If reports that the conversion to Islam among prison inmates is exploding, then the use of TP shuold be declining at a comparable rate. this should be a non-(t)issue.
PATNA: Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the grooms more sober brother instead, police aid on Monday. The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the brides family and local villagers chased him away, Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sundays marriage in a village in Bihar states Arwal district. The younger brother readily agreed to take the grooms place beside the teenage bride at her familys invitation, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
So you are saying I missed my shot at a teen bride?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A swarm of bees clustered outside the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center shut down the emergency room Monday, as officials waited for a beekeeper to come vacuum up the 7,000 insects.
Although no one was stung, the Little Rock emergency room still decided to be closed for ambulance traffic.
"We'll take walk-ins, but ambulances are being diverted to other hospitals," UAMS spokeswoman Andrea Peel said.
Doctors did not see any patients with bee stings, but emergency room physician Dr. Delaney Kinchen said it was an important precaution to close the ER while clearing out the bees.
"I've been stung thousands of times and never had any problems, but I know people who've been stung twice and almost died," he said.
Beekeeper Harvey Johnston arrived Monday afternoon to remove the beehive.
"Somewhere around here was a beehive that got overcrowded," he said. "When bees get crowded, (the queen) leaves and takes a portion of the bees with her."
The emergency room reopened shortly after 2 p.m., Peel said.
___
Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com
During the last 10,000 years climate has been seesawing between the North and South Atlantic Oceans. As revealed by findings presented by Quaternary scientists at Lund University, Sweden, cold periods in the north have corresponded to warmth in the south and vice verse. These results imply that Europe may face a slightly cooler future than predicted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The research group, currently consisting of Svante Björck, Karl Ljung and Dan Hammarlund, has retrieved cores of lake sediments and peat along a north-south transect of Atlantic islands and adjacent land areas: Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Azores, Tristan da Cunha, Isla de los Estados, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Based on detailed analyses of geochemistry, mineral magnetism and pollen content, hitherto unknown details of Atlantic climate dynamics have been resolved. Extensive radiocarbon dating and rapid sedimentation rates in the terrestrial deposits allow a much higher temporal resolution of the data than provided by marine sediment cores.
Our records reflect details of the climatic evolution in the Atlantic region since the end of the last Ice Age to the present day. We would have liked to compare our results to similar data sets from other parts of the South Atlantic, but no other records provide the same degree of resolution, says Professor Björck. After the end of the last Glacial both Hemispheres became warmer as a result of melting ice sheets, but during the last 9000 years we can identify a persistent "seesaw" pattern. When the South Atlantic was warm it was cold in the North Atlantic and vice versa.
This is most certainly related to large-scale ocean circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. The main current system - "the Great Ocean Conveyor" - is driven by sinking of dense, relatively cold and salty water in the northern North Atlantic. This results in southward-flowing deep-water that is replaced by warm surface water brought to high northern latitudes from the tropics and ultimately from the South Atlantic, says Svante Björck, and continues:
The deep-water formation in the north is dependent on cooling of surface water with a high salt content. If sufficiently large amounts of fresh water are supplied to the North Atlantic, such as from melting ice-sheets or major increases in precipitation, the deep-water formation, and hence the transport of warm surface water from the south, may cease or at least decrease substantially.
This is known to have happened repeatedly during the present Interglacial (the warm period since the last Ice Age). Minor disturbances have taken place in recent time, such as the Great Salt Anomaly in the 1970s, which seriously affected the cod population around the Faroe Islands. Our results from Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cunha island group, between South Africa and Argentina, for the first time give evidence of warming of the South Atlantic associated with cooling in the north. This is a major breakthrough in palaeoclimate research.
In agreement with most other climate researchers, the Lund group is not concerned about a complete shut-down of the Gulf Stream as envisioned in the apocalyptic film "The day after tomorrow". However, future warming induced by anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions may influence the system.
We dont know with certainty what will happen. Some attempts at measuring ocean currents suggest a recent weakening of the Gulf Stream, and the transport of heat to the North Atlantic region may well decrease in the future as a result of increased precipitation. Such a scenario might lead to less warming in Europe than predicted by the IPCC, but we will probably not face an arctic climate, summarizes Svante Björck.
#1
I say again for the 100th time...Most atmospheric scientists are employed by the US government. Government policy forbids government workers from publicly deviating from the government's position or directives. And, that includes the climate change debate...unless we are doing applied or theoretical research. The majority of government atmospheric scientists are familiar with, or well-versed in the climate change arguments, and are skeptical at best. You will not see their names in a magazine, or the paper, or TV debating the issue with moonbats or zeolts on either side of the issue.
I will also restaste what I say to folks who ask about the certainty of man-induced climate change: "Why do you think they call it Greenland? If Global Circulation Models that support inundation of the coastal regions by the end of the 21st century due to the melting of polar ice are so good, why do short term atmospheric models that are orders of magnitude more sophisticated go unstable after 10 days? Why is there evidence of subtropical climate under the Antarctic Ice Cap?"
#3
Why is there evidence of subtropical climate under the Antarctic Ice Cap?
Anymouse, that is an entirely different question.
Kinda relates to a question why there are remnants of coral reefs at Spitsbergen. No, not that old as mythical Gondwana, quite fresh, < 50kya (the results of dating vary from 50kya to 3.5kya).
#4
2x4...I understand that you have to be careful mixing plate tectonics and global climate as they are related. However, it is unclear where Gondwana was in relation to the equator, etc., etc.
As you so aptly point out there are countless of middle latitude examples of a topsey-turvey biosystem that is directly related to the climate.
The bottom line: We are still a long ways from equilibrium exiting the last ice age. Throw in the measured variation in the solar contstant...and there is your "climate change".
More at the link. The article runs long. Also you need to subscribe to view the rest of the story.
Anger Over Britain's Role in Iraq Bolsters Support for Scottish Independence
DUNDEE, Scotland -- Douglas Murray Thomson, a proud Scot who wears kilts, would very much like to see Scotland break away from England and become independent. He said his oil-rich nation of 5 million people would fare better without being taxed and ruled by politicians hundreds of miles south in London.
Many Scots agree with him, and opinion polls show that an overwhelming majority want the issue put to a vote. While the cry to go it alone is as old as the heather in the Highlands, the passion with which it is now being debated suggests the strength of rising nationalism here, and the uneasy relationship between Scotland and England on the 300th anniversary of their political union.
Alex Salmond, center, head of the Scottish National Party, discusses his party's goals with John Nicoll, a Scottish voter. Many concede that an independent Scotland is unlikely soon. (By Mary Jordan -- The Washington Post)
A desire to be Scottish, not British, is behind the calls for an independent Scotland. So is outrage that the British Parliament voted Scottish troops into the Iraq war. There is also the stunning economic success of Ireland, Scotland's smaller neighbor, which won independence from Britain nearly a century ago.
"No doubt we could manage our own country," said Thomson, 73, a retired tire inspector. He was sitting in an outdoor cafe in this seaside city, where a medieval castle along the coast stands as a reminder of the long-ago time when Scots were ever-vigilant against English invaders.
Many here concede that an independent Scotland is unlikely anytime soon, if ever. But the Scottish National Party, once a fringe group dedicated to Scottish independence, is expected to be the top vote-getter in important local elections May 3, and that is causing more than a wee bit of political heartburn in England.
Scottish actor Sean Connery, who once served "queen and country" in the role of Her Majesty's most famous secret agent, 007, supports the SNP and says he would move back from his adopted home in the Bahamas if Scotland broke away from England. "There will never be a better opportunity than now," Connery, 76, said on the party's Internet site.
Police worry about Kansas City 'catering' to Islamic rituals
The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned.
The move concerns airport police who worry about Middle Eastern men loitering inside the building. After 9/11, the airport beefed up its police force to help prevent terrorist attacks.
"Why are we constructing places of worship for them inside our airports?" said an airport official who requested anonymity. "Why are we catering to their rituals? We don't do it for any other religion."
Other major airports also are dealing with increased demands from Muslim cabdrivers.
For instance, cabbies at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recently caused a stir when they refused to carry passengers possessing alcoholic beverages or accompanied by seeing-eye dogs. Alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and dogs are considered unclean.
There are approximately 250 taxicab drivers operating at KCI Airport in Missouri, one of the largest airports in the U.S., linking some 10 million passengers between mid-America and other U.S. cities. Approximately 70 percent of the drivers are of Middle Eastern heritage and practice the Islamic faith, sources say.
KCI Airport Police are responsible for the cab drivers, including the holding areas of the building. The KCI Aviation Department, which oversees the police, recently expanded the taxicab facility restroom area to include the construction of four individual foot-washing benches.
The cost of the project is not immediately known. A spokeswoman for the engineering department said she could not break out the figures.
KCI Airport Police Capt. Jim Harmon declined comment, explaining, "This is a touchy subject."
He referred questions to the KCI Aviation Department.
In a cleansing ritual known as ablution, Muslims are required to wash their feet before praying to Allah five times a day. They often complain that public restroom sinks do not accommodate their needs. Floor-level basins make it easier for them to perform their foot-washing ritual.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has pressed government agencies and businesses to install the foot basins in restrooms.
The controversial Muslim lobby group advises employers to allow Muslim workers time to perform both the washing ritual and prayer, which "is usually about 15 minutes," according to a pamphlet CAIR publishes called, "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices."
The Islamic purification ritual, known in Arabic as "wudu," involves a 10-step process, which includes:
1. Praising Allah while washing both hands up to the wrist three times, making sure that the water reaches between fingers and under rings.
2. Rinsing out the mouth thoroughly three times, using the right hand (the one not used for cleaning private parts) to bring the water to the mouth.
3. Snorting water into the nostrils from the right hand, three times, to cleanse them of demons that Muslims believe reside there, clearing the passages of any mucous using the left hand.
4. Washing off the tip of the nose with the left hand.
5. Washing the entire face three times from right ear to left ear.
6. Continuing to wash from forehead to throat.
7. Washing the right arm and then the left arm, three times, from the wrist up to the elbow, removing watches.
8. Moving wetted palms over the head from the top of the forehead to the back of the head.
9. Passing the wetted tips of the fingers into the grooves and holes of both ears, and also passing the wetted thumbs behind the ears and ear lobes.
10. Finally, washing both feet to the ankles starting with the right foot, including between the toes, then reciting: "Ash-hadu an la ilaha illal lahu wa ashhadu anna Muammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh" meaning there is no god but Allah and he has no partners, and Muhammad is his servant and messenger.
#2
1. If Muslims need to perform this ritual then they should have the foresight to bring a basin.
2. As a secularist, I cannot help but look at practices such as
Snorting water into the nostrils from the right hand, three times, to cleanse them of demons that Muslims believe reside there, clearing the passages of any mucous using the left hand.
and think how ludicrous mankind's religion-based practices are. Islam conflicts with reason more often than other faiths, but to some degree they are all guilty.
#3
The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned.
This is an outrage. If the cabbies want to pray with all the needed ablutions, GO TO A FUCKING MOSQUE! The airport is not a religious structure. If needed, we should rip out every non-denominational chapel in every airport across this entire country to prevent any more of this bullshit. THIS IS GOVERNMENT MONEY BEING SPENT TO APPEASE ONE PARTICULAR GROUP OF RELIGIOUS WHINERS!
Even very intelligent people should be adequately nonplussed by these new facilities such that they confuse them with urinals or emergency toilets if all the stalls are full.
Incidentally, are these same foot washing basins being installed in all of the women's restrooms as well? I sincerely doubt it and this represents sexist preferential treatment. This shit has gotta stop!
#5
Here is the text of a message I sent to Kansas City International Airport:
To Whom:
Your installation of foot washing facilities for Muslim cab drivers demonstrates preferential treatment based upon religious orientation. I sincerely doubt you provide lunar calendars for Chinese travelers or indicators for when the first star appears on the Sabbath for Jews.
By appeasing these Muslim cabbies you have set a precedent whereby they will continue to make even more demands upon the system. Have you not learned any lessons from the Minneapolis cabbie disputes? Next, you will be ordered to provide Halal foods in your vending machines and, eventually, Islamic calls to prayer over your intercoms.
What you have done is an affront to the constitutional rights of all American people. By showing deference to one religious group you have used government funds to violate the separation of church and state.
I hope you are confronted with numerous and extremely expensive law suits for your craven acquiescence to these religious fanatics. And fanatics they are. There is absolutely no dire need for them to perform their ablutions at the airport. Islam gives specific dispensation for individuals who are unable to do so due to circumstances beyond their control. Those who desire to perform such rituals may do so at the mosque of their choice.
By obliging the demands of these aggressive Muslims, you now create even more pretense for them to be on airport premises. These are the same people who brought about the 9-11 atrocity and you are absolute fools if you have managed to forget this. You are voluntarily creating a security breach and opening yourself to liability should one of the cabbies decide to launch a terrorist attack on your facility.
I sincerely hope you will reconsider this ill-advised program of religious favoritism. You are embodying the very worst sort of appeasement for the world's most intolerant religion.
#6
Further, the thought of having some dope hog the restroom sink, clearing mucus out of his nose and chanting some pagan gibbersih is really offensive to me. If there are three of them, no one else is going to be able to use the sinks.
#7
You've gotta be shitting me. Minneapolis is one thing, but now Kansas City. I go through there often. I'm going to make certain to have several beers prior so that I can take a good healthy piss in their cistern. This is beyond belief.
#8
KC: The Bar-B-Que Capital of the world! "Arthur Bryant's BBQ", "Gates BBQ", "The Hereford House", "The Golden Ox"...I salivate at the mere thought of these exquisite eateries. I fear the heathens will soon start denouncing my BBQ ribs!
#9
Wanna cleanse those nostrils of demons? Try bleach next time...
Posted by: Dar ||
05/01/2007 18:41 Comments ||
Top||
#10
CAIR probably threatened them with a $500 million lawsuit if they didn't put them in. It was prolly cheaper and safer to just cave in to the water snorting lunatics.
#11
Given all the different sorts of toilets around the world (from holes in the ground to ???) aren't they worried that some foreigner might mistake them for toilets and leave an offering [to Allah]?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/01/2007 20:41 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Since you probably cannot smoke in a public building, any bets on how many chewers there are out there? And those big ol' bowls look to me like drive-by spitoons.......
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
LOS ANGELES Sony Corp. on Monday issued an apology for using a freshly slaughtered goat as a prop at its "God of War II" video game launch party in Athens, a publicity stunt that has outraged animal rights activists.
PATNA: Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the grooms more sober brother instead, police aid on Monday. The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the brides family and local villagers chased him away, Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sundays marriage in a village in Bihar states Arwal district. The younger brother readily agreed to take the grooms place beside the teenage bride at her familys invitation, witnesses said.
