‘A man cut off his penis with a knife at a London restaurant on Sunday evening, according to British tabloid The Sun. [..]
According to witnesses, the man ran into the restaurant kitchen, grabbed a knife.
Sales rep Stuart McMahon told The Sun: “This guy came running in then charged into the kitchen, got a massive knife and started waving it about.
“Everyone was screaming and running out as he jumped on a table, dropped his trousers and popped his penis out.
“Then he cut it off. I couldn’t believe it.”‘
‘[..] If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy – but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.
As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.’
‘A Chinese couple sued Yahoo and its Chinese affiliates on Wednesday, alleging the Internet firms provided information that helped the Chinese government prosecute the man for his Internet writings.
Wang Xiaoning was sentenced to ten years in prison last year for “incitement to subvert state power” after he e-mailed electronic journals advocating democratic reform and a multi-party system.
His house and computer were searched in 2002.
In the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California, Wang and his wife Yu Ling charged the Internet firms turned over details to prosecutors that helped identify him to authorities.’
‘A man fleeing security drowned early Saturday after he leaped over a railing into a moat surrounding a casino, authorities said.
Police said the man, identified as Anthony D. Swopes, 21, of Kansas City, fled while being questioned about his identification at the Isle of Capri casino. A check of the card revealed an outstanding bench warrant. [..]
Moats are common fixtures at Missouri casinos. Casino gambling in the state initially was restricted to floating riverboats, but the state’s constitution was amended to allow riverboat casinos to float within manmade moats.’
‘Two teenagers who murdered their friend and buried her body in a shallow grave beneath her West Australian home said they just woke up and decided to do it, a court was told today. [..]
The court was told they strangled the girl with cable in a premeditated and unprovoked attack, 200km southwest of Perth. [..]
“Sunday morning me and (her) woke up, and we were just talking, and for some reason we just decided to kill her,” one of the girls told police in her interview.
Mr Stone said that the girls knew it was wrong to kill.
“(One of them) told police that while she knew it was wrong to kill a person it did not feel wrong at the time,” Mr Stone said.’
‘Police are searching for two would-be bandits after Postal Annex employees got the giggles and foiled an attempted armed robbery, reported television station KPTV in Portland, Ore. [..]
One of the men had a fold-up knife and was having problems opening it. The employees, thinking the attempted robbery was a hoax, laughed at the would-be robbers, KPTV reported.
The assistant manager, playing along with what she assumed was a joke, picked up the phone and threatened to call 911. As soon as she said the three numbers, the two would-be robbers were gone, the employees said.
“He didn’t have a serious voice to him,” said employee Shelley Martin. “We thought he was kidding, so we were laughing back at him.”
“We just didn’t take them seriously. It was like having your kid brother come up with his cowboy and Indian thing,” said employee Nicole Luedtke.’
‘A Susquenita School District bus driver showed two girls a video clip on a cellular phone of the cartoon character Smurfette performing a sex act on Papa Smurf, state police said.
Tony Lee Campbell, 33, of the 3900 block of Sugar Run Road in Tuscarora Twp., has been charged with misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors, harassment and disseminating obscene materials to minors, records state.
The allegations surfaced when Campbell tried to have middle school officials discipline a 12-year-old girl for leaving the bus against Campbell’s orders, records state.
When Assistant Principal Jeffrey Kuhns asked why she left the bus, the girl said Campbell was a “pervert,” records state.’
‘Officials released a prisoner from a state facility after receiving a phony fax that ordered the man be freed, and didn’t catch the mistake for nearly two weeks.
Timothy Rouse, 19, is charged with beating an elderly western Kentucky man and was at the Kentucky Correctional & Psychiatric Center in La Grange for a mental evaluation. He was released from that facility on April 6 after officials received the fake court order.
It contained grammatical errors, was not typed on letterhead and was faxed from a local grocery store. The fax falsely claimed that the Kentucky Supreme Court “demanded” Rouse be released.
Lexington police arrested Rouse at his mother’s home Thursday evening.’
‘A woman arrested following two car crashes last week registered a .47 blood-alcohol content on a breath test – nearly six times the legal intoxication threshold and possibly a state record.
Deana F. Jarrett, 54, was taken to Evergreen Hospital as a precaution following her arrest April 11, the Washington State Patrol said Wednesday. No one was injured in the accidents.
Jarrett blew the .47 on a portable breath tester after she collided with two other vehicles in quick succession, the patrol said. A check of all 356,000 breath tests administered since 1998 in Washington turned up only 35 above .40 – and none of those was higher than .45.’
I wonder if she gets a medal.
‘An armed man killed a hostage, then himself, at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre, the latest incident to rattle the United States after the shooting massacre this week at Virginia Tech university.
Another hostage, a female co-worker, was found bound with duct tape, but unharmed, police said.
“Apparently there was some type of dispute between the suspect and the victim,” Houston police chief Harold Hurtt said.’
‘A fight at an Indiana high school turned into a medieval attack when a freshman girl hit another student and tried to hit a teacher with an uncommon weapon.
As CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reports, Gary police say the girl still has not said how she got the medieval weapon, which weighs about six pounds. The freshman, who has been charged with battery, told police she brought the weapon to school because she was tired of being picked on.
“She was aiming for my face,” said Shanique Ballard, the target of the attack.
Ballard said she bumped into one of the freshman’s friends in the hallway at Lew Wallace High School, and an argument started. Ballard said that’s when the young girl pulled out a flail – a sharp, spiked metal ball attached to a handle by a chain or short stick – and started swinging.’
‘The mother of a kindergartner was charged with assault Thursday and banned from school after officials said she walked into the child’s classroom, pointed a toy cap gun at students and pulled the trigger several times. [..]
School officials said the woman was in the classroom to pay for an upcoming field trip. While the teacher’s back was turned, “The mom walked in toward the middle of the classroom, and the teacher heard this click, click, click, click — like four to six times,” Principal Jean Heise said.
“A teacher’s assistant witnessed her take a gun and point it directly toward four to five kids. With everything that’s happened the last couple of days, she (the assistant) was just in shock,” the principal said.
She then left with the small child and took the toy gun with her.’
‘A drama teacher at a suburban Vancouver elementary school is expressing regret for having her students re-enact the Virginia Tech massacre.
The principal at South Park elementary school in Delta says the teacher has used topical news events as the basis for her plays in the past.
But this time Doug Thomson agrees with some students and parents who say she went too far.
The Grade 6 and Grade 7 students were asked to play roles from Monday’s massacre in which a mentally ill student gunned down 32 students and teachers at the U.S. college before killing himself.’
‘Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle’s tires and stop an intruder.
Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.
Ramey said the man told her he would leave. “I said, ‘Oh, no you won’t,’ and I shot their tires so they couldn’t leave,” Ramey said.
She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-calibre handgun.’
‘A Lee County woman wants to find out who broke into her house and dumped thousands of maggots on her floor while she and her family slept.
Mary Jo Uhler says she and her family spent more than a day cleaning their home, and they were still finding maggots. Uhler’s daughter Kristina Smith says someone came through the sliding glass door early Sunday morning and dumped them.’
‘Cho Seung-Hui said Monday’s massacre on the Virginia Tech campus could have been avoided and said “you forced me into a corner,” in a videotaped message he mailed to NBC News.
NBC News reported that Cho mailed the package at 9:01 a.m. Monday — during the two hours between the shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and Norris Hall, which left 33 people dead, including Cho, who took his own life.
“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” Cho said in one of the videos that aired Wednesday night on NBC. “But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”‘
followup to: Viginia Tech School Shootings.
(3.7meg Windows media and 7.0meg asf)
see it here »
‘ That’s what new tests of liquid soap carried by drummer Don Bolles of the punk band the Germs have determined. The peppermint soap, made by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps of Escondido, had tested positive for GHB, a rave-scene drug, in a police field test.
Yesterday, however, all charges against the Los Angeles-based musician were dropped by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office after more detailed crime lab tests came back negative for GHB. [..]
“What kind of justice system allows police to use field drug tests that deprive citizens of their God-given liberty, that test positive for something as common as soap?” Bronner said in a news release.’
‘Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista’ in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.’
‘Neighbours in Redditch, Worcestershire, contacted police on Saturday after seeing a man inside a car using a laptop while parked outside a house. [..]
BBC Midlands Today correspondent Dr David Gregory said the cases are among the first of their kind.
He added that if people were using someone else’s network to enter illegal porn sites, for example, it would be very difficult to trace them.
The man arrested at the weekend was cautioned for dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment.
He attracted attention from neighbours in the early morning, as he had put up cardboard around his car windows but the light from his computer could be seen through the back window.’
‘The college student responsible for yesterday’s Virginia Tech slaughter was referred last year to counseling after professors became concerned about the violent nature of his writings, as evidenced in a one-act play obtained by The Smoking Gun. The play by Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old English major, was submitted last year as part of a short story writing class. Entitled “Richard McBeef,” Cho’s bizarre play features a 13-year-old boy who accuses his stepfather of pedophilia and murdering his father. A copy of the killer’s play can be found below. The teenager talks of killing the older man and, at one point, the child’s mother brandishes a chain saw at the stepfather. The play ends with the man striking the child with “a deadly blow.”‘
followup to: Viginia Tech School Shootings.
‘A murder suspect surrendered to police following a three-hour standoff at an apartment complex that was complicated by a crowd of bystanders who threw rocks at police, authorities said. [..]
Walton said officers were first called to the scene about 9 p.m. and encountered neighborhood opposition.
“They were met by a large group — over 100 people — that made an effort to assault officers by throwing rocks at their vehicles and the officers themselves,” Walton said. “There were shots fired, and the officers had their hands full trying to contain the crowd.”
The officers called in reinforcements to help disperse the crowd. Some of the additional police wore riot gear and carried batons.’
‘Police have arrested a 16-year-old from Shreveport who is accused of paying another teen $5 to kill his father. Cops are still looking for the youth allegedly hired for the hit.
The teenager didn’t want to be told where he could live and was tired of having to live by rules, according to Det. Michael Escude of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Department.
The boy had moved from his father’s to his mother’s house a day or two before the attempted hit on Wednesday, because the father said he couldn’t deal with him any longer, Escude said.
The youth was arrested Wednesday night on one count of solicitation for murder and remains in the Caddo Juvenile Detention Center, the sheriff’s office said.’
‘Australians would take more sick days if the government banned cold and flu tablets in a bid to stop the medicine being used to manufacture the drug ice, doctors say.
The government has asked health and law enforcement officials to examine the implications of a blanket ban on the sale of products that contain pseudoephedrine, which includes cold and flu tablets.
Pseudoephedrine can be used to make methamphetamines such as ice and crystal meth.
But Australian Medical Association president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said he doubted the ban would stop the ice epidemic as drug makers would source pseudoephedrine from elsewhere.’
‘A Byron man has been sentenced to four months in jail for distributing stickers that featured derogatory sexual remarks and a woman’s photo and phone number of his former girlfriend. [..]
According to the criminal complaint, the Kasson Police Department began receiving reports on Sept. 22 that someone was placing stickers on cars and buildings in Kasson. The stickers featured a photo of a woman, with derogatory sexual remarks. It also included the woman’s name, address and telephone number along with the phrase “call me now for the best.”‘
‘A teenage spectator was bludgeoned to death by a cricketer during a local match near the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, police and witnesses said.
Rabinath Ash, 17, was battered to death with a stump when he tried to shield his younger brother from attack Friday at a cricket ground in a suburb of Kolkata, they said.
“A scuffle broke when the batting side on the verge of winning the match insisted on carrying on with the game despite fading daylight,” police inspector general Raj Kanojia said.’
‘About 30 people have faked their own kidnappings in NSW in the past year.
Among a spate of recent false reports to NSW Police have been cases involving ransom demands to relatives, handcuffs and faked injuries.
NSW has Australia’s highest recorded kidnapping rate, with 6.9 abductions per 100,000 people, Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures show.
The bureau’s report found, however, that of the 238 cases of alleged abduction reviewed by researchers, only 57 per cent involved an actual abduction.’
‘Boston School Police officers say they want to start wearing bulletproof vests and carrying batons and pepper spray to protect themselves from increasingly brazen students who attack police officers as they break up fights.
The officers are fearing more for their safety as violence in the city’s streets spills into the schools, their union president said.
The bid for such equipment worries some school officials. One headmaster said a more heavily equipped police presence would send the wrong message to parents and students and could turn schools into combat zones, a common concern as schools ponder how far they need to go to protect teachers and students.’
‘People who illegally download music would have their telephone and internet services cut off under a radical new plan proposed by the music industry.
Fed up with falling sales, the industry – which claims Australians download more than one billion songs illegally each year – has been discussing tough new guidelines with internet service providers (ISPs) since late last year.
Record labels, music publishers and other copyright holders are involved.’
‘A 2-year-old boy was severely burned Saturday after he went down the slide at an elementary school playground. Someone had broken into the school, stolen several bottles of industrial-strength drain cleaner and splashed it all over the playground equipment, authorities said. [..]
Peyton suffered second- and third-degree burns, mostly on his legs, from the cleaner, which contains a strong concentration of sulfuric acid, said Division Chief Michael Robinson of the Baltimore County Fire Department. No one else was injured.
Duschl said her son’s grandmother was with him at the playground, and he began screaming in pain as soon as he went down his favorite slide.’
