‘Iraq’s national security adviser told NBC News on Wednesday that three individuals have been arrested in connection with a video of Saddam Hussein’s execution that was leaked.
“I can officially now confirm the arrest of three individuals in the case of the execution of Saddam Hussein,” said Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
The arrests came after the announcement that officials were interrogating the person suspected of recording Saddam’s hanging via a mobile phone.’
Followup to Full Saddam Execution Video.
`ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.
The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain’s leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change.”
ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the scientific advocacy group’s report.’
`A couple in eastern India have been arrested for allegedly sacrificing their young sons to please the gods.
“It seems like a case of child sacrifice attached to tantric rituals,” police superintendent Ravi Kant said in eastern Orissa state, where the incident happened.
Police said it had collected evidence of occult practices from the couple’s house.
Residents of the area told police that the couple had been advised by a tantric practitioner that they should offer their sons, aged 7 and 9, to please the gods for luck and prosperity.
The couple denied the charges on local television, saying the boys died of illness and their bodies were kept in the house in the hope that they would come alive.’
`While 99% of our readers might be scratching their heads wondering why release a product with so much power, George Ali from Ultra can answer that for you. “It’s not so much that we believe personal computers today need as much as 2000W of power,” explains George Ali, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Ultra Products. “In fact, most household circuits can’t even provide the AC power this unit would require in order to put out 2000W of DC power. But there’s the always-inevitable questions of ‘Do I have enough power?’ or ‘Does my power supply have enough juice where my high end components need it.’ That is why we have put together this 2000W unit [..]’
‘If the husband wants to use beatings to treat his wife, he must never ever do it in front of the children. It must remain between him and her.’
see it here »
`A man upset about a Cyclone Larry insurance payout threatened staff at an Innisfail bank with a piece of fibro that contained asbestos.
The man, wearing a respiratory mask, marched into the Commonwealth Bank branch carrying a piece of fibro and a bottle of water yesterday afternoon.
He shouted at staff, splashed water onto the ceiling and threw the fibro onto the floor, shattering it.
Tests later confirmed the fibro contained asbestos.’
`Her name is Ashley X, and she is the little girl who will never grow up.
Until New Year’s Day, not even her first name was known. Ashley was a faceless case study, cited in a paper by two doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital as they outlined a treatment so radical that it brought with it allegations of “eugenics”, of creating a 21st-century Frankenstein’s monster, of maiming a child for the sake of convenience.
The reason for the controversy is this: three years ago, when Ashley began to display early signs of puberty, her parents instructed doctors to remove her uterus, appendix and still-forming breasts, then treat her with high doses of oestrogen to stunt her growth.
In other words, Ashley was sterilised and frozen in time, for ever to remain a child. She was only 6.’
Followup to: Young disabled girl ‘kept small’
`When deputies knocked, Herman Scott Swafford told them what they already smelled. McMinn County Sheriff’s Department records show deputies knocked on the door of an outbuilding, suspicious that someone might be making methamphetamine.
A report shows that Deputy Mike Patterson smelled a chemical odor and when he asked Swafford what was going on inside, Swafford said, “You know what’s going on, I’m cooking meth.”
A search that followed sent him to jail Sunday.’
From one of those poker television shows that seem to be on late at night a lot recently. The Australian seems to be a bit of a cockhead.
see it here »
`Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School’s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly.
Others, library officials say, fight, urinate on the bathroom floor, scrawl graffiti on the walls, talk back to librarians or refuse to leave when asked. One recently threatened to burn down the branch library. Librarians call the police, sometimes twice a day.
As a result, starting Jan. 16, the Maplewood Memorial Library will be closing its two buildings on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m., until further notice.’
`A trailer park just south of Palm Beach, Fla., sits on 43 of the best oceanfront acres in the state. The owners of the 488 trailers are selling, and each household is likely to receive more than $1 million. [..]
With residents whose median age is just over 70, the place has plenty of history, from a shuffleboard court and a Quonset hut to 600 feet of pristine white-sand Florida beach. [..]
But recently, a developer sent an uninvited bid to Briny Breezes residents, proposing to buy the entire town for $500 million. That’s more than a million dollars for each of the 488 mobile homes — residents at Briny Breezes are also shareholders.
Rather than accept the proposal, the town sent it back — and opened the bidding to other potential developers.’
‘Some Drunk dude challenges a much less drunk guy to a boxing match. This fight was too close to call… judges?’
(4.4meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘I just happened to be standing in the line of fire, when my mother hit my uncles arm with the wiimote, which then caused her to throw the wiimote at mii as I was filming.’
(1.8meg Flash video)
see it here »
`A holiday job at a store in Cape Town ended in a horrible death for a Hanover Park teenager when he stuck his head out of a half-open goods lift door to see why it was not working – and it suddenly started moving and crushed his head, decapitating him. [..]
“Terrence stuck his head out of the lift, which was not completely closed, to see why it wasn’t moving. The lift suddenly shot up and ripped his head open.”
“A woman who was in the lift with him, was covered in blood.”
“I just heard shouting and screaming, and when I saw the woman covered in blood I knew my brother was dead.”‘
`A Lithuanian held on suspicion of theft in an Arctic Norway jail slipped out of custody – literally – by stripping naked, smearing himself with vegetable oil and sliding through the prison bars, police said Wednesday.
“He slipped through the bars on Christmas Eve,” said Svein-Erik Jacobsen, operation leader for the Oest-Finnmark Police District. The unusual escape made national news in Norway on Wednesday.
Another Lithuanian, held as an accomplice in the same cell, also used the technique to try to slip out of a window of the Vadsoe Jail, but failed, apparently because he was too big. The men had managed to bend the bars slightly to gain more space.’
`The trial began with the taped phone call Arthur Shelton placed to the Taylor police department in Taylor, Michigan, October 18, 2004, at precisely 12:44 AM. Shelton sounded calm and pridefull when he told the dispatcher he had just shot “the devil himself” with a revolver and a shotgun because “he (Hooper) didn’t believe in God.” Shelton told the dispatcher he was “still armed and ready to shoot again in case he moves. I want to make sure he’s gone.” When the dispatcher asked how many times he shot the victim Shelton replied, “hopefully enough.”
Throughout the 15 minute phone call Shelton often repeated, “I’m a Christian and an Eagle Scout and I wouldn’t lie,” and “don’t worry about me, I’m fine, but he’s the devil.” The dispatcher struggled to persuade Shelton to lay down his weapon and go outdoors with his arms raised. Shelton resisted, as he feared Hooper might not be “dead enough”, but eventually complied.’
`The two are thought by police to have each separately come to the defense of Melevea Fifita, 19, of East Palo Alto, and Seu Tuimavave, 21, who were involved in a physical altercation in the 2700 block of Fordham Street around 10:30 p.m. on Friday.
The fight began around 10:30 p.m. and as it escalated, the 17-year-old boy produced a handgun and defended Fifita, while Absalom Tuimavave defended his sister Seu with a shotgun, according to Alipio.
When the men shot at each other, both inadvertently hit the women they were trying to defend, Alipio said, the 17-year-old boy fatally striking Fifita and Tuimavave hitting his sister in the pelvis, Alipio said.’
This man has a memory of between 7 and 30 seconds and recognizes nothing but his wife. Because he has no awareness of things that have happened in the past he is constantly operating under the assumption that he has just awoken from a period of unconsciousness and hasn’t had a single thought in 20 years.
Also, every time he sees his wife he thinks it’s the first time he’s seen her in years.
see it here »
`Two cows were shot in the eyes at point blank range by someone with an air rifle in North Somerset.
The attack happened in a field off Cowslip Green in Redhill. Neither cow was left with permanent injuries.
Two men were seen leaving the scene carrying what looked like an air rifle in a long black case.
Both were white and aged around 19, of average height and build. One had what has been described as a Mohican-style haircut.’
`Italy will campaign at the United Nations for a global ban on the death penalty, Prime Minister Romano Prodi has said.
The leader of the current centre-left coalition has said no crime can justify one person killing another.
Politicians from both the left and right have been expressing disgust at the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Italy took one of the 10 non-permanent Security Council seats this week.’
`Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O’Hare Airport in November.
The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn’t have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday’s Chicago Tribune. [..]
“Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon,” Cory said. “That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things.”
The FAA is not investigating, Cory said.’
Followup to: ‘UFO’ spooks pilots over Chicago
Guess what happens when you look down the barrel of a gun then pull the trigger to see if it’s stuck?
see it here »
`A man who has a history of smashing windows to indulge his fetish for female mannequins could draw a long prison term for his latest arrest. Ronald A. Dotson, 39, of Detroit faces up to life in prison if convicted of a charge of attempted breaking and entering at a cleaning-supply company in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale.
The potential life sentence is because prosecutors charged him as a habitual offender. Authorities say he has at least six convictions for breaking and entering and a stint in state prison over the last 13 years. [..]
Dotson was arrested Oct. 9 after police say he smashed a window at a cleaning-supply company to get at a female mannequin dressed in a black and white French maid’s uniform. He had been out of prison for less than a week.’
`Attempts to wean Britons away from binge drinking toward a more continental European “cafe style” culture may never work because too many like getting drunk, a cabinet minister said Sunday.
“I don’t know whether we’ll ever get to be in a European drinking culture, where you go out and have a single glass of wine,” Labor Party chair Hazel Blears said.
“Maybe its our Anglo-Saxon mentality. We actually enjoy getting drunk,” she told the Sunday Times newspaper in an interview.’
Big free books, full of information that might be useful.
Not to might right at the moment, really. But I’m bored and I like getting parcels in the mail. :)
