`Saddam Hussein and his cousin “Chemical Ali” discussed how chemical weapons would exterminate thousands before unleashing them on Kurds in 1988, according to tapes played on Monday in a trial of former Iraqi officials.
“I will strike them with chemical weapons and kill them all and damn anyone who is going to say anything,” a voice identified by prosecutors as “Chemical Ali” Hassan al-Majeed is heard saying. [..]
“Yes, it exterminates thousands and forces them not to eat or drink and they will have to evacuate their homes without taking anything with them, until we can finally purge them,” the voice identified as Saddam answers.’
`Three people were killed, at least two of them decapitated, and one seriously injured when a helicopter crashed into a restaurant carpark in the Camargue region in southern France, a local source said Sunday. [..]
The incident happened in the hamlet of Villeneuve when the Alouette 2-type aircraft carrying four people crashed Sunday afternoon.
“It was 15h30. The helicopter crashed onto parked cars close to the restaurant. The victims were the parents of a five-year-old girl. At least two of them were been decapitated,” said the source, a former AFP journalist.
“The little girl cried out ‘My daddy doesn’t have a head anymore’. Everyone is in a state of shock,” he added. ‘
‘The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.
The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.’
Update: now with a video.
see it here »
`A drugs and alcohol expert says road deaths could be reduced in Queensland if the legal drinking age went back to 21.
The legal drinking age was lowered in 1974 from 21 to 18.
Professor Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland, who has researched the effects of drinking on young people, said that where the legal drinking age in the US was raised to 21 in the 1980s, road fatalities fell.
“I think it’s a possibility that we should seriously consider and one we should be debating,” he said.’
`A French prisoner who killed his cellmate “very probably” ate some of the victim’s body parts, a prosecutor in the northern town of Rouen said on Friday.
The victim’s body was discovered in a prison cell on Wednesday, with a large wound to the chest. The alleged killer, who shared the cell, told investigators he had removed and eaten his victim’s heart.
Investigators initially discounted the possibility of cannibalism after the victim’s heart was “found intact in its usual place and in its membrane which was also intact,” Rouen state prosecutor Joseph Schmit said in a statement.
However an autopsy revealed that pieces of muscle from the victim’s rib area and part of his lung were missing.’
‘James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, was remembered this week as a music legend who instilled black pride, and also as a man who gave black men across the nation justification to beat their wives and girlfriends.
Mr. Brown died of congestive heart failure after taking a swing at his girlfriend, and missing. The uncontrolled motion of his arm, not having been slowed by its intended target, tore his left ventricle, according to his agent, Frank Copsidas.
Mr. Brown sold millions of records and slapped thousands of women in a career that lasted half a century, and his music provided the rhythms that are the basis of hip-hop and much of current pop. Mr. Copsidas said Mr. Brown was working up until the day he died, and said his slogan was: “I’m the hardest working man in show business, and I’ll slap anyone who says otherwise.”‘
`A 17-year-old boy in northeastern China was so disappointed with the looks of a woman he met over the Internet that he hanged himself after seeing her face-to-face, state media reported Friday. [..]
The girl described herself as a beautiful 19-year-old and the pair chatted on the Web for weeks before arranging a December 26 rendezvous in the nearby city of Mudanjiang, in far northeastern Heilongjiang province.
The boy arrived to discover the woman far less attractive than advertised and 10 years older than him, Xinhua said.
The boy immediately returned home, lost his appetite, and four days later hanged himself from a tree.’
`Three penguins were stabbed and bashed before being killed with a single blow at a Melbourne beach colony.
The remains of two male and one female bird were discovered at the St Kilda breakwater Little Penguin colony just before Christmas.
One of the male penguins also had its left flipper slashed with a knife and one was hit so hard its back was broken.’
`Could there be forbidden sequences in the genome – ones so harmful that they are not compatible with life? One group of researchers thinks so. Unlike most genome sequencing projects which set out to search for genes that are conserved within and between species, their goal is to identify “primes”: DNA sequences and chains of amino acids so dangerous to life that they do not exist.
“It’s like looking for a needle that’s not actually in the haystack,” says Greg Hampikian, professor of genetics at Boise State University in Idaho, who is leading the project. [..]’
‘Three children have hanged themselves after seeing footage of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s execution on television.
10-year-old Sergio Pelico, who hanged himself in Texas, had seen the video of Saddam’s execution and had asked about it before his death, police said today.
“We’re theorising he tried to experiment or mimic the behaviour and it got out of control,” said police captain Thomas Claunch.
Police said the boy apparently went to his room, attached a piece of clothing to a bunk bed and tied it around his neck.’
Followup to Full Saddam Execution Video.
‘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.
`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.’
`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.”‘
`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.’
`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.’
`Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday a horrific terrorist act on the United States that will result in “mass killing” late in 2007.
“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”
Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.
“I put these things out with humility,” he said.’
God told me that Pat Robertson is a fuckwit. I say this, of course, with the utmost humility.
Update: video of this here – Pat Robertson’s Predictions for 2007
‘A tele-evangelist with a large following across the United States is being sued by relatives over her claim that prayer cured her brother’s throat cancer.
Darlene Bishop’s claims appear in her book, Your Life Follows Your Words, which fails to mention that her brother, the songwriter Darrell “Wayne” Perry, died of the disease 18 months ago.
Mr Perry’s four children have filed a lawsuit against their aunt for wrongful death, claiming that she persuaded him to stop chemotherapy and to depend instead upon God’s healing.
Mrs Bishop, who is co-pastor at a 4,000-congregation Ohio church, also claims that prayer cured her of breast cancer.’
`Pledging revenge, hundreds of mourners flocked to Saddam Hussein’s tomb in northern Iraq yesterday, as America mourned the 3000th American soldier to die in the conflict.
Saddam’s hanging on Saturday, shown in a video that swept the internet, has polarised an Iraqi society already on the brink of civil war.
His fellow Sunni Arabs flocked to Awja, near Tikrit, to see his grave and vent their fury at Shiite officials who taunted him on the gallows.
In an outpouring of grief and anger mourners knelt and prayed by his tomb, over which the Iraqi flag had been draped.’
`A cell phone became a lifeline for a Detroit man who woke up inside a garbage truck that had begun compacting its load, Oak Park, Mich., police said.
The man, 41, was scavenging for cans and bottles in the city’s Dumpsters when he apparently fell asleep, Lt. Mike Pousak said. He was awakened after the Dumpster he was in was unloaded into a garbage truck at about 2 p.m. Thursday. The man, whose name was not released, used his cell phone to call 911.
Pousak said the man didn’t know where he was, but that he hadn’t been drinking, and he isn’t homeless. The man is, however, unemployed.’
`The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who, uh, remove themselves from it…
Like two people, 17 and 20, who imitated Darth Vader and made light sabres from fluorescent light tubes. That’s right, they opened up fluoresceent tubes, poured gasoline inside, and lit the end… As one can imagine, a Star Wars sized explosion was not far behind. One died, the other survived to ‘fess up to their creative, but stupid, reenactment.’
Whether you spell is Sadam or Saddam, he’s still dead. [shrug] 🙂
(4.2meg Flash video)
see it here »
`Shortly after the execution of the dictator Saddam Hussein, his dog Blondi followed the same fate to the gallows. Contrary to Saddam, Blondi’s execution was broadcast live in full length. Some minor complications arose, which dragged out the death struggle to unbearable lengths. Animal activist group PETA has filed a formal complaint to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.’
I don’t think this is the whole video.
Also, a second video with his body.
UPDATE: Full Saddam Execution Video
see it here »
`An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein’s death sentence for crimes against humanity and said he should hang within 30 days.
Human rights groups condemned his trial as seriously flawed and called on the government not to carry out the sentence, which comes amid raging violence between Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs and majority Shi’ites.
The White House called the court’s decision a “milestone” in replacing tyranny with rule of law.’
`Police said the robber entered the bank and shot 25-year-old James R. Garrison in the chest, fatally wounding him. [..]
The robber then approached another teller and said, “Give me all of it,” and the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of money, according to police. The robber said, “Merry Christmas,” and fled.
Garrison was pronounced dead at a hospital.’
If I die and find myself in one of these things, I’m gonna come back and haunt the cunt who put me in it. 🙂
