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Chinese Police Officer Shoots Three Reporters At Press Conference Spotlighting Success Of Their Gun Control Campaign
July 18th, 2008
CHINA - Three journalists were hurt when a gun went off at a press conference called by Chinese police to highlight the success of a gun-control campaign.
The press conference in Nanchong in Sichuan province was to publicise the results of a campaign by the city’s police to seize illegal weapons, the Beijing News reported.
According to Zheng Chongjun, deputy head of the political division of Nanchong police, some of the reporters asked to take photos of the guns seized, the newspaper reported.
One of the police officials mishandled a homemade weapon, releasing the trigger and dropping it.
It was unclear from the report whether the gun contained bullets or shotgun pellets but it said one journalist needed surgery after being hit in the ankle, crotch, and chest.
15 Italian Police Officers Found Guilty After Beating G8 Protesters - Sentenced To Between 5 Months And 5 Years In Prison
July 16th, 2008
GENOA, ITALY - An Italian court on Monday found 15 police officers guilty of beating protesters at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 and sentenced them to between five months’ and five years’ imprisonment.
The heaviest sentence of five years was given to an inspector in the penitentiary police department. Thirty defendants were acquitted.
All those convicted are expected to appeal and none will go to prison until the appeals process is complete, which normally takes years.
Police were accused of organised brutality at the Diaz High school where protesters were camping during the summit, and later at the Bolzaneto police barracks where arrested protesters were taken.
Prosecutor Patrizia Petruzziello said the 40 protesters arrested suffered ‘four out of five’ of the European Court of Human Right’s classifications for ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’.
Read MoreFormer Police Officer “Assassinates” Wax Figure Of Adolph Hitler In Berlin Germany Museum, Assaults Security Guard
July 7th, 2008
BERLIN, GERMANY - The decapitation of Adolf Hitler by a left-wing activist drew widespread applause from German critics and politicians yesterday who felt that his wax dummy should never have been put on display in Berlin.
One commentator hailed it as “a successful assassination attempt – sadly 75 years overdue”.
The assault occurred only minutes after the Berlin affiliate of Madame Tussauds opened its doors to the public at the weekend. The second visitor in the building, a 41-year-old former policeman known only as Frank L., headed straight for the darkened corner where a despairing Führer was shown hunched over his desk in his Berlin bunker.
Mr L. jumped the rope cordon, slid over the desk and grabbed Hitler in a rugby tackle.
Few men in the whole of history and none in modern times have been the cause of suffering on so large a scale as Hitler
Read MoreCharges Dropped After German Couple’s $1.59 eBay Baby For Sale Joke
July 4th, 2008
GERMANY - A baby boy removed from his parents’ custody after they offered to sell him on eBay for just a euro _ $1.59 _ as a joke is back at home, a prosecutor said Thursday.
“The child has been returned to his parents,” prosecutor Johannes Kreuzpointer told The Associated Press.
The parents maintained that the posting was just a joke gone awry. Investigators agreed, dropping their probe into possible child trafficking.
“Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, nearly 28 inches long and can be used either in a baby carrier or a stroller,” read the original ad that ran on May 24.
No bids were received in the two hours and 30 minutes the ad was online before it was taken down.
The 23-year-old mother and 24-year-old-father were not identified.
Read MorePayback: Man Stabs 9 Third World Police Officers And Sets Fire At Shanghai China Police Station, Killing 5
July 1st, 2008
BEIJING, CHINA - A man wielding a knife broke into a Shanghai-area police station Tuesday, killing five police officers and injuring four others, authorities said.
He also set fire to the building’s main gate.
Police identified the 28-year-old suspect only by his surname, Yang.
The unemployed resident of Beijing was reportedly unhappy with the punishment he received after being convicted of stealing a bicycle, when he launched his attack on the station, police said.
He was arrested at the scene.
Iraqi Men Sue U.S. Military War Criminal Contractors After Being Tortured In Abu Ghraib Prison - Beaten, Electrocuted, And Subjected To False Executions
June 30th, 2008
ISTANBUL - Four Iraqi men are suing U.S. military contractors who they say tortured them while they were detained in Abu Ghraib prison, according to lawsuits being filed at U.S. federal courts on Monday.
The lawsuits allege the contractors committed violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy.
The scandal over the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib unleashed a wave of global condemnation against the United States when images of abused prisoners surfaced in 2004.
The four plaintiffs, all later released without charge, described their experiences to Reuters on Monday at an Istanbul hotel, where they periodically meet their U.S. legal team. They gave accounts of beatings, electric shocks and mock executions.
The lawsuits named CACI International Inc, CACI Premier Technology, L-3 Services Inc and three individual contractors.
The first suit was filed on Monday in Seattle, Washington, and the others were being filed in Maryland, Ohio and Michigan, where the contractors reside.
Read MoreRebels Take Out 40 Police Officers In Third World Hellhole
June 28th, 2008
BHUBANESWAR, INDIA - Forty police officers were feared drowned in eastern India on Sunday after a group of suspected communist rebels attacked a police boat, capsizing it in a rushing river, a local official said.
More than 50 police officers were on the boat in the state of Orissa when the suspected rebels attacked, said local police official Satish Kumar Gajbhiya.
About 16 officers made it to shore, but 40 were still missing and feared drowned, he said. Authorities were searching the river for them.
The attack occurred on the Machakund river in Malkangiri district, 375 miles south of Bhubaneswar, the state capital.
Authorities were investigating the incident, but Gajbhiya said they suspected the communist rebels.
The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than three decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor.
Read MoreEuropean Union Lawmakers Vote To Allow Countries To Jail Illegal Alien Invaders For Up To 18 Months
June 18th, 2008
STRASBOURG, EU - European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to allow countries in the bloc to hold undocumented migrants in detention centers for up to 18 months and ban them from EU territory for five years.
Approved in this medieval French border city, which is home to a significant population of North Africans and Turks, the legislation establishes common rules for expelling foreigners who are detained on EU territory without permission to be there.
Described by critics like Amnesty International as “severely flawed” and an erosion of human rights standards, but by supporters as a balanced approach, the so-called return directive passed in the European Parliament by a vote of 369 to 197, with 106 deputies abstaining.
“The member states must decide whether they need them - if so, then please legalize them,” Manfred Weber, the German center-right legislator from Bavaria who shepherded the measures through the European Parliament, said of undocumented migrants in Europe. “If you don’t need them for your labor markets, then send them home.”
Read MoreItaly Turns The Military Loose To Patrol Cities, Claiming They Aren’t Trying To Militarise The Streets
June 14th, 2008
ITALY - The Italian government has defended its decision to use soldiers to patrol cities in an effort to curb crime, rejecting criticism that it will “militarise” the streets.
“There is a strong call from citizens for better control of the streets, for improved safety,” Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told Sky Italia television.
“My hope is that particularly in the evening, in the cities, these troops can ensure greater safety.”
The government announced on Friday that up to 2,500 soldiers, some of whom have served in Afghanistan and Kosovo, would be made available for a trial period of six months to bolster the police in difficult urban areas.
Silvio Berlusconi’s new conservative government won an April election on a law-and-order ticket, and crime and public safety have stayed on top of the political agenda since Mr Berlusconi took office.
Read MoreWoman Raped By 2 Third-World New Delhi Police Officers Kills Herself Outside Police Headquarters
June 13th, 2008
NEW DELHI - Haryana police on Tuesday dismissed from services the two constables accused of raping a women in a Rohtak police station.
The woman had committed suicide by consuming poison outside Haryana police headquarters in Panchkula on Monday.
Seema (name changed to protect identity), a rape victim, left a note alleging no action was taken after two policemen raped her on April 10.
She said head constable Balraj Singh and constable Sheelak Ram went scot-free even after the DSP’s probe confirmed rape.
She was repeatedly threatened to take back the complaint.
Three months ago her husband Subhash was framed in motorcycle theft and cops reportedly demanded Rs 6,000 rupees for his release.
The Inspector-General of Rohtak has been asked to probe delay in arresting the accused and a case of abetment to suicide has been registered.
Read MoreNorwegian Engineer Fined For Not Having A Bomb While Passing Through Airport Security Checks
June 7th, 2008
EDINBURG, NORWAY - A Norwegian engineer who protested that he “didn’t have a bomb” while going through airport security checks has been fined £650.
Kjell Bjoennes, 52, became upset when asked to remove his belt as he passed through the security area at Edinburgh Airport on Thursday.
The contracts manager, who earns £120,000 a year after tax, yelled at staff “I have got a belt, not a bomb”.
He appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and pled guilty to breach of the peace.
Police were called after Bjoennes continued to shout about bombs and he was arrested.
Fiscal depute Neil Allan said security staff had asked Bjoennes, from Ankenesstrand, Norway, to remove his belt because it had a heavy buckle.
“There was an exchange of views after which he (Bjoennes) removed the belt and threw it into the receptacle for it to go through the X-ray machine,” said Mr Allan.
Read MoreChinese Police Harass Citizens Protesting Thousands Of Children’s Deaths In Earthquake
June 3rd, 2008
DUJIANGYAN, CHINA - The police surrounded more than 100 parents here Tuesday as the parents protested shoddy school construction that they said had resulted in the deaths of thousands of children during the recent earthquake here.
The police dragged away several crying mothers and harassed journalists trying to report on the event, according to witnesses and photos of the protest.
The standoff between the parents, many carrying framed photos of their children, and the police officers, dressed in black uniforms, lasted for several hours and ended with the parents walking off feeling both intimidated and frustrated, some of those involved in the protest said.
“Because so many police surrounded us, we couldn’t do anything, so we went home,” said one woman identified only as Li.
The protest took place outside a five-story courthouse in the center of Dujiangyan and was organized by parents who lost their children in the collapse of the suburban Juyuan Middle School. Most of the school’s 900 students died.
Read MoreDumbass Veteran Bergenfield New Jersey Police Officer John Casper Tries To Play Cop While Vacationing In Third-World Shithole, Gets Shot
May 16th, 2008
BERGENFIELD, NEW JERSEY - A Bergenfield police officer was recovering from a gunshot wound last night, a day after trying to fend off a would-be robber while on vacation in the Bahamas.Officer John Casper, 49, was in stable condition in a Nassau hospital, Bergenfield Police Chief Frederick McGarril said.
“We’re optimistic, at least from the preliminary reports we have from the doctors,” McGarril said.
“From what we understand he is doing well,” he said.
Casper, who is married with three children, “interceded in the robbery attempt, doing exactly what I expect him to do,” the chief said.
The officer was walking with a group of friends in Nassau, the Caribbean nation’s capital, when a man attempted to rob one of them, McGarril said, citing preliminary reports.
Casper interceded and was shot in the chest by a second man who approached the group, the chief said.
Read MoreAnother Child Molester Caught After Interpol Releases Photos - Gee, Maybe They’ll Realize They Are Onto Something And Will Release Whatever Else They’ve Been Sitting On
May 8th, 2008
UNION CITY, NEW JERSEY - A suspected pedophile who became the subject of an international manhunt earlier this week after an appeal from Interpol has been detained in the United States.
Wayne Nelson Corliss, 58, was arrested at his apartment in Union City, New Jersey, about midnight Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Interpol said in a written statement.
Corliss later confessed to the allegations during police questioning, Interpol said.
He is expected to make an initial court appearance at 2:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT) Thursday in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Interpol on Tuesday announced it was attempting to identify the man, who was featured in 100 photographs sexually abusing at least three boys between the ages of 6 and 10, it said.
Read MoreIndia: Two Third World Hellhole Cops Suspended After Trying To Book A 3 Year Old Child For Creating A “Law And Order Problem”
April 29th, 2008
INDIA - Two policemen, including a police station in-charge, have been suspended for requesting the court to book (under 110G CrPC) a 3-year-old child on the suspicion of creating law and order problem in Sultanpur.
The incident came to light on Saturday, when Mukesh’s father Chandrika Prasad went to the court with his 3-year-old son Mukesh, after receiving a summon. Subsequently, Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ram Prakash Verma quashed the proceedings against Mukesh and issued a show-cause notice to the police officer concerned.
“Looking at the boy, I quashed the report and issued a show-cause notice to Haliapur police station in-charge HP Singh,” said Ram Prakash Verma.
Explaining the bizarre incident, Verma said that he received a report from the station officer to book a person living at Urai Chav Majare Kapa village under Haliapur police circle.
Read MoreEuropean Police To Share DNA And Fingerprints, Including Those Taken From Innocent Citizens
April 28th, 2008
EUROPE - Horse trading in Brussels over plans for European police forces to share DNA and fingerprints has reached another milestone.
The European Parliament said today that it had voted to accept the Treaty of Prüm, a plan for data sharing between European police forces, on the proviso that its protections for ordinary citizens were beefed up.
MEPs said last week that there was nothing wrong in principle with European police sharing data when investigating terrorism and cross-border crime. But the Prüm proposals being pushed through by member states were still lacking.
Police should be banned from sharing DNA and fingerprint data about innocent people, said Euro MEP Barbara Dührkop Dührkop.
The proposals are vague about what data police forces should be allowed to share and in what circumstances.
Read MoreU.S. Military Releases Innocent AP Photographer After Imprisoning Him For 2 Years Without Charges
April 16th, 2008
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - The U.S. military released Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges.
Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left U.S. custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health.
“I want to thank all the people working in AP … I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent. I thank everybody,” Hussein said after being freed.
AP President Tom Curley said Hussein “is safely back with AP and his family, and it is a great relief to us.”
“Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who supported us during this difficult and challenging period,” Curley said. “Bilal will now be spending some quiet time with his family and resting up.”
Read MoreVeteran Tehran Chief Of Police Reza Zarei, Head Of Islamic Fashion Police, Arrested, Jailed, Quits After Being Caught With 6 Naked Whores In Brothel
April 15th, 2008
TEHRAN, IRAN - Tehran’s police chief, Reza Zarei, has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes, the Farda news website reported Wednesday.
Zarei stepped down from his post following the raid, the report said. According to another popular Iranian website, Gooya, the order to raid the brothel was given directly by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, chief of the judicial authorities.
Over the past year Zarei was in charge of enforcing the Islamic dress code on Iranian women with the purpose of “moralizing of the city.”
It is alleged that in the past six months, hundreds of young people have been arrested in Iran for not respecting the Islamic code of behavior.
Rumors of the brothel incident had been spreading in Iran for the past two weeks, and last week Zarei was replaced after four years as chief of police in Tehran.
Read MoreGuam Police Officer Rey Gagarin Arrested, Charged After Beating Innocent Man
April 11th, 2008
GUAM - An off-duty officer is facing charges of police brutality for allegedly beating up a man who was mistaken for a suspect being chased by police.
Rey Gagarin, a resident of Dededo, told the Pacific News Center that he noticed a police chase in his area which stopped in front his residence. He then walked outside and was approached by police officers who claimed that he was the suspect they were chasing. He was allegedly thrown on the ground and beaten up by police, then taken to the Dededo precint without being asked for identification.
Gagarin was released by police a few hours later. He then drove himself to the hospital to seek treatment for the injuries he sustained.
Meanwhile, GPD Spokesperson Allan de Guzman said the incident is still under investigation.
Appeared Here
Killer Bees Attack 70+ Mexican Cops After Officer Shoots Their Hive
April 9th, 2008
MEXICO CITY — At least 70 police officers were hospitalized after so-called Africanized bees swarmed a police shooting range in southern Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.
The attacked occurred Monday in Tapachula, Chiapas, after one of the policemen hit the bees’ hive with a bullet, local police officer Miguel Serrano said Tuesday. At least 10 of the 70 officers stung were in serious condition, he said.
“We tried as hard as we could, but we weren’t able to avoid getting stung,” Serrano said. “Some of us hit the ground, but that didn’t help.”
“It was really bad. I haven’t seen anything like it, even in the movies,” he said.
Africanized bees, a fierce hybrid strain sometimes referred to as “killer bees,” are the result of an experiment to increase honey production in Brazil. A swarm escaped a lab in 1957 and began heading north.
9 Third World Mexican Police Officers Busted With Drugs In Their Patrol Cars
April 2nd, 2008
THIRD WORLD HELLHOLE - Mexican soldiers arrested nine police officers who were allegedly carrying drugs in their patrol cars in the violence-plagued city of Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas.
The officers were detained over the weekend while carrying marijuana and radios with non-police frequencies, Mayor Jose Reyes and municipal Public Safety Department spokesman Jaime Torres said Monday.
“We know there are officers who aren’t upright and are breaking the law,” Reyes said. “Our job is to identify them and fire them, and to support the federal authorities in their efforts.”
Last week, the government sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to crack down on soaring violence in the border state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located.
About 200 people have been killed in the city of 1.3 million so far this year, and 47 policemen have resigned or requested retirement in the last month.
Read MoreFormer Tokyo Japan Riot Team Police Officer Keisuke Kamihara Sentenced To 2 1/2 Years In Prison For Sneaking Into Woman’s Apartment And Stealing Underwear, Groping Teen Girl
March 26th, 2008
JAPAN - A police officer convicted of stealing women’s underwear and groping a teenage girl was Wednesday sentenced to 2 1/2 years’ imprisonment.
Handed the sentence at the Hachioji Branch of the Tokyo District Court was Keisuke Kamihara, a former senior officer in the Metropolitan Police Department’s No. 7 riot police unit.
“His awareness of the norms as a police officer was numbed, and his criminal responsibility is great,” Judge Kazunobu Yamazaki said as the officer was handed the sentence.
Yamazaki was convicted of sneaking into a woman’s apartment in the Tokyo city of Tachikawa in October last year and stealing 17 items, including underwear. He also stole underwear and cash in five thefts between March and October last year, according to the ruling. In February last year, the 27-year-old officer also fondled the breasts of an 18-year-old girl on a road in Tachikawa and snatched a bag from her valued at 25,900 yen, the ruling said.
Read MoreChinese Police Open Fire On Unarmed Monks And Nuns - China Brands Dalai Lama A Terrorist
March 24th, 2008
THIRD WORLD HELLHOLE - Hundreds of monks, nuns and local Tibetans who tried to march on a local government office in western China to demand the return of the Dalai Lama have been turned back by paramilitary police who opened fire to disperse the crowd.
Local residents of Luhuo said two people – a monk and a farmer – appeared to have been shot dead and about a dozen were wounded in the latest violence to rock Tibetan areas of China.
The demonstration began at about 4pm local time when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched out of their hillside sanctuaries and walked towards the Luhuo Third District government office in the nearby town. They were swiftly joined by an estimated several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said.
Read MoreEuropean Union Stoops To Level Of U.S. - Wholesale Transatlantic Privacy Invasions Begin
March 14th, 2008
US-EU - The European Union has agreed to link its immigration databases with those of the US in a plan that could result in the routine transatlantic exchange of
people’s biometrics.
The deal could give the US detailed information about the details of the 300m people who cross EU borders every year. Their movements are recorded in a clutch of EU databases including the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the Visa Information System (VIS).
This will be linked with the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), details of which the US has not yet made public.
“ESTA will be applied consistently to all EU Member States and will be coordinated with the EU’s future system,” said the Council of the European Union in five paragraph statement about US and EU talks that led to the agreement yesterday.
Read MoreU.S. Loses Top Spot As Worlds Largest Economy Amid Crashing US Dollar And Widening Depression
March 14th, 2008
PARIS, FRANCE - The U.S. economy lost the title of “world’s biggest” to the euro zone this week as the value of the dollar slumped in currency markets.
Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the United States when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro.
“The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that the size of the euro zone’s annual output has now exceeded that of the U.S.,” the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.
Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP — $13,843,800 billion for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone — the economy of the latter passed the United States once converted into dollars, shortly after the euro topped $1.56.
Read More50 Third Worlder’s Go Blind After Staring At The Sun To See Virgin Mary Image - Duh…
March 12th, 2008
KOTTAYAM, INDIA - Reports in India of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in the sky have led about 50 people to blind themselves by staring at the sun.
The visions are said to appear over the former home of a hotel owner in the Kottayam area in southeast India, The Daily Telegraph reported. One hospital in the district reported 48 patients had been admitted with burned retinas since last week, the British newspaper reported.
Churches have warned their congregations that looking at the sun will cause permanent blindness and have told them the supposed miracle is not one.
Before moving out, the hotel owner reportedly had also claimed to have statues of the Virgin Mary that cried honey and bled oils and perfumes.
New Low: U.S. Dollar Continues Crash Amid Tanking U.S. Economy - Time To Stock Up On Ammunition And Food
March 6th, 2008
BERLIN, GERMANY - The dollar sank to another record low Wednesday, with a growing list of economic reports pointing to a worsening U.S. climate.
The euro rose to $1.5302 in afternoon European trading before dropping back slightly to $1.5278. The new low broke through the previous record set Monday at $1.5275.
The euro had bought $1.5208 in New York late Tuesday.
On Wednesday, reports showed that U.S. factories saw demand for their products drop sharply in January, while the country’s service sector contracted last month.
More cuts expected They provided fresh evidence of weakness in an economy hit by housing and credit crises - weakness that has raised expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue to cut interest rates.
Speculation has mounted that the Fed might cut rates by as much as three-fourths of a percentage point this month. Lower interest rates can jump-start a nation’s economy. But they can also weaken its currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns.
Read MoreFailing In Efforts To Starve Gaza Residents To Death, Israeli Jews Threaten Gazan Citizens With “Holocast” - Which Will Of Course Include The Use Of U.S. Supplied Weapons, Aircraft, And Arms
March 1st, 2008
ISRAEL - An Israeli minister gave warning yesterday that the Gaza faces a “holocaust” if Islamist militants there do not end their daily barrages of home-made Qassam rockets, and their increasing use of Iranian-built Grad missiles.
“The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Matan Vilnai, the Deputy Defence Minister said.
The use of the term “holocaust” is usually restricted to descriptions of the Nazi genocide of the Jews in Europe in the Second World War, and many Israelis resent its use in any other context. Mr Vilnai’s deployment of the word appeared to show Israel’s growing frustration that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza refuse to curb their attacks, despite heavy tolls inflicted in Israeli air strikes and tank raids.
Read MoreIrresponsible Reporting: Attention Whore Matt Drudge/Drudge Report Screws Up Life For UK’s Prince Harry In Afghanistan
February 29th, 2008
AFGHANISTAN - An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout yesterday by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for more than two months.
To the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the website announced a “world exclusive” and proclaimed: “They’re calling him ‘Harry the Hero!”.
The article brought to an end an agreement with the media that the Prince’s deployment to Helmand be kept quiet in the interests of his safety and that of the soldiers with him.
The decision to send Prince Harry, 23, to Afghanistan under a cloak of secrecy came after the furore that followed the revelation of his proposed deployment to Iraq. Much to the Prince’s frustration, General Dannatt announced in May last year that it would be too risky, fearing the Prince and his comrades in the Household Cavalry would become top priority targets for insurgents.
Read MoreTokyo Japan Police Officer Threatens Teens In Park With Handgun
February 28th, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN — Police on Wednesday said a police officer menaced teenagers with his gun when he told them to be quiet at a park in Kita Ward, on Tuesday night. According to police, the officer, 27, went to the park after neighbors complained about the noisy group. He allegedly told three of the teenagers to be quiet by taking his gun out of its holster and waving it at them. After the incident, the teenagers reported it to police.
Police are investigating the case as an illegal use of a firearm by an officer. Although the teenagers claim the officer pointed the gun at them, he denies it. The officer was quoted as saying, “They wouldn’t listen to me at first, so I thought I should get tough with them.”
German Court Rules That US-Like Computer Spying By It’s Government Is Unconstitutional
February 27th, 2008
GERMANY - A German law authorizing online searches of personal computers is unconstitutional, the country’s top constitutional court ruled, narrowing Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble options in combating terrorism.
The law authorized the state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s intelligence agency to access personal computers, networks and Internet communications. Online searches could comprise access to hard drives, monitoring what a user is typing on a keyboard and listening in to telephone conversations via the Internet.
The case has been closely watched in Germany amid divisions within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government over whether to authorize the federal police to use online searches in the fight against terrorism. A journalist, three lawyers and a member of the opposition Left Party challenged the law, which has been championed by Schaeuble, arguing it violates constitutional protections of privacy rights.
Read MoreJury Wimps Out On Death Penalty - Recommends Life In Prison With Parole Eligibility For Savage Negro Beast Canton Ohio Police Officer Bobby Cutts Jr. For Killing Pregnant White Girlfriend And Unborn Child - 57 Years In Prison Before Parole
February 27th, 2008
CANTON, OHIO - Jurors spared the life of a former Canton, Ohio, police officer who killed his pregnant girlfriend and tearfully asked them for mercy.
[Update: Life in prison with no parole for 57 years. BCN prediction: He will be killed in prison. JEM]
Bobby Lee Cutts Jr., 30, stared straight ahead as the verdict was read. He could become eligible for parole in 30 years, under the jury’s recommended sentence.
The six men and six women deliberated for 12 hours over two days before agreeing that Cutts should not be executed for the murders of his pregnant girlfriend, Jessie Marie Davis, 26, and their unborn child.
The jury’s verdict was a recommendation. Judge Charles E. Brown said earlier that if the verdict was life, he would immediately pass sentence on Cutts.
Read MoreIsrael’s Disgraced Former President Moshe Katsav Gets A Plea Deal And Slap On The Wrist For Serial Rape And Sexual Assaults
February 26th, 2008
ISRAEL - Israel’s highest court has decided to accept a much-criticised plea bargain that allowed former President Moshe Katsav to escape rape charges and a possible prison term.
Moshe Katsav
Women’s rights groups infuriated by the deal had filed petitions against it with Israel’s Supreme Court shortly after the agreement was announced eight months ago.
Katsav, who insists he was the victim of a witch hunt, left office in disgrace in June after four former female employees accused him of a series of sex crimes, including rape.
Facing indictment, he agreed to a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the gravest charges.
Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who initially had announced his intention to charge Katsav on all counts, later suggested the state was uncertain it could convict him on the rape charges.
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Under the deal, Katsav agreed to plead guilty to two counts of sexual harassment and resign his office just two weeks before his seven-year term was up.
Read More200 Fat Taiwan Cops To Run In International Marathon
February 21st, 2008
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Two hundred overweight policemen were among 1,000 policemen in northern Taiwan who registered to take part in an international marathon scheduled for next month, the National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday.
Chen Kuo-en, who is in charge of public relations in the NPA, said the “fat cops” — whose combined weight is nearly 20 tons — were encouraged by the agency’s Director-General Hou Yu-ih to take part in the marathon to be held in Taipei County on March 2.
The NPA is currently promoting a “get lean by weight loss” program and encouraging all overweight policemen to get more exercise to get rid of flab. Hou has encouraged those officers with a body mass index (BMI) larger than 27 to take part in the event.
BMI is found by dividing one’s weight by the square of one’s height in meters. If the result is more than 24, the person is considered overweight, obese if over 27, and too thin if lower than 18.5.
Read MoreIraqi Police To Round Up And Institutionalize The Homeless, Beggars, Vagrants, And Mentally Ill (And Of Course Everyone Else They Don’t Like)
February 20th, 2008
[BCN: Remember this guy, and his institutions and prisons full of the homeless, vagrants, mentally ill, and everyone else who didn't agree with him or his government?]
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraqi authorities plan to round up homeless and mentally ill residents on Baghdad streets to prevent them from becoming used — knowingly or unknowingly — as suicide bombers by insurgents, an Interior Ministry official said Tuesday.The move follows a pair of high-profile February 1 bombings that left almost 100 people dead.
The bombers, who hit a Baghdad pet market, were mentally handicapped women and the explosives strapped to their bodies were detonated by remote control, said U.S. and Iraqi authorities.
Police will hand beggars, vagrants and the mentally handicapped over to governmental institutions that can provide them with shelter and care, a high-ranking official in the interior minister’s office told CNN.
The campaign is scheduled to be launched Wednesday and is expected to last for at least a week, the official said.
“Militant groups, like al Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocents because they do not raise suspicions,” Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told The Associated Press.
“These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers.”
The U.S. military reported last week that al Qaeda in Iraq recruited female patients from Baghdad’s two psychiatric hospitals, with the help of hospital staff, for suicide missions. It is unclear whether the women understood what they were doing. Video Watch how using women may represent a new tactic »
American troops arrested the acting administrator of one of the hospitals after the February 1 attack, announcing an unspecified link between the man and the bombers.
And Sunday, three civilians died and 10 people, including a police officer, were wounded when a female beggar blew herself up inside an electronics store in central Baghdad, according to another Interior Ministry official.
The official said Iraqi police suspect the woman was wearing an explosive vest and tried to warn the people around her, but she ran into the store and detonated it.
Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities are investigating another deadly blast Tuesday.
A truck loaded with rockets exploded as Iraqi police tried to defuse them, killing at least 15 officers and wounding 27, an Interior Ministry official said.
Police found the truck parked in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Obeidi, a Shiite Muslim district, after a rocket attack on a nearby U.S. military post, the official said.
A number of bomb disposal experts were among the dead and wounded, the official said.
Rocket and mortar attacks remain common in Baghdad despite a marked reduction in the level of sectarian killings over the past year.
Rocket attacks around Camp Victory — a major U.S. base at Baghdad’s airport — left five Iraqis dead and 16 people wounded, including two U.S. soldiers and at least six children.
U.S. and Iraqi troops detained six people for questioning and recovered an unexploded rocket after the attack.
Read MoreCrazed California Federal Judge Jeffrey S. White Censors US Portion Of Whistle-Blower Website - Site Only Given Hours Notice, Via. eMail, Of Hearing - Wikileaks.org Disappears, But Documents And Info Appear On Offshore Hosts And Domains
February 18th, 2008
CALIFORNIA - A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US. (Site remains online HERE in Belgium, plus HERE, and HERE. More appear below.)
[ Dead In US: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" ]
[ Elsewhere: "ps. The judge in Thursday's hearing was a Bush appointee and former prosecutor, "not noted" as they say, in legal circles for his love of the First Amendment." ]
Wikileaks.org, as it is known, was cut off from the internet following a California court ruling, the site says.
The case was brought by a Swiss bank after “several hundred” documents were posted about its offshore activities.
Other versions of the pages, hosted in countries such as Belgium and India, can still be accessed.
However, the main site was taken offline after the court ordered that Dynadot, which controls the site’s domain name, should remove all traces of wikileaks from its servers.
The court also ordered that Dynadot should “prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page, until further order of this Court.”
Other orders included that the domain name be locked “to prevent transfer of the domain name to a different domain registrar” to prevent changes being made to the site.
Wikileaks claimed that the order was “unconstitutional” and said that the site had been “forcibly censored”.
Web names
The case was brought by lawyers working for the Swiss banking group Julius Baer. It concerned several documents posted on the site which allegedly reveal that the bank was involved with money laundering and tax evasion.
The documents were allegedly posted by Rudolf Elmer, former vice president of the bank’s Cayman Island’s operation.
A spokesperson for Julius Baer said he could not comment on the case because of “pending legal proceedings”.
The BBC understands that Julius Baer asked for the documents to be removed because they could have an impact on a separate legal case ongoing in Switzerland.
The court hearing took place last week and Dynadot blocked access from Friday evening.
Wikileaks says it was not represented at the hearing because it was “given only hours notice” via e-mail.
A document signed by Judge Jeffery White, who presided over the case, ordered Dynadot to follow six court orders.
As well as removing all records of the site form its servers, the hosting and domain name firm was ordered to produce “all prior or previous administrative and account records and data for the wikileaks.org domain name and account”.
The order also demanded that details of the site’s registrant, contacts, payment records and “IP addresses and associated data used by any person…who accessed the account for the domain name” to be handed over.
Wikileaks allows users to post documents anonymously.
Information bank
The site was founded in 2006 by dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and technologists from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
It so far claims to have published more than 1.2 million documents.
It provoked controversy when it first appeared on the net with many commentators questioning the motives of the people behind the site.
It recently made available a confidential briefing document relating to the collapse of the UK’s Northern Rock bank.
Lawyers working on behalf of the bank attempted to have the documents removed from the site. They can still be accessed.
Dynadot was contacted for this article but have so far not responded to requests for comment.
List of sites continues below.
Read MoreThird World Hellhole: Saudi Arabia Religious Police Arrest Woman For Being A Witch, Court Sentenced Her To Death After A Towel-Headed Nutcase Can’t Get It Up Anymore - Our Gas Dollars At Work
February 16th, 2008
SAUDI ARABIA - Witch hunting is not a thing of the past, at least not in Saudi Arabia. A court in the oil-rich kingdom handed down a death sentence against Fawza Falih, a woman accused of witchcraft, stunning NGO Human Rights Watch which has reacted by appealing to Saudi King Abdullah to stop the execution.
The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 for allegedly causing impotence in one of her accusers.
Ms Falih said that she was beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not understand because she cannot read.
Saudi Arabia does not have a written criminal code and witchcraft is not defined as a crime. Yet the Saudi court in charge of the case passed a death sentence exercising its own discretionary powers to protect the nation’s principles, soul and identity.
Read MoreInterpol’s Top Cop Jackie Selebi Takes Leave Of Absence, Quits, Faces Charges
February 12th, 2008
THIRD WORLD HELLHOLE - South Africa’s embattled police commissioner resigned Sunday as president of Interpol, a day after he took an extended leave of absence from his police duties, the international crime-fighting agency said in a statement.
South Africa police commissioner Jackie Selebi, facing charges of corruption, has stepped down as boss of Interpol.
Interpol’s Secretary-General Ronald Noble received a resignation letter on Sunday from Jackie Selebi, who is facing charges of corruption related to his role as police commissioner, the agency said.
The charges are not related to his leadership role in Interpol.
In the letter, Selebi said he was resigning because he did not wish the allegations against him “to bring the good work of this august body into disrepute.”
“Based on my experience of working with Mr. Selebi in his capacity as delegate, vice president and ultimately president of the organization, he has always conducted himself and acted in a way to enhance global security and police co-operation worldwide,” Noble said in a statement.
Read MoreAmerican Businesswoman Arrested And Abused By Crazed Saudi Religious Police For Going To Starbucks
February 7th, 2008
SAUDI ARABIA - A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.
Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom’s “Mutaween” police.
Her story offers a rare first-hand glimpse of the discrimination faced by women living in Saudi Arabia. In her first interview with the foreign press, Yara told The Times that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement of conservative Islam rather than return to America.
Read MoreREAL JUSTICE: Russian Boxer Beats And Kills Child Molester Sexually Assaulting His 8 Year Old Son!
February 2nd, 2008
Prague Czech Republic Police Officer Fired, Charged With Murder After Stabbing And Killing American Citizen In The Third World Hellhole
February 1st, 2008
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - The police have accused the Prague city policeman, 26, who allegedly stabbed