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Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Anonymous, Jan 8, 2013.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Conclave 2013: Pope Election Begins As Cardinals Head From Mass At St. Peter's Basilica To Sistine Chapel
    [/h]
    VATICAN CITY, March 12 (Reuters) - Roman Catholic cardinals prayed for divine help on Tuesday, hours before a conclave to elect a new pope to tackle the daunting problems facing the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

    The cardinals, including the 115 aged under 80 who will vote for the next pope, filed into St. Peter's Basilica as choirs sang at the ritual solemn Mass that precedes a conclave.

    They prayed that God would inspire them to choose the right man to replace Pope Benedict, who abdicated abruptly last month saying he was not strong enough to confront the woes of a Church whose 1.2 billion members look to Rome for leadership.

    The Mass was the last event for the cardinals as a group before they enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday afternoon and make their choice for the next pontiff before Michelangelo's famous fresco of the Last Judgment.

    In his homily, Italy's Angelo Sodano, dean of the cardinals, said they should pray "that the Lord will grant us a pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart".

    He called for unity within the Church and urged everyone to work with the next pope, whoever he should be.

    The secret conclave, steeped in ritual and prayer, could carry on for several days, with no clear favourite in sight.

    Vatican insiders say Italy's Angelo Scola and Brazil's Odilo Scherer have emerged as the men to beat. The former would bring the papacy back to Italy for the first time in 35 years, while the latter would be the first non-European pope in 1,300 years.

    However, a host of other candidates from numerous nations have also been mentioned, including U.S. cardinals Timothy Dolan and Sean O'Malley, Canada's Marc Ouellet and Argentina's Leonardo Sandri..


    MANY CHOICES

    Known as the "Princes of the Church", the cardinals will only emerge from their seclusion once they have chosen the 266th pontiff in the 2,000-year history of the Church, which is beset by sex abuse scandals, bureaucratic infighting, financial difficulties and the rise of secularism.

    Many Catholics are looking to see positive changes.

    "It's not an anxious moment, but a moment of great hope. The first thing the Church should do is return to the lives of the people, instead of losing itself in theology," said Italian Andrea Michieli, 22, who attended the Mass.

    "The new pope should give a young image of the Church so everyone sees the Church is not just the Curia," he said referring the Vatican's central bureaucracy which has been criticised for failing to prevent a string of mishaps during Benedict's troubled, eight-year reign.

    Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera told Italy's La Stampa newspaper there were many different views about the right profile for the next pontiff, with some wanting an academic, others seeking someone close to the people, or else a good manager.

    Asked if the conclave could therefore drag on, he said: "I do not think it will be long because there are diverse opinions. We will come to an agreement very quickly".

    The average length of the last nine conclaves was just over three days and none went on for more than five days.

    Signalling the divisions among the cardinals, Italian newspapers reported on Tuesday an open clash between prelates in a pre-conclave meeting on Monday.

    The newspapers said the Vatican hierarchy's number two under Benedict, Tarcisio Bertone, had accused Brazil's Joao Braz de Aviz of leaking critical comments to the media. Aviz reportedly retorted that the leaks were coming from the Curia, earning loud applause.


    CORRUPTION AND INTRIGUE

    All the red-hatted prelates in the Sistine Chapel were appointed by either the German-born Benedict XVI or his Polish predecessor John Paul II, and the next pontiff will almost certainly pursue their fierce defence of traditional moral teachings.

    But Benedict and John Paul were criticised for failing to reform the Vatican bureaucracy, battered by allegations of intrigue and incompetence, and some churchmen believe the next pope must be a good chief executive or at least put a good management team in place under him.

    Vatican insiders say Scola, who has managed two big Italian dioceses, might be best placed to understand the Byzantine politics of the Vatican administration - of which he has not been a part - and therefore be able to introduce swift reform.

    The Curia faction of cardinals working inside the Vatican bureaucracy is said by the same insiders to back Scherer, who worked in the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops for seven years before later leading Brazil's Sao Paolo diocese - the largest in the country that has the largest national Catholic community.

    With only 24 percent of Catholics living in Europe, pressure is growing within the Church to choose a pontiff from elsewhere in the world who would bring a different perspective.

    Latin American cardinals might worry more about poverty and the rise of evangelical churches than questions of materialism and sexual abuse that dominate in the West, while the growth of Islam is a major concern for the Church in Africa and Asia.

    The cardinals are expected to hold their first vote late on Tuesday afternoon - which is almost certain to be inconclusive - before retiring to the Vatican hotel for the night.

    They hold four ballots a day from Wednesday until one man has won a two-thirds majority - or 77 votes. Black smoke from a makeshift chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel will signify no one has been elected, while white smoke and the pealing of St. Peter's bells will announce the arrival of a new pontiff.

    As in mediaeval times, the cardinals will be banned from communicating with the outside world. The Vatican has also taken high-tech measures to ensure secrecy in the 21st century, including electronic jamming devices to prevent eavesdropping.

    Cardinals earlier began moving into the Vatican's Santa Martha hotel, where they will live during the conclave. (Additional reporting by Naomi O'Leary and Tom Heneghan; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

    -By Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella
     
  2. littlebrother

    littlebrother MG Donor

    Should have name this thread " The Daily Planet".. Thats all i wanted to say..
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] North Korea Attack History Shows Pattern In Strikes Against South Korea
    [/h]
    SEOUL, South Korea — Recent Korean history reveals a sobering possibility: It may only be a matter of time before North Korea launches a sudden, deadly attack on the South. And perhaps more unsettling, Seoul has vowed that this time, it will respond with an even stronger blow.
    Humiliated by past attacks, South Korea has promised – as recently as Tuesday – to hit back hard at the next assault from the North, opening up the prospect that a skirmish could turn into a wider war.
    Lost in the headline-making North Korean bluster about nuclear strikes on Washington in response to U.N. sanctions is a single sentence in a North Korean army Supreme Command statement of March 5. It said North Korea "will make a strike of justice at any target anytime as it pleases without limit."
    Those words have a chilling link to the recent past, when Pyongyang, angry over perceived slights, took its time before exacting revenge on rival South Korea. Vows of retaliation after naval clashes with South Korea in 1999 and 2009, for example, were followed by more bloodshed, including attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
    Those attacks three years ago "are vivid reminders of the regime's capabilities and intentions," Bruce Klingner, a former U.S. intelligence official now at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, wrote in a recent think tank posting.
    Almost a mirror image of the current tensions happened in 2009, when the U.N. approved sanctions over North Korean missile and nuclear tests, and Pyongyang responded with fury. In November of that year, Seoul claimed victory in a sea battle with the North, and Pyongyang vowed revenge.
    In March 2010, the Cheonan, a 1,200-ton South Korean warship, exploded and sank in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors. A South Korean-led international investigation found that North Korea torpedoed the ship, a claim Pyongyang denies.
    The Cheonan sinking may have been retaliation for the naval defeat four months earlier, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University.
    In November 2010, North Korea sent a warning to South Korea to cancel a routine live-fire artillery drill planned on Yeonpyeong Island, which is only seven miles from North Korea and lies in Yellow Sea waters that North Korea claims as its own.
    South Korea went ahead with the drills, firing, Seoul says, into waters away from North Korean territory. North Korea sent artillery shells raining down on the island, killing two civilians and two marines.
    South Korea responded with artillery fire of its own, but the government of then-President Lee Myung-bak was severely criticized for what was seen as a slow, weak response. Lee, a conservative who infuriated North Korea by ending the previous liberal government's "sunshine policy" of huge aid shipments with few strings attached, vowed massive retaliation if hit again by the North.
    The government of newly inaugurated President Park Geun-hye, also a conservative, has made similar comments, though she has also said she will try to build trust with North Korea and explore renewed dialogue and aid shipments.
    South Korea's Defense Ministry on Tuesday repeated that it would respond harshly to any future attack from the North. Spokesman Kim Min-seok said there were no signs that North Korea would attack anytime soon, but warned that if it did, it would suffer "much more powerful damage" than whatever it inflicted on South Korea.
    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday visited artillery troops near disputed waters with South Korea and urged them to be on "maximum alert" because war could break out anytime, according to Pyongyang's official media.
    If war broke out, the United States would assume control of South Korea's military because of the countries' decades-old alliance that began with the U.S.-led military response to North Korean invaders in 1950. But South Korea has made clear that it has a sovereign right, and a political necessity, to respond strongly to future North Korean attacks.
    A clue to when North Korea might attack may be in the timing of the current threats. North Korea is furious over ongoing annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that will continue until the end of April.
    Pyongyang is highly unlikely to stage an attack when so much U.S. firepower is assembled, but analysts said it might hit South Korea after the drills end.
    "They are quiet when tension is high and state-of-the-art (U.S.) weapons are brought to South Korea for the drills," said Chon Hyun-joon, an analyst at the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
    If history is any guide, the most likely flashpoint is the Yellow Sea, where North Korea has complained about sea boundaries since the 1950s. The U.S.-led U.N. Command drew the so-called Northern Limit Line after failed attempts to negotiate a border after the Korean War, and Pyongyang says it clearly favors the South by boxing in North Korea close to its shores.
    Bloody sea battles in 1999, 2002 and 2009, and North Korea's artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, took place weeks after annual drills by South Korea and the United States, Chon said. In those cases and in the current drills, North Korea's state media reacted to the war games with harsh criticism, calling them preparations for a northward invasion.
    North Korea sometimes takes months to follow through on its occasionally cryptic threats or warnings, but it also has acted quickly.
    North Korea has attempted a military provocation within weeks of every South Korean presidential inauguration dating to 1992, according to Victor Cha, a former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush, and Ellen Kim at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. South Korea's new president was inaugurated Feb. 25.
    "Expect a North Korean provocation in the coming weeks," Cha and Kim wrote Thursday.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Kurt Myers, Suspected Gunman In New York Shooting Rampage, Killed By Police:tomb::tomb::tomb:[/h]
    HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) -- Police in upstate New York stormed an abandoned building Thursday morning where a man suspected of a deadly shooting rampage at a car wash and barbershop had been holed up for hours, killing the man after he fired on a police dog.
    Kurt Myers, 64, was killed by police who had surrounded a block of small businesses in the village of Herkimer since Wednesday afternoon.
    SWAT teams went into the building around 8 a.m., trooper Jack Keller said. The shootout occurred in the basement.
    Keller said police sent in the dog first and Myers shot and killed it.
    "He was waiting for us," Keller said. "He kills the dog. They hear shots fired. Our teams returned fire and the suspect gets shot."
    No officers were injured, he said.
    Police say Myers sauntered into a barbershop Wednesday, coolly asked if the man cutting hair remembered him and then opened fire with a shotgun, the first shots in a burst of violence that would leave four dead, two critically wounded and people in this small village aching to find out what set the gunman off.
    John Seymour, one of the men wounded in the attacks told his sister, Mary Hornett, the barbershop attack came out of nowhere.
    "He just said that the guys were in the barbershop and this guy comes in and he says, `Hi John, do you remember me?' and my brother said, `Yes, Kurt, how are you?' and then he just started shooting," Hornett said.
    Hornett said her brother, who was hospitalized in critical condition, was doing well after being shot in the left hand and right hip.
    "My brother couldn't think of any reason why he would do such a thing," she said of Myers, a former customer who hadn't been in the shop for a couple of years.
    The shootings shattered the peace and rattled the nerves of Mohawk and Herkimer, two small villages about 170 miles northwest of New York City, separated from each other by the Mohawk River and the New York State Thruway.
    Police said Myers' rampage started with a fire in his apartment in the nearby village of Mohawk at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. He then drove to John's Barber Shop around the corner and used a shotgun to kill two customers, D'Amico said, identifying them as Harry Montgomery, 68, and Michael Ransear, 57, a retired corrections officer. In addition to Seymour, the shop's owner, another customer, Dan Haslauer, also was listed in critical condition at a Utica hospital.
    The gunman then drove to Gaffy's Fast Lube in nearby Herkimer and used the shotgun to kill Michael Renshaw and Thomas Stefka. Renshaw was a 23-year employee of the state corrections department who worked at Mid-State Correctional Facility near Utica. Stefka worked at Gaffey's and attended Mohawk Reform Church, where he played guitar during services.
    Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a press conference in Herkimer, called it "truly an inexplicable situation."
    Neighbors said they barely knew Myers, who rarely spoke, left every morning in his red Jeep and came back.
    Traci Randall said the only time she remembers speaking to her next-door neighbor was when he yelled at her son because he thought he had shot an air pellet at his Jeep.
    "He would walk by himself. He was kind of a loner. No wife," she said.
    Neighbors said he never had visitors or friends. Gary Urich said Myers wouldn't even say much as `Hi' to him when walking by his porch.
    "I said, `How are you doing?' No response. He just walked by," he said.
    Michele Mlinar, a bartender at Cangee's Bar and Grille in Herkimer, said Myers frequently went in and had a bottle or two of Coors Light and left without speaking to anyone. She said he was always alone and she didn't even know his name until police released his mug shot on Wednesday.
    Cangee's owner Candy Rellin called Myers "just an odd little man."
    The two villages are about 65 miles east of Syracuse on opposite sides of the Mohawk River - which connects the Erie Canal to the Hudson River and from there, the sea - in a region known as the Mohawk Valley.
    Elizabeth Cirelli was shocked by Stefka's slaying. He was a neighbor in Herkimer.
    "He was a great guy, a really nice person. This is horrific. We really couldn't believe it," she said.
    Herkimer County Community College lifted a lockdown during the afternoon, and schools near the scene released students. D'Amico said most of the three-block neighborhood around the search scene was evacuated.
    Herkimer is a village of 7,700 named for the German immigrant family that settled in the western Mohawk Valley in the 1720s. The economically distressed villages are 2 miles away from Ilion, where a 2-century-old Remington Arms gun plant is a major employer.

    -BY MICHAEL HILL AND JOHN KEKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
     
  5. lukemurawski

    lukemurawski Senior Member

    Pope selected!
     
  6. MetallicA

    MetallicA <span style="color:#66CD00">Moderator</span>

  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Pope Francis Kidnapping Controversy: Jorge Mario Bergoglio Accused Of Involvement In 1976 Abductions
    [/h]
    The election of Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has resurfaced a decades-old controversy surrounding the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests.
    Bergoglio was a high-ranking official in the Society of Jesus of Argentina when a military junta was installed in the South American country in 1976. According to the Los Angeles Times, priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were kidnapped in May of that year by the navy. "They surfaced five months later, drugged and seminude, in a field," the Times reported. A 2005 lawsuit accused Bergoglio of unspecified involvement in the abductions. Reuters explains that "the military government secretly jailed [Yorio and Jalics] for their work in poor neighborhoods."
    A spokesman for Bergoglio called the claims "old slander."

    Per the Associated Press, "Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery." Bergoglio discussed the incident with Sergio Rubin, his authorized biographer.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]UCF Evacuated: University Of Central Florida Students Forced To Vacate After Death, Explosives Found [/h]
    By KYLE HIGHTOWER

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A college student with two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a backpack filled with explosives pulled a dorm fire alarm Monday in an apparent attempt to force other students out into the open so that he could slaughter them, authorities said. But he instead put a bullet in his head as police closed in.

    James Oliver Seevakumaran, 30, was found dead in his dorm room at the 51,000-student Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida. No one else was hurt.
    "His timeline got off," university Police Chief Richard Beary said. "We think the rapid response of law enforcement may have changed his ability to think quickly on his feet."
    Some 500 students were evacuated from the building in the middle of the night, unaware how narrowly they had escaped what could have been another Virginia Tech-style bloodbath.
    "It could have been a very bad day here for everybody. All things considered, I think we were very blessed here," Beary said. "Anybody armed with this type of weapon and ammunition could have hurt a lot of people here, particularly in a crowded area as people were evacuating."
    Police shed no light on a motive, but university spokesman Grant Heston said that before the episode, the school was in the process of removing Seevakumaran from the dormitory because he hadn't enrolled for the current semester. He had never been seen by university counselors and had no disciplinary problems with other students, Heston said.
    Detectives found notes and other writings that indicated Seevakumaran had carefully planned an attack and "laid out a timeline of where he was going to be and what he was going to do," Beary said.
    The episode began early Monday, just after midnight, when Seevakumaran pulled a gun on one of his roommates, who holed up in a bathroom and called police, Beary said. Around the same time, Seevakumaran pulled a fire alarm, apparently to get other students out in the open, the police chief said.
    In his room, investigators found four makeshift explosive devices in a backpack, a .45-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber tactical rifle, and a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition, police said. Beary said it appears his weapon and ammunition purchases began in February.
    Antonio Whitehead, 21, said he heard the fire alarm go off in the dorm and thought it was a routine event.
    "All of a sudden, I felt the crowd move a little faster. And a police officer with a machine gun or something told everyone to start moving a lot faster," he said.
    Seevakumaran had attended the university from 2010 through the fall semester as a business student. His roommates told detectives that he had shown antisocial behavior but had never shown any violent tendencies, Beary said.
    According to Florida records, his only adult arrest in the state was in 2006 for driving with a suspended license.
    Morning classes were canceled, but most campus operations resumed around noon.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    7 Marines killed during explosion at Nevada's Hawthorne Army Depot


    An explosion at a military ammunition storage facility in Nevada during a Marine Corps training exercise killed seven U.S. Marines and wounded several others, military officials said. The North Carolina-based soldiers with the 2nd Marine Division were killed late Monday when a 60-millimeter mortar exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot as Marines were preparing to fire it, NBC News reports.
    The cause of the incident remains under investigation. The identities of those killed were not released pending notification of their families, officials said in a statement from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp LeJeune, N.C.
    "We send our prayers and condolences to the families of Marines involved in this tragic incident. We remain focused on ensuring that they are supported through this difficult time," said Maj. Gen. Raymond C. Fox, the force's commander. "We mourn their loss, and it is with heavy hearts we remember their courage and sacrifice."
    Stacy Kendall, a spokeswoman for Renown Regional Medical Center, told NBC News the facility was treating eight people wounded in the blast. Three were listed in serious condition; five were listed in fair condition. Kendall said the injuries included traumas and fractures.
    Earlier, Russ Collier, an official at the facility, told KRNV-TV that the explosion was an accident unrelated to the ammunition that is stored at the military facility near the small desert community of Hawthorne.
    The 147,000-acre depot, established in 1930, is about 140 miles southeast of Reno. The facility stores and disposes of ammunition, and provides long-term storage for industrial plant equipment. It is comprised of nearly 3,000 buildings — including igloos, supply warehouses and munitions sheds — throughout more than 230 square miles.
    The facility had an operating budget of $270,000 and a payroll of $2.88 million in fiscal year 2009, according to its website.
    Messages seeking comment from Hawthorne Army Depot officials were not immediately returned.


     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Sarai Sierra, Murdered NY Tourist In Turkey Wouldn't Kiss Suspect, Ziya Tasali Told Prosecutors [/h]
    The husband of a New York woman killed in January while vacationing in Istanbul cautiously welcomed news that a suspect who'd been on the run for weeks has finally been caught.
    Sarai Sierra was bludgeoned to death by a homeless man after she refused to kiss him, according to Turkish authorities, who told the New York Times they have a confession.
    "I just want to know whoever is responsible is being detained," Steven Sierra said to The Huffington Post. "It's good to know that authorities have been working very hard on this case."
    The suspect, Ziya Tasali, 46, was captured along the border with Syria, where he'd allegedly fled as international interest in Sarai Sierra's murder grew, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
    "You hear of many people on the run and many of them get away for years or never get caught," Steven Sierra said. "I was just leaving it in the hands of God."
    Tasali, who has previous burglary and weapons convictions, could face life in prison if convicted, the Daily News reported.
    As the case unfolds, Steven Sierra may travel to Istanbul.
    "I don't know if they're going to need me for anything," the 40-year-old said. "However I know in my heart that there is a time I would like to take that trip and see whoever is responsible face to face. not out of vengeance, but because I want to see them eye to eye and hear for myself why this happened."
    So far, he hasn't told his two sons that the alleged culprit is in custody.
    "If I get confirmation, I can tell them that the person that hurt Mommy was caught."
    His wife was strolling near Istanbul's ancient walls on Jan. 21 when Tasali accosted her, according to media accounts of his statement to Turkish prosecutors.
    "She resisted me and a struggle broke out between the two of us," Tasali said to investigators, according to The New York Times.
    Sierra, traveling alone, hit Tasali in the nose with her phone.
    "I got very angry and hit her back twice with a stone that I found on the floor," Tasail said, according to the Times' account.
    Blows to the head killed Sierra. Her bludgeoned body would not be found until Feb. 2. The search for Sierra turned into major international news, which drove Tasali to flee Istanbul.
    Video footage of Tasali shows him confessing to the crime at the same time he says his memory is fogged from inhaling glue on the day of the alleged murder, according to Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper. He also claimed that he briefly fought with Syrian rebels against the forces of the country's regime, but was wounded.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Shawn Moore, Father Of NJ Boy Pictured With Gun, Won't Face Charges
    [/h]
    [​IMG]

    No charges will be filed against a man who posted online a photo of his young son holding what appeared to be a military-style rifle, police said Wednesday. In a moment of heightened sensitivity around guns and gun control, the brief saga had the makings of a debate starter between people who oppose guns and those who say authorities are overzealous about even legal weapons.
    Police in Carneys Point, a town of 8,000 some 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, gave their version Wednesday, days after the boy's father, Shawn Moore, brought attention to the issue, saying that state child welfare workers and police in SWAT gear showed up at his home because of the online photos.
    Moore first posted a comment about the incident on a gun rights website and within days was appearing with his son, Josh, on a Fox News talk show and elsewhere. Moore said that the weapon was a .22-caliber rifle made to look like an assault rifle and that it was a gift for Josh's upcoming 11th birthday.
    In a statement, Carney Point Police Chief Robert DiGregorio and Mayor Richard Gatanis said officers went to the family's home at about 8:15 p.m. Friday after getting anonymous tips that a boy there might have access to weapons and ammunition.
    "In light of some of the recent school shootings across our nation, the Carneys Point Police Department takes these types of calls seriously," they said, adding that they were obligated to go there with state Department of Children and Family caseworkers who requested assistance.
    Moore had said the authorities requested to see his weapons, but with his lawyer on a speakerphone he denied them access because they did not have a search warrant.
    The Carneys Point officials said the officers – in night uniforms and body armor but not SWAT gear – did not attempt an unlawful search.
    The officials said that they respect citizens' rights to own weapons and that several officers knew the elder Moore from a shooting club.
    Moore's lawyer, Evan Nappen, said the problem is the idea that the government could respond to people talking about or with photos of weapons on social media.
    "This is a shame because of the impact it has on a really good dad and his son," Nappen said. "No one was in danger."
    He said the state Department of Children and Families was aggressive and intimidating and could have avoided the situation by calling first.
    A department spokesman did not return calls Wednesday, but said Tuesday _without commenting on the specific case – that the department routinely checks on tips it receives.
    The department has been under years of court-monitoring and has been criticized in several cases where children who died or were in peril were not checked on.

    -By GEOFF MULVIHILL
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] LeBron James fan runs onto court during Heat-Cavs game (WATCH)
    [/h]
    At least one fan in Cleveland still loves LeBron James.
    He even told James so during Wednesday's game between James' Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unfortunately, the admirer decided to do it during play.
    The fan ran onto the floor in the fourth quarter, after James had led the Heat on a monster comeback. The young man was wearing a T-shirt that said: "We Miss You, 2014 Come Back," a reference to James' possible free agency and return to Cleveland, where he played seven seasons.
    James went out of his way and patted the fan on the head as security rushed him off the floor.
    "He said he missed me and come back, please," James said. "It happened once before in (Madison Square) Garden, so I wasn't worried. There are metal detectors here (at Quicken Loans Arena), so we were OK. I embraced it."
    The "he" appears to be James Blair, and one big clue is Blair's Twitter timeline. Blair, who describes himself on his feed as the "Biggest @kingjames fan ever!!!", was tweeting his intentions before and during the game.

    [video=youtube;6MUD3ypfBMo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6MUD3ypfBMo[/video]
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]One Million Moms Group Wants Kmart's 'Ship My Pants' Commercial Pulled From The Air
    [/h]
    [video=youtube;I03UmJbK0lA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I03UmJbK0lA[/video]


    A conservative Christian group wants a Kmart commercial pulled off the air for using the phrase "ship my pants" in a way that suggests a more vulgar saying.
    The group, One Million Moms (OMM), wrote on its website that the ad is "disgusting" and "ridiculous" and "should be pulled off the air immediately." Published Wednesday, the post asked people to email Kmart and use social media to pressure the company into pulling its commercial from broadcasts.
    Kmart's ad, which promotes a new offer on free shipping for Kmart purchases under 150 lbs., has gone viral since being posted to YouTube last week. It features several Kmart customers saying variations of the phrase "I shipped my pants," including "I just shipped my drawers" and "I just shipped my nightie."
    OMM was founded by the American Family Association (AFA), an anti-gay rights, anti-abortion group with a history of targeting big companies for allegedly violating conservative Christian principles. The groups have criticized or launched boycotts against Oreo, Urban Outfitters, JCPenney, McDonald's, Pepsi and Home Depot, among others, for endorsing what the AFA calls a "homosexual agenda."
    It's unclear if Kmart plans to take any action to address OMM's concerns; but, considering the group's relatively small size and the Kmart ad's popularity, it's unlikely the company will pull the ad.
    A Kmart rep was not immediately available to comment.
     
  14. erik

    erik MG Donor

    because they were too busy wetting themselves with laughter at the stupid-ass whiners
     
  15. MetallicA

    MetallicA <span style="color:#66CD00">Moderator</span>

    [video=youtube_share;PODZaaMTwfg]http://youtu.be/PODZaaMTwfg[/video]
    [video=youtube;kaYw3UyPq18]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaYw3UyPq18[/video]

    Incredible
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect, Reportedly Awake And Responding To Questions In Writing
    [/h]
    [​IMG]
    April 21 (Reuters) - The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, who was seriously wounded and unable to speak, is awake and responding in writing to questions from authorities, according to tweets by ABC and NBC news networks.
    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in the intensive care unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is responding sporadically, the ABC news network reported on its Twitter feed.
    NBC's Pete Williams is also reporting Tsarnaev is writing answers to questions from law enforcement.
    Tsarnaev is being treated for a gunshot in the mouth that exited the back of his neck, according Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes."
    He also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, Davis said. (Reporting By Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Eric Justin Toth, U.S Most Wanted Child Porn Suspect, Nabbed In Nicaragua
    [/h]
    MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Police in Nicaragua have detained a former U.S. school teacher who was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday.
    Eric Justin Toth was detained Saturday in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras, and will be immediately deported to the United States, said National Police chief Aminta Granera.
    "Toth will be deported immediately because he was in our country illegally," Granera said at a news conference in Managua, the capital.
    She said Toth entered Nicaragua with a false passport and also had a fake driver's license and credit cards.
    Toth was being handed over to FBI agents present at the news conference and they planned to take him to the U.S. in a special plane, Granera said.
    A thin and nervous-looking Toth dressed in cream-colored shirt and pants was briefly presented to journalists and photographers who took his picture, but he wasn't allowed to talk and was quickly taken away.
    Granera said Toth first entered Nicaragua on Oct. 24, 2012, and left on Jan. 27. He returned on Feb. 12 and that's when Nicaraguan police began keeping a close watch, she said.
    "He was captured in a house in the Panama Soberana neighborhood in Esteli, even though he resisted," Granera said.
    Toth taught third grade at Beauvoir, a private elementary school on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral. He was escorted off campus in June 2008 after another teacher reported finding sexually explicit photographs on a school camera in Toth's possession. He had not been seen since he lost his job.
    In a statement, the school commended the work of U.S. authorities.
    "We commend the work of the Office of the U.S. Attorney and the FBI for their ongoing efforts to apprehend Mr. Toth. They have been tenacious and resolute in their quest to bring this case to justice," it said.
    Toth was added to the FBI's most-wanted list in April 2012 for allegedly possessing and producing child pornography, giving him notoriety normally reserved for people sought in connection with violent crimes or terrorism.
    Osama bin Laden and purported Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger have both been featured on that list, but the FBI said it put Toth on because there were no reliable clues as to his whereabouts and because his Internet skills and alleged penchant for grooming children made him especially dangerous.
    Authorities found Toth's car at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in August 2008 with a note suggesting he'd committed suicide in a nearby lake. But no body was found.
    The FBI, which had been offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to Toth's arrest, said he was believed to have traveled to Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It said Toth is originally from Hammond, Indiana, and is a graduate of Purdue University.
    Toth is thought to have lived in Arizona in 2009.
    The bureau had said that Toth might have been advertising as a tutor or a male nanny and using the alias of David Bussone.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Confession Came Before Miranda Rights Were Read: Report
    [/h]
    [​IMG]

    The 19-year-old Boston bombing suspect admitted to his role in the deadly plot that killed three and left more than 260 wounded before he was read his Miranda rights, according to a "senior law enforcement official."
    The Boston Globe reports that authorities are not worried about being able to enter Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's confession as evidence of his guilt "because they have a strong witness: the man who was abducted by the Tsarnaev brothers last Thursday night."
    For more on why authorities aren't sweating whether the confession gets thrown out, read the rest of the Globe's story.
    The Obama administration's decision to interrogate Tsarnaev without first giving him a Miranda warning has drawn scorn from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. The administration cited a "public safety exception" as the reason for doing so. Tsarnaev was eventually read his rights after initial interrogations.
    "Every criminal defendant is entitled to be read Miranda rights," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement. "The public safety exception should be read narrowly. It applies only when there is a continued threat to public safety and is not an open-ended exception to the Miranda rule."
    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tsarnaev should not have been read his Miranda rights and should have been declared an enemy combatant.
    "This idea that the only way we can question him about national security matters is to go through his lawyer, turns [it] over to the terrorist and their lawyer controlling information to protect us all," Graham said Monday on Fox News. "That’s crazy. That is absolutely crazy. This man should be held and questioned under the law of war."
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Fuel Barges Explode On Mobile River, Injuring 3
    [/h]
    [​IMG]

    Three people were seriously injured when two barges previously loaded with liquid natural gas exploded on the east side of the Mobile River in Alabama on Wednesday evening.
    The first barge blew up around 8:30 p.m. CDT. According to AL.com, the blast rattled windows in downtown Mobile and blew open doors in Spanish Fort.
    Since then, six additional explosions have been heard.
    Alan Waugh, general manager of the Ft. Conde Inn, told WALA-TV that he saw and heard the explosions.
    "We were up on a second floor balcony and the sky lit up in orange and yellow, Waugh said. "My partner was on one end of the balcony and I was on the other. And you thought it was the Carnival cruise ship first, but then you realized it was a little further from the ship. It sounded like planes above you dropping bombs when it first went off."
    Three workers with Oil Recovery Co. were taken to USA Medical Center with burns. A hospital spokesperson said all three patients are currently in critical condition.
    Firefighters from Mobile, Ala., and U.S. Coast Guard crews were dispatched to the scene, The Associated Press reported.
    The fire department's Twitter feed reported that the situation was too unstable to engage, and firefighters decided to let the blaze burn overnight.
    At this time, the cause of the explosions is unknown.

    MOBILE, Ala. — A large fire that began with explosions aboard two fuel barges in Mobile, Ala., was rocked by a seventh explosion early Thursday and fire officials said they planned to let the fire, which has injured three, burn overnight.
    Firefighters from Mobile and U.S. Coast Guard officials responded after 8:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday to a pair of explosions involving the gas barges in an area of the Mobile River east of downtown, authorities said.
    As they were responding, a third explosion occurred around 9:30 p.m., Mobile Fire and Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman wrote in an email to The Associated Press. Additional explosions followed over the next few hours.
    The Coast Guard said early Thursday that a one-nautical-mile safety zone had been established around one barge, which it said was "at the dock for cleaning."
    Authorities said three people were transported to University of South Alabama Medical Center after suffering burn-related injuries. Huffman identified them as workers with Oil Recovery Co. The three were in critical condition early Thursday, according to hospital nursing administrator Danny Whatley.
    Across the river, the Carnival Triumph, the cruise ship that became disabled in the Gulf of Mexico last February before it was towed to Mobile's port, was evacuated, said Alan Waugh, who lives at the Fort Conde Inn in downtown Mobile, across the river from the scene of the explosions. Waugh saw the blasts and said throngs of Carnival employees and others were clustered on streets leading toward the river as authorities evacuated the shipyard.
    "It literally sounded like bombs going off around. The sky just lit up in orange and red," he said, "We could smell something in the air, we didn't know if it was gas or smoke." Waugh said he could feel the heat from the explosion and when he came back inside, his partner noticed he had what appeared to be black soot on his face.
    U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Carlos Vega said the initial blast took place in a ship channel near the George C. Wallace Tunnel – which carries traffic from Interstate 10 under the Mobile River. The river runs south past Mobile and into Mobile Bay, which in turn flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
    The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, Huffman and Vega said.
    "Once (the fire) is out and safe, a full investigation will take place," Huffman wrote.
    Mobile Fire Chief Steve Dean told AL.com he was confident the fire wouldn't spread to nearby industrial properties, including the shipyard where the Carnival cruise ship is docked.
    Huffman said the ship is directly across the river from the incident – about two football fields in length.
    The barges are owned by Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine, company spokesman Greg Beuerman said. He said the barges were empty and being cleaned at the Oil Recovery Co. facility when the incident began. He said the barges had been carrying a liquid called natural gasoline – which he said is neither liquefied natural gas or natural gas. He said the company has dispatched a team to work with investigators to determine what caused the fire.
    The explosion comes two months after the 900-foot-long Carnival Triumph was towed to Mobile after becoming disabled on the Gulf during a cruise by an engine room fire, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages for several days. The ship is still undergoing repairs there, with many workers living on board.
    Carnival didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment late Wednesday.
    Earlier this month, the cruise ship was dislodged from its mooring by a windstorm that also caused, in a separate incident, two shipyard workers to fall into Mobile Bay. While one worker was rescued, the other's body was pulled from the water more than a week later.
     
  20. lukemurawski

    lukemurawski Senior Member

    Damn... so many explosions lately :(