Saturday, June 30, 2007
Took 105 years, but Cuban becomes U.S. citizen - A.P.
A 105-year-old Cuban-born man who had at least one pending wish finally had it fulfilled — he became a U.S. citizen.
Jose Temprana celebrated by sipping champagne with friends at the Hispanic Community Center in Miami on Friday.
“I feel different,” said Temprana, who served 30 years in Cuban jails. “Satisfied, very happy. It was worth the wait.”
Temprana has the vitality of a younger man. Nicknamed “El Nino” (The Boy), he rides his scooter to the store to play the lottery, rolls his own cigars, drinks whiskey with neighbors and has a girlfriend.
“He’s just got a great spirit,” said his neighbor Patti Hernandez. “Everybody’s going, ‘Come on, he can’t really be that old.”’
Temprana was born in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio on Sept. 26, 1901. He worked as a sponge diver and lobster fisherman and had eight children with his first wife, who died giving birth to the youngest. He remarried, and his second wife died in 2002. ...
A 105-year-old Cuban-born man who had at least one pending wish finally had it fulfilled — he became a U.S. citizen.
Jose Temprana celebrated by sipping champagne with friends at the Hispanic Community Center in Miami on Friday.
“I feel different,” said Temprana, who served 30 years in Cuban jails. “Satisfied, very happy. It was worth the wait.”
Temprana has the vitality of a younger man. Nicknamed “El Nino” (The Boy), he rides his scooter to the store to play the lottery, rolls his own cigars, drinks whiskey with neighbors and has a girlfriend.
“He’s just got a great spirit,” said his neighbor Patti Hernandez. “Everybody’s going, ‘Come on, he can’t really be that old.”’
Temprana was born in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio on Sept. 26, 1901. He worked as a sponge diver and lobster fisherman and had eight children with his first wife, who died giving birth to the youngest. He remarried, and his second wife died in 2002. ...
The New Face of Warfare - book review from The Nation
In his book Innocents Lost, Jimmie Briggs recounts picking up the New York Times one morning. Opening the newspaper, he was confronted by a disturbing image--a large photograph of a young Liberian kneeling and howling on a city street, his face contorted with rage as he pointed a gun at the photographer who had captured his image. This was no child's play: The gun was real--an automatic rifle almost as big as the boy himself. As Briggs remembers, however, "More chilling than the weapon he held was what he wore on his back: a pink teddy-bear backpack, a telling symbol of his lost youth." [see the photo at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4791597]
...
In Colombia, Briggs speaks to Gueso, a 16-year-old fighting with one of the government's paramilitary militias in Medellín, northwest of the country. By the age of 8, Gueso had already learned how to use his first weapon, a .38 pistol. Within hardly a year, he had killed his first victim: "I stabbed a guy in the neck," he boasts cheerfully to Briggs. Wired on cocaine and alcohol during the interview, he keeps saying to Briggs, "Sometimes I feel like killing." Like most of the children who join rebel or paramilitary forces in Colombia, Gueso became involved with the paramilitaries largely as a result of poverty, lack of education and unemployment. "I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid to die so young," he tells Briggs. "You can't think about the future here, because the future is a coffin." The tragedy is that for children like Gueso, the future is a coffin whether or not they become child soldiers.
...
In Sri Lanka, Briggs meets Sebastiana Figerardo, a widow and the mother of seven children, the youngest of whom was Ida, a girl who joined the Tamil Tigers at the age of 17 after two of her brothers were murdered by government-aligned militias. While the Tamil Tigers are one of the few armed groups that prohibit sexual relations among their members, Ida was fated for an end of devastating sexual violence. After serving four years as a Tiger guerrilla, she decided to surrender to the government and go home. Assured by government security officers that no harm would come to her from the police or state-aligned forces, she returned. Within months, however, five masked men arrived early one morning at the family house. A neighbor who saw the men before putting on their masks identified them as government soldiers from a local army camp. The soldiers beat, gagged and tied Sebastiana, her other children and grandchildren, and dragged them to the courtyard in front of the house. They then turned to Ida. As the vicious assault on her daughter commenced only a few feet away, Sebastiana managed to free her hands and feet, and ran screaming to the local police station, begging the police to come and help. "We cannot come now," they replied calmly. "You need to go home." By the time Sebastiana returned home, her daughter was dead. An autopsy would show that she had been repeatedly raped, shot in the genitals and mutilated. Faced with the horrific murder of her third child, Sebastiana tells Briggs simply, "I have lost all faith in human beings." The five soldiers who carried out the assault have still not been brought to justice. ...
In his book Innocents Lost, Jimmie Briggs recounts picking up the New York Times one morning. Opening the newspaper, he was confronted by a disturbing image--a large photograph of a young Liberian kneeling and howling on a city street, his face contorted with rage as he pointed a gun at the photographer who had captured his image. This was no child's play: The gun was real--an automatic rifle almost as big as the boy himself. As Briggs remembers, however, "More chilling than the weapon he held was what he wore on his back: a pink teddy-bear backpack, a telling symbol of his lost youth." [see the photo at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4791597]
...
In Colombia, Briggs speaks to Gueso, a 16-year-old fighting with one of the government's paramilitary militias in Medellín, northwest of the country. By the age of 8, Gueso had already learned how to use his first weapon, a .38 pistol. Within hardly a year, he had killed his first victim: "I stabbed a guy in the neck," he boasts cheerfully to Briggs. Wired on cocaine and alcohol during the interview, he keeps saying to Briggs, "Sometimes I feel like killing." Like most of the children who join rebel or paramilitary forces in Colombia, Gueso became involved with the paramilitaries largely as a result of poverty, lack of education and unemployment. "I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid to die so young," he tells Briggs. "You can't think about the future here, because the future is a coffin." The tragedy is that for children like Gueso, the future is a coffin whether or not they become child soldiers.
...
In Sri Lanka, Briggs meets Sebastiana Figerardo, a widow and the mother of seven children, the youngest of whom was Ida, a girl who joined the Tamil Tigers at the age of 17 after two of her brothers were murdered by government-aligned militias. While the Tamil Tigers are one of the few armed groups that prohibit sexual relations among their members, Ida was fated for an end of devastating sexual violence. After serving four years as a Tiger guerrilla, she decided to surrender to the government and go home. Assured by government security officers that no harm would come to her from the police or state-aligned forces, she returned. Within months, however, five masked men arrived early one morning at the family house. A neighbor who saw the men before putting on their masks identified them as government soldiers from a local army camp. The soldiers beat, gagged and tied Sebastiana, her other children and grandchildren, and dragged them to the courtyard in front of the house. They then turned to Ida. As the vicious assault on her daughter commenced only a few feet away, Sebastiana managed to free her hands and feet, and ran screaming to the local police station, begging the police to come and help. "We cannot come now," they replied calmly. "You need to go home." By the time Sebastiana returned home, her daughter was dead. An autopsy would show that she had been repeatedly raped, shot in the genitals and mutilated. Faced with the horrific murder of her third child, Sebastiana tells Briggs simply, "I have lost all faith in human beings." The five soldiers who carried out the assault have still not been brought to justice. ...
Labels: war
E-Mails Reveal a Fallen Soldier's Story - U.S. News & World Report
[The entire piece is worth reading; here's an excerpt]
... Later in the day, the Iraqi police, who were family members of the destroyed body, began to drink heavily and one of them (Ali) started shooting randomly into the crowded traffic circle below the castle. We watched as he killed a 17 yr. old girl, a 7 yr. old girl and a 28 yr. old male. We could not intervene as this was happening for very complex reasons. This has been one of the most horrific days of my entire 34 yrs. of living on this earth ... I am stupefied and stand in tragic awe in the face of this carnage, what could I possibly say? Where was God today?
He often wrote about God in his E-mails home. He'd been a part-time pastor at a California Baptist church once, giving sermons on Wednesday nights. He'd knocked on the door of a church shortly after he met his wife in 1992. "I'd like to be saved," he'd said. In January, he asked his wife to send him a copy of the Koran, because he wanted to read about the Muslim faith. But in early March of this year, he told me that he'd stopped attending church. "I started studying philosophy and became an atheist," he said. "I'm still trying to contemplate God, but it is kind of hard here." Ten days later, on his birthday, he called home. "He was remarkably calm," recalled his father. "The things he has seen in war and the fact that he read so deeply in philosophical and theological issues led him to be often conflicted internally about God. He said that he reconciled his conflicts and that he was ready anytime God called him. Not the statement of an atheist."
...
[See also the sidebar links, including the link to a photo gallery]
[The entire piece is worth reading; here's an excerpt]
... Later in the day, the Iraqi police, who were family members of the destroyed body, began to drink heavily and one of them (Ali) started shooting randomly into the crowded traffic circle below the castle. We watched as he killed a 17 yr. old girl, a 7 yr. old girl and a 28 yr. old male. We could not intervene as this was happening for very complex reasons. This has been one of the most horrific days of my entire 34 yrs. of living on this earth ... I am stupefied and stand in tragic awe in the face of this carnage, what could I possibly say? Where was God today?
He often wrote about God in his E-mails home. He'd been a part-time pastor at a California Baptist church once, giving sermons on Wednesday nights. He'd knocked on the door of a church shortly after he met his wife in 1992. "I'd like to be saved," he'd said. In January, he asked his wife to send him a copy of the Koran, because he wanted to read about the Muslim faith. But in early March of this year, he told me that he'd stopped attending church. "I started studying philosophy and became an atheist," he said. "I'm still trying to contemplate God, but it is kind of hard here." Ten days later, on his birthday, he called home. "He was remarkably calm," recalled his father. "The things he has seen in war and the fact that he read so deeply in philosophical and theological issues led him to be often conflicted internally about God. He said that he reconciled his conflicts and that he was ready anytime God called him. Not the statement of an atheist."
...
[See also the sidebar links, including the link to a photo gallery]
Labels: war
Soccer team provides hope for refugees, coach - MSNBC.com
Players have escaped war, but not poverty and racism
... But the members of this soccer team, aptly named the Fugees, are anything but typical American teens. They have come to this small town on the outskirts of Atlanta to escape their war-torn homes in Afghanistan and Sudan and Bosnia. In a way, this soccer team, started by a young woman who once felt lost herself, provides an escape from the hardships that they now face as refugees starting over America.
...
“One kid on my team saw his dad shot to death. I’ve had another kid see his dad’s fingers cut off in front of him and then his shoulder slashed. Some of the moms have been raped. These kids, the rebels take them and they say, oh, you’re gonna be a soldier for us. And they give them drugs. They give them weapons. They’re giving them a bandana to identify which group they’re with. And they send them out to kill and you’re thinking about them and you’re like, how can — you know, how did — how did you survive that?”
...
While they are physically safe now, Luma knows that life in America poses its own challenges. Most of the kids’ parents have no education so the poverty at home is often crushing. They battle constant racisim on and off the field. Some of her players told Luma it feels as if they have exchanged one war for another.
...
In one game, Luma instructed her players to smile no matter what. The team obliged, even when the opposing coach got ejected for calling one of them the "n" word.
...
Luma has become more than just a coach to her players, who range in age from 9 to 17. She has become an advocate, fighting for better fields; she is a source of income, having started a cleaning business that employs six refugee women; and she is a pivotal figure in her players' attempts to integrate. She knows the soccer field may be their refuge, but the classroom is their future. So with the help of volunteers, she’s instituted tutoring sessions after each practice. ...
Players have escaped war, but not poverty and racism
... But the members of this soccer team, aptly named the Fugees, are anything but typical American teens. They have come to this small town on the outskirts of Atlanta to escape their war-torn homes in Afghanistan and Sudan and Bosnia. In a way, this soccer team, started by a young woman who once felt lost herself, provides an escape from the hardships that they now face as refugees starting over America.
...
“One kid on my team saw his dad shot to death. I’ve had another kid see his dad’s fingers cut off in front of him and then his shoulder slashed. Some of the moms have been raped. These kids, the rebels take them and they say, oh, you’re gonna be a soldier for us. And they give them drugs. They give them weapons. They’re giving them a bandana to identify which group they’re with. And they send them out to kill and you’re thinking about them and you’re like, how can — you know, how did — how did you survive that?”
...
While they are physically safe now, Luma knows that life in America poses its own challenges. Most of the kids’ parents have no education so the poverty at home is often crushing. They battle constant racisim on and off the field. Some of her players told Luma it feels as if they have exchanged one war for another.
...
In one game, Luma instructed her players to smile no matter what. The team obliged, even when the opposing coach got ejected for calling one of them the "n" word.
...
Luma has become more than just a coach to her players, who range in age from 9 to 17. She has become an advocate, fighting for better fields; she is a source of income, having started a cleaning business that employs six refugee women; and she is a pivotal figure in her players' attempts to integrate. She knows the soccer field may be their refuge, but the classroom is their future. So with the help of volunteers, she’s instituted tutoring sessions after each practice. ...
Labels: compassionate people, suffering
Anger and despair in Balochistan - BBC News
A cyclone has caused devastating floods in Pakistan's Balochistan, with 800,000 people hit and many thousands of homes destroyed.
The scene is one of total devastation.
Gushing flood waters from the Kech Kaur river ploughed through a vast area on both sides, levelling entire villages, chopping down date palms and destroying crops over thousands of acres.
"The floods came with a roar, and they were upon us before we knew," says Bijar Baloch.
As the dykes of the river gave way to the rising tide of water, Mr Baloch and around 30 others worked on in their date palm orchards near Solband village, believing they would be out of the area by the time the water reached their fields.
But a stream broke through from the hills on the other side, surrounding them completely. "Before they knew, the water was up to their knees and the roads had breached. The only way left was up - to the rooftop of a nearby mosque," says Mr Baloch.
They were rescued from there by a Pakistan Navy helicopter 38 hours later.
...
"Everything is lost. Our crops, our food stores, our irrigation system, our water wells," says Gulab Ahmad. "Our roads have turned to ditches and our villages have become riverbeds. I cannot even imagine how we are going to bring it back to life."
...
A cyclone has caused devastating floods in Pakistan's Balochistan, with 800,000 people hit and many thousands of homes destroyed.
The scene is one of total devastation.
Gushing flood waters from the Kech Kaur river ploughed through a vast area on both sides, levelling entire villages, chopping down date palms and destroying crops over thousands of acres.
"The floods came with a roar, and they were upon us before we knew," says Bijar Baloch.
As the dykes of the river gave way to the rising tide of water, Mr Baloch and around 30 others worked on in their date palm orchards near Solband village, believing they would be out of the area by the time the water reached their fields.
But a stream broke through from the hills on the other side, surrounding them completely. "Before they knew, the water was up to their knees and the roads had breached. The only way left was up - to the rooftop of a nearby mosque," says Mr Baloch.
They were rescued from there by a Pakistan Navy helicopter 38 hours later.
...
"Everything is lost. Our crops, our food stores, our irrigation system, our water wells," says Gulab Ahmad. "Our roads have turned to ditches and our villages have become riverbeds. I cannot even imagine how we are going to bring it back to life."
...
Labels: suffering
Bomber's end: Flash of terror, humble grave - International Herald Tribune
The two men had come to the common end of all human journeys. Their bodies, swathed in bloody white sheets, lay on a rocky hillside. Awaiting them were two thin rectangles of shallow graves. The city of Kabul was responsible for the burial. No mullah had been asked to preside over this earthly farewell.
"One of these guys needs a smaller hole," one gravedigger said, laughing.
The bigger of the bodies belonged to an old man, Khan Mir. His body had gone unclaimed, and the obligations of an Islamic funeral were forgone because he was a pauper. The identity of the other man was unknown. He was only half a body really, a headless torso with but a right arm and a right leg. His interment was meant to be ignominious because he was a suicide bomber, or yak enteher kunenda.
"Cover them with rocks and throw on the dirt," the chief gravedigger called out.
...
As the old pauper was lowered into the ground, Khwaja Nuruddin, representing the city's Culture Department, swiftly mumbled: "God is great. There is only one God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." But when the suicide bomber was laid to rest, only the insistent wind broke the silence.
Pieces of slate were positioned to cover the rectangular plots, with small rocks used to fill any gaps. Then the graves were sealed with mud that had been made by emptying a 10-gallon jug of water into a small pile of excavated soil.
With the work finally finished, Nuruddin brushed the dust from his gray business suit. He then paused to consider the situation and opted to recite a few Koranic verses, standing first by the suicide attacker's grave, then by the pauper's. ...
The two men had come to the common end of all human journeys. Their bodies, swathed in bloody white sheets, lay on a rocky hillside. Awaiting them were two thin rectangles of shallow graves. The city of Kabul was responsible for the burial. No mullah had been asked to preside over this earthly farewell.
"One of these guys needs a smaller hole," one gravedigger said, laughing.
The bigger of the bodies belonged to an old man, Khan Mir. His body had gone unclaimed, and the obligations of an Islamic funeral were forgone because he was a pauper. The identity of the other man was unknown. He was only half a body really, a headless torso with but a right arm and a right leg. His interment was meant to be ignominious because he was a suicide bomber, or yak enteher kunenda.
"Cover them with rocks and throw on the dirt," the chief gravedigger called out.
...
As the old pauper was lowered into the ground, Khwaja Nuruddin, representing the city's Culture Department, swiftly mumbled: "God is great. There is only one God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." But when the suicide bomber was laid to rest, only the insistent wind broke the silence.
Pieces of slate were positioned to cover the rectangular plots, with small rocks used to fill any gaps. Then the graves were sealed with mud that had been made by emptying a 10-gallon jug of water into a small pile of excavated soil.
With the work finally finished, Nuruddin brushed the dust from his gray business suit. He then paused to consider the situation and opted to recite a few Koranic verses, standing first by the suicide attacker's grave, then by the pauper's. ...
For Poor Families, an Added Burden of Too Many Pets - N.Y. Times
Phillip Swetman is an accidental owner of 13 dogs. Most, Mr. Swetman said, came from “drive-bys.” “They hear a dog bark and they throw theirs in the ditch,” he said. “Then for us, it’s either let them starve or get hit by a car, or take them in.”
Midnight dumping of unwanted dogs is common here on the southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains, where large numbers of poor people are attached to multiple pets but cannot afford to sterilize or vaccinate them, and where impoverished county governments do not maintain animal shelters, require licensing or enforce requirements for rabies shots.
...
“I’d do without food myself before they do,” Ms. Swetman said. But they say with some despair that veterinary care, which can run $100 a year per animal for vaccines and $100 or more for spaying or neutering, is far beyond their reach.
...
Alicia Swetman looked especially anguished because she learned that one of her puppies, the one with one blue eye and one brown eye, had a health problem that made surgery too dangerous. To Ms. Swetman’s relief, as the puppies were brought out, their tails wagging furiously at the reunion, Dr. Love said it was probably a curable worm infection.
“I’d happily give these two away to a good home, where they’d be loved,” Ms. Swetman said, not entirely convincingly, as she hugged the afflicted puppy.
Phillip Swetman is an accidental owner of 13 dogs. Most, Mr. Swetman said, came from “drive-bys.” “They hear a dog bark and they throw theirs in the ditch,” he said. “Then for us, it’s either let them starve or get hit by a car, or take them in.”
Midnight dumping of unwanted dogs is common here on the southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains, where large numbers of poor people are attached to multiple pets but cannot afford to sterilize or vaccinate them, and where impoverished county governments do not maintain animal shelters, require licensing or enforce requirements for rabies shots.
...
“I’d do without food myself before they do,” Ms. Swetman said. But they say with some despair that veterinary care, which can run $100 a year per animal for vaccines and $100 or more for spaying or neutering, is far beyond their reach.
...
Alicia Swetman looked especially anguished because she learned that one of her puppies, the one with one blue eye and one brown eye, had a health problem that made surgery too dangerous. To Ms. Swetman’s relief, as the puppies were brought out, their tails wagging furiously at the reunion, Dr. Love said it was probably a curable worm infection.
“I’d happily give these two away to a good home, where they’d be loved,” Ms. Swetman said, not entirely convincingly, as she hugged the afflicted puppy.
Labels: animals, compassionate people
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Patient testifies in rape case - Seattle P-I
Stroke victim unable to speak, paralyzed
A woman left unable to speak by a stroke told a King County jury Wednesday, by nodding and writing on a notepad, that a nursing assistant raped her as she lay paralyzed at a Seattle hospital last year.
Forming words slowly, her small print displayed on a monitor for jurors, the 32-year-old woman wrote that Lamin Darboe came into her room many times to rape or otherwise sexually abuse her.
...
The woman, a mother of four, was working as a car saleswoman when she suffered a rare type of stroke in May 2006. She remembers feeling dizzy and suddenly slurring her words before it paralyzed her. ...
Stroke victim unable to speak, paralyzed
A woman left unable to speak by a stroke told a King County jury Wednesday, by nodding and writing on a notepad, that a nursing assistant raped her as she lay paralyzed at a Seattle hospital last year.
Forming words slowly, her small print displayed on a monitor for jurors, the 32-year-old woman wrote that Lamin Darboe came into her room many times to rape or otherwise sexually abuse her.
...
The woman, a mother of four, was working as a car saleswoman when she suffered a rare type of stroke in May 2006. She remembers feeling dizzy and suddenly slurring her words before it paralyzed her. ...
Deportees' Bittersweet Homecoming - Washington Post
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Almost every day, another unmarked jet from Houston lands at the international airport in this Central American capital and disgorges a new batch of deportees from U.S. immigration custody.
...
"For me, it was definitely worth it," says Hidalgo Fuentes, 30, who quit his local factory job and was caught in May trying to reach Missouri on a cargo train. "Here, the best I can earn is about $30 a week. The last time I went north, I earned $500 a week washing dishes, and my family was able to build a house." Asked if he expects to try again, he just smiles.
...
They are waiting for Gladys's husband, Ramón, 34, who has been in New Orleans for three years. He worked as a house painter, sending home a steady stream of cash that helped them improve their three-room shack on a hillside outside the capital. But they missed him terribly, especially José Ramón, 9. For this family, the joy of reuniting is far more important than the loss of income.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Almost every day, another unmarked jet from Houston lands at the international airport in this Central American capital and disgorges a new batch of deportees from U.S. immigration custody.
...
"For me, it was definitely worth it," says Hidalgo Fuentes, 30, who quit his local factory job and was caught in May trying to reach Missouri on a cargo train. "Here, the best I can earn is about $30 a week. The last time I went north, I earned $500 a week washing dishes, and my family was able to build a house." Asked if he expects to try again, he just smiles.
...
They are waiting for Gladys's husband, Ramón, 34, who has been in New Orleans for three years. He worked as a house painter, sending home a steady stream of cash that helped them improve their three-room shack on a hillside outside the capital. But they missed him terribly, especially José Ramón, 9. For this family, the joy of reuniting is far more important than the loss of income.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Wounded soldiers a long-term legacy - A.P.
Staff Sgt. Lee Jones was riding in a Humvee when the blast from a roadside bomb enveloped the vehicle. He was badly burned on his face, hands, arms and feet, and he suffered a severe brain injury.
...
He suffered three strokes, seizures and several comas, and has a severe brain injury. One thumb had to be amputated, and he had many surgeries for burns that also damaged his nerves and caused muscle weakness, so now he must use a wheelchair.
...
If one thing could be better?
"My hands," he said, looking at the twisted, red masses of stiffened tissue that do not allow him to feed himself, shoot a basketball or hold his toddler daughter, Angel, born two months before he went to Iraq.
How does he cope?
Big smile. "Every day is a good day. Three died but me. Three died but me."
Staff Sgt. Lee Jones was riding in a Humvee when the blast from a roadside bomb enveloped the vehicle. He was badly burned on his face, hands, arms and feet, and he suffered a severe brain injury.
...
He suffered three strokes, seizures and several comas, and has a severe brain injury. One thumb had to be amputated, and he had many surgeries for burns that also damaged his nerves and caused muscle weakness, so now he must use a wheelchair.
...
If one thing could be better?
"My hands," he said, looking at the twisted, red masses of stiffened tissue that do not allow him to feed himself, shoot a basketball or hold his toddler daughter, Angel, born two months before he went to Iraq.
How does he cope?
Big smile. "Every day is a good day. Three died but me. Three died but me."
Labels: war
Family cares for a life nearly lost in Iraq - A.P.
He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain.
He is one of the most severely injured soldiers -- some think the most injured -- to survive.
...
In December 2003, he went home, to Manassas Park, Va., where his parents, Joseph Sr. and Eva, quit their jobs to care for him.
"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet. ... " my wife and I, we learned everything. We are the respiratory technician, we are the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists ... his wound care nurse," Joseph Briseno said.
"It's a lot of work and it's hard, and some days are harder than the other days. But we don't take this as a burden for us because he's our son. We will do everything for him."
The family has help from VA-provided nurses, but not around the clock. Jay's mother and father often do overnight duty, making sure their son is turned every four hours so he does not develop bedsores, which can become infected and threaten his life.
...
More recently, the Tampa staff tried to wean him from the respirator. This involved painstaking therapy to strengthen his diaphragm by placing weights on his belly and gradually increasing the air pressure on the machine to try to create resistance and muscle strength. So far, it hasn't worked. ...
He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain.
He is one of the most severely injured soldiers -- some think the most injured -- to survive.
...
In December 2003, he went home, to Manassas Park, Va., where his parents, Joseph Sr. and Eva, quit their jobs to care for him.
"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet. ... " my wife and I, we learned everything. We are the respiratory technician, we are the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists ... his wound care nurse," Joseph Briseno said.
"It's a lot of work and it's hard, and some days are harder than the other days. But we don't take this as a burden for us because he's our son. We will do everything for him."
The family has help from VA-provided nurses, but not around the clock. Jay's mother and father often do overnight duty, making sure their son is turned every four hours so he does not develop bedsores, which can become infected and threaten his life.
...
More recently, the Tampa staff tried to wean him from the respirator. This involved painstaking therapy to strengthen his diaphragm by placing weights on his belly and gradually increasing the air pressure on the machine to try to create resistance and muscle strength. So far, it hasn't worked. ...
Labels: war
Iraqi Youth Face Lasting Scars of War - Washington Post
Conflict's Psychological Impact on Children Is Immense, Experts Say
Marwa Hussein watched as gunmen stormed into her home and executed her parents. Afterward, her uncle brought her to the Alwiya Orphanage, a high-walled compound nestled in central Baghdad with a concrete yard for a playground. That was more than two years ago, and for 13-year-old Marwa, shy and thin with walnut-colored eyes and long brown hair, the memory of her parents' last moments is always with her.
"They were killed," she said, her voice trailing away as she sat on her narrow bed with pink sheets. Tears started to slide down her face. As social worker Maysoon Tahsin comforted her, other orphans in the room, where 12 girls sleep, watched solemnly.
...
Today, toy weapons are among the best-selling items in local markets, and kids play among armored vehicles on streets where pickup trucks filled with masked gunmen are a common sight. On a recent day, a group of children was playing near a camouflage-colored Iraqi Humvee parked in Baghdad's upscale Karrada neighborhood. One boy clutched a thick stick and placed it on his right shoulder, as if he were handling a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He aimed it at cars passing by, pretending to blow them up. Two soldiers pointed at the children and laughed. ...
On this morning, 4-year-old Muhammad Amar had a blank look on his soft, round face framed with curls of black hair. When mortar shells pummeled his street seven months ago, he was too terrified to cry. "He remained still, in shock. He froze," said his father, Amar Jabur, standing in the sunlit courtyard of Ibn Rushed. Muhammad is showing signs of epilepsy and had a mild seizure the night before.
Abdul Muhsin said he believes there could be a link between the explosions and the seizure, and recommended a brain scan to rule out other causes. At the very least, he said, the violence worsened the child's condition. ...
Conflict's Psychological Impact on Children Is Immense, Experts Say
Marwa Hussein watched as gunmen stormed into her home and executed her parents. Afterward, her uncle brought her to the Alwiya Orphanage, a high-walled compound nestled in central Baghdad with a concrete yard for a playground. That was more than two years ago, and for 13-year-old Marwa, shy and thin with walnut-colored eyes and long brown hair, the memory of her parents' last moments is always with her.
"They were killed," she said, her voice trailing away as she sat on her narrow bed with pink sheets. Tears started to slide down her face. As social worker Maysoon Tahsin comforted her, other orphans in the room, where 12 girls sleep, watched solemnly.
...
Today, toy weapons are among the best-selling items in local markets, and kids play among armored vehicles on streets where pickup trucks filled with masked gunmen are a common sight. On a recent day, a group of children was playing near a camouflage-colored Iraqi Humvee parked in Baghdad's upscale Karrada neighborhood. One boy clutched a thick stick and placed it on his right shoulder, as if he were handling a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He aimed it at cars passing by, pretending to blow them up. Two soldiers pointed at the children and laughed. ...
On this morning, 4-year-old Muhammad Amar had a blank look on his soft, round face framed with curls of black hair. When mortar shells pummeled his street seven months ago, he was too terrified to cry. "He remained still, in shock. He froze," said his father, Amar Jabur, standing in the sunlit courtyard of Ibn Rushed. Muhammad is showing signs of epilepsy and had a mild seizure the night before.
Abdul Muhsin said he believes there could be a link between the explosions and the seizure, and recommended a brain scan to rule out other causes. At the very least, he said, the violence worsened the child's condition. ...
Labels: war
Man killed while chasing dog on interstate - Seattle P-I
A Longview man chasing his dog on Interstate 5 in Thurston County was killed by an oncoming car Saturday night.
The dog, which escaped from his owner's pickup truck, also was struck and died, the Washington State Patrol reported.
The deaths occurred around 11:10 p.m. at Mile Post 86 after John Tunison's 1998 GMC truck broke down. A trooper contacted the 49-year-old on I-5 and noticed that his dog was trying to get out of the truck's window.
The trooper warned Tunison that his dog could run into traffic and cause an accident, the State Patrol reported. The dog escaped, and Tunison tried to catch it.
A 66-year-old Rochester man was driving northbound in a 1989 Honda Accord when that vehicle hit Tunison and his dog, the State Patrol reported. [end]
A Longview man chasing his dog on Interstate 5 in Thurston County was killed by an oncoming car Saturday night.
The dog, which escaped from his owner's pickup truck, also was struck and died, the Washington State Patrol reported.
The deaths occurred around 11:10 p.m. at Mile Post 86 after John Tunison's 1998 GMC truck broke down. A trooper contacted the 49-year-old on I-5 and noticed that his dog was trying to get out of the truck's window.
The trooper warned Tunison that his dog could run into traffic and cause an accident, the State Patrol reported. The dog escaped, and Tunison tried to catch it.
A 66-year-old Rochester man was driving northbound in a 1989 Honda Accord when that vehicle hit Tunison and his dog, the State Patrol reported. [end]
Trapped fisherman cuts off fingertips to free himself - Seattle P-I
Help arrives minutes later
With his left hand stuck between a boat and a downed alder tree, William Messenger thought he was out of time, about to die in the frigid Wynoochee River. In a life-saving attempt, the fisherman grabbed a pocketknife and cut off his own two fingertips to escape the sinking drift-boat.
...
Messenger obviously felt trapped being in the sinking boat for at least 15 minutes, Vestal said, but police said he might have been able to survive without cutting his fingers off.
"Hindsight is 20-20. If he'd have known help was not that far away, he might have held off taking the steps that he did," said Rick Scott, Grays Harbor County undersheriff. "It's one thing to think about doing that, but it's another to actually execute the plan."
With the fingers on ice, Messenger was rushed to Harborview Medical Center where doctors attempted to reattach them Monday. ...
Help arrives minutes later
With his left hand stuck between a boat and a downed alder tree, William Messenger thought he was out of time, about to die in the frigid Wynoochee River. In a life-saving attempt, the fisherman grabbed a pocketknife and cut off his own two fingertips to escape the sinking drift-boat.
...
Messenger obviously felt trapped being in the sinking boat for at least 15 minutes, Vestal said, but police said he might have been able to survive without cutting his fingers off.
"Hindsight is 20-20. If he'd have known help was not that far away, he might have held off taking the steps that he did," said Rick Scott, Grays Harbor County undersheriff. "It's one thing to think about doing that, but it's another to actually execute the plan."
With the fingers on ice, Messenger was rushed to Harborview Medical Center where doctors attempted to reattach them Monday. ...
Labels: karma
Darrington teen with rare aging disorder dies - Seattle P-I
Seth Cook, who lived in Darrington and captured hearts all over the world, died Monday at his home with his family around him. He was 13 years old and had recently suffered a heart attack as a consequence of progeria, a rare disorder that causes accelerated aging.
...
Seth had friends all over the world, including other children with progeria. Many were charmed by his practical jokes and quick wit. But his courage, kindness and sense of humor also moved many who knew him only through stories and network broadcasts about him.
"He broke my heart, and then mended it, all at one time," wrote one reader after an account of his life appeared in the Seattle P-I in September 2004.
...
An avid reader, he continued reading to kindergartners at Darrington Elementary until he had a stroke in August. At home, he was in the middle of listening to "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis, one of his favorite authors.
The family is taking comfort in their faith. "Our angel boy has gone home, but, Jesus has given us the hope that we will see him again," his mother said.
"Anyone coming in contact with Seth was always amazed, and totally taken with him and what a beautiful and wonderful person he was ... so full of faith, loving, caring, funny and just living life to the fullest," said a cousin, Leila Booker, in an e-mail. ...
Seth Cook, who lived in Darrington and captured hearts all over the world, died Monday at his home with his family around him. He was 13 years old and had recently suffered a heart attack as a consequence of progeria, a rare disorder that causes accelerated aging.
...
Seth had friends all over the world, including other children with progeria. Many were charmed by his practical jokes and quick wit. But his courage, kindness and sense of humor also moved many who knew him only through stories and network broadcasts about him.
"He broke my heart, and then mended it, all at one time," wrote one reader after an account of his life appeared in the Seattle P-I in September 2004.
...
An avid reader, he continued reading to kindergartners at Darrington Elementary until he had a stroke in August. At home, he was in the middle of listening to "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis, one of his favorite authors.
The family is taking comfort in their faith. "Our angel boy has gone home, but, Jesus has given us the hope that we will see him again," his mother said.
"Anyone coming in contact with Seth was always amazed, and totally taken with him and what a beautiful and wonderful person he was ... so full of faith, loving, caring, funny and just living life to the fullest," said a cousin, Leila Booker, in an e-mail. ...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Singles File: Public displays of sex mean it must be summer - Seattle P-I
... Ask any Washington State Patrol officer and they'll tell you Interstate 90 is not the place to have sex -- at least not if you're having it while barreling down the highway in a sport utility vehicle. But the naked Seattle couple pulled over last week in flagrante dedrunko weren't the only ones to get caught, um, coupling in an unusual location.
Two weeks earlier, in the unfortunately named town of Punta Gorda (i.e. "fat end"), Fla., another naked duo was spotted having sex at the top of a 100-foot-tall construction crane ...
...
Looks like e-mail and voice mail rejection services are on the rise, with more and more companies offering singles the chance to avoid those nasty F2F (i.e. fact-to-face) confrontations by dumping their dates digitally.
BreakingUpIsEasyToDo.com offers two voice mail options: a Breakup Butler, who delivers a gentle letdown in an elegant British accent ("My feelings have changed and I'm no longer capable of giving you what you want and deserve") and the self-explanatory Breakup Bitch, who delivers her thrall-busting message amid a tirade of insults such as "I'd rather suffer a paper cut to the eyeball than spend one more day with you."
...
Sophie Calle, a French artist known for her unconventional work, turned her private rejection into a public display -- literally -- by asking 107 women to analyze and interpret the "I feel like sleeping with other women, it's over" e-mail she got from her boyfriend, using their responses to create an art installation titled "Take Care of Yourself" (the writer's parting words).
Included within the show are a gigantic blowup of the guy's note with all his diction and grammar errors blue-penciled by a copy editor, an analysis of his personality by a forensic psychiatrist ("a true, twisted manipulator ... to be avoided categorically"), and a critique of the ex-boyfriend's manners by a famous etiquette consultant who specializes in savoir-vivre (her conclusion: He has none).
The rejection letter was translated into Latin, Braille, Morse code, bar code and shorthand, and transformed into everything from a fairy tale to an opera to a crossword puzzle. ...
... Ask any Washington State Patrol officer and they'll tell you Interstate 90 is not the place to have sex -- at least not if you're having it while barreling down the highway in a sport utility vehicle. But the naked Seattle couple pulled over last week in flagrante dedrunko weren't the only ones to get caught, um, coupling in an unusual location.
Two weeks earlier, in the unfortunately named town of Punta Gorda (i.e. "fat end"), Fla., another naked duo was spotted having sex at the top of a 100-foot-tall construction crane ...
...
Looks like e-mail and voice mail rejection services are on the rise, with more and more companies offering singles the chance to avoid those nasty F2F (i.e. fact-to-face) confrontations by dumping their dates digitally.
BreakingUpIsEasyToDo.com offers two voice mail options: a Breakup Butler, who delivers a gentle letdown in an elegant British accent ("My feelings have changed and I'm no longer capable of giving you what you want and deserve") and the self-explanatory Breakup Bitch, who delivers her thrall-busting message amid a tirade of insults such as "I'd rather suffer a paper cut to the eyeball than spend one more day with you."
...
Sophie Calle, a French artist known for her unconventional work, turned her private rejection into a public display -- literally -- by asking 107 women to analyze and interpret the "I feel like sleeping with other women, it's over" e-mail she got from her boyfriend, using their responses to create an art installation titled "Take Care of Yourself" (the writer's parting words).
Included within the show are a gigantic blowup of the guy's note with all his diction and grammar errors blue-penciled by a copy editor, an analysis of his personality by a forensic psychiatrist ("a true, twisted manipulator ... to be avoided categorically"), and a critique of the ex-boyfriend's manners by a famous etiquette consultant who specializes in savoir-vivre (her conclusion: He has none).
The rejection letter was translated into Latin, Braille, Morse code, bar code and shorthand, and transformed into everything from a fairy tale to an opera to a crossword puzzle. ...
Labels: attachment
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
'We' the 2-headed snake's long odd life ends - A.P.
It died of natural causes at age 8; others like it live about a week or two
A two-headed snake named “We,” the main attraction at the World Aquarium, has died. ...
Children were especially fascinated by the snake, wondering how two heads could coexist on the same body as We sometimes strained to slither in two directions at once. ...
It died of natural causes at age 8; others like it live about a week or two
A two-headed snake named “We,” the main attraction at the World Aquarium, has died. ...
Children were especially fascinated by the snake, wondering how two heads could coexist on the same body as We sometimes strained to slither in two directions at once. ...
Labels: animals
US crowd beats passenger to death - BBC News
An angry Texas crowd has beaten and killed a 40-year-old car passenger after a driver injured a young girl near the site of a busy local festival. Police said the driver of the car stopped to check on the health of the girl, said to be aged three or four.
But when the passenger got out to see how she was, he was set upon by a group of up to 20 people before being left lying in a car park, police said.
The girl was hit at low speed and was not seriously injured. ...
An angry Texas crowd has beaten and killed a 40-year-old car passenger after a driver injured a young girl near the site of a busy local festival. Police said the driver of the car stopped to check on the health of the girl, said to be aged three or four.
But when the passenger got out to see how she was, he was set upon by a group of up to 20 people before being left lying in a car park, police said.
The girl was hit at low speed and was not seriously injured. ...
Labels: anger
In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind - N.Y. Times
The lesson began with the striking of a Tibetan singing bowl to induce mindful awareness.
With the sound of their new school bell, the fifth graders at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School here closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, as they tried to imagine “loving kindness” on the playground.
“I was losing at baseball and I was about to throw a bat,” Alex Menton, 11, reported to his classmates the next day. “The mindfulness really helped.”
As summer looms, students at dozens of schools across the country are trying hard to be in the present moment. This is what is known as mindfulness training, in which stress-reducing techniques drawn from Buddhist meditation are wedged between reading and spelling tests.
...
... students in Ms. Graham’s fifth-grade class tried to pay attention to their breath, a calming technique that lasted 20 seconds. Then their coach asked them to “cultivate compassion” by reflecting on their emotions before lashing out at someone on the playground.
Tyran Williams defined mindfulness as “not hitting someone in the mouth.”
“He doesn’t know what to do with his energy,” his mother, Towana Thomas, said at a session for parents. “But one day after school he told me, ‘I’m taking a moment.’ If it works in a child’s mind — with so much going on — there must be something to it.”
The lesson began with the striking of a Tibetan singing bowl to induce mindful awareness.
With the sound of their new school bell, the fifth graders at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School here closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, as they tried to imagine “loving kindness” on the playground.
“I was losing at baseball and I was about to throw a bat,” Alex Menton, 11, reported to his classmates the next day. “The mindfulness really helped.”
As summer looms, students at dozens of schools across the country are trying hard to be in the present moment. This is what is known as mindfulness training, in which stress-reducing techniques drawn from Buddhist meditation are wedged between reading and spelling tests.
...
... students in Ms. Graham’s fifth-grade class tried to pay attention to their breath, a calming technique that lasted 20 seconds. Then their coach asked them to “cultivate compassion” by reflecting on their emotions before lashing out at someone on the playground.
Tyran Williams defined mindfulness as “not hitting someone in the mouth.”
“He doesn’t know what to do with his energy,” his mother, Towana Thomas, said at a session for parents. “But one day after school he told me, ‘I’m taking a moment.’ If it works in a child’s mind — with so much going on — there must be something to it.”
We need to hear more voices of reason on the air and Peaceful Muslims? Two sides speak up loudly - 2 related pieces by Susan Paytner, Seattle P-I columnist
... I had also rented the movie "Bobby." It ends with an eerily timely speech made in Cleveland by Robert F. Kennedy the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and just two months before Kennedy was shot down.
"This is the violence that ... poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors," RFK said. "When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ threaten your freedom or your job or family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies. ...
" We learn to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city but not a community ... Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become, in our own hearts, brothers and countrymen once again."
Now that's the kind of aspiring and inspiring eloquence none of our ears often hear on the radio or anywhere else in these fear-fueled days.
***
... Lines in the column about brotherhood versus fear from a speech by Bobby Kennedy just before his death hit Hugh Remash as silly. Hugh has one brother, and he lives in New Hampshire. He does "not consider the fellow walking down the street my brother." ...
... I had also rented the movie "Bobby." It ends with an eerily timely speech made in Cleveland by Robert F. Kennedy the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and just two months before Kennedy was shot down.
"This is the violence that ... poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors," RFK said. "When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ threaten your freedom or your job or family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies. ...
" We learn to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city but not a community ... Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become, in our own hearts, brothers and countrymen once again."
Now that's the kind of aspiring and inspiring eloquence none of our ears often hear on the radio or anywhere else in these fear-fueled days.
***
... Lines in the column about brotherhood versus fear from a speech by Bobby Kennedy just before his death hit Hugh Remash as silly. Hugh has one brother, and he lives in New Hampshire. He does "not consider the fellow walking down the street my brother." ...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
School of second chances puts troubled kids at head of the class - Seattle P-I
Interagency Academy a place where every student fights the odds to graduate
... The first thing students see as they arrive at the University District Youth Center School in the morning is teacher Mike McCann's welcoming smile.
One by one, the alienated, the angry, the scared file through the door. McCann offers a simple "hello" and a handshake to each. He's not the only one: Colleagues Kevin Geloff and Richard King also stop to greet students.
They make sure to look each student in the eye, and the meaning is clear: I notice you. I care that you're here.
"It's this corny little routine," McCann admits. "But I love it."
Interagency teachers' jobs are about more than just academics. At times they may serve as a counselor, mentor, nurse, drill sergeant, social worker, confidante.
In one 10-minute stretch, Frye may have to get a student started on his PowerPoint project, withdraw grant money for an expectant mother to buy maternity clothes, help a girl brainstorm senior project ideas and help another absent-minded student find his graduation tickets.
Teachers connect students with case managers and counseling, help them land a job or an internship, provide access to a food and clothing bank, or guide them through the state's labyrinth of social services.
They know personal, sometimes intimate details of each student's life: whose father is doing time for gang-related crimes, or which girl is afraid to go home to her verbally abusive mother.
Sometimes, the hardest part is listening without judging.
"You have to be neutral about everything," Frye says, a touch ruefully. "You can't share your personal opinion or beliefs. Your role is guiding them to a decision that will work for them."
...
[See also the associated profiles of 3 of the students.]
Interagency Academy a place where every student fights the odds to graduate
... The first thing students see as they arrive at the University District Youth Center School in the morning is teacher Mike McCann's welcoming smile.
One by one, the alienated, the angry, the scared file through the door. McCann offers a simple "hello" and a handshake to each. He's not the only one: Colleagues Kevin Geloff and Richard King also stop to greet students.
They make sure to look each student in the eye, and the meaning is clear: I notice you. I care that you're here.
"It's this corny little routine," McCann admits. "But I love it."
Interagency teachers' jobs are about more than just academics. At times they may serve as a counselor, mentor, nurse, drill sergeant, social worker, confidante.
In one 10-minute stretch, Frye may have to get a student started on his PowerPoint project, withdraw grant money for an expectant mother to buy maternity clothes, help a girl brainstorm senior project ideas and help another absent-minded student find his graduation tickets.
Teachers connect students with case managers and counseling, help them land a job or an internship, provide access to a food and clothing bank, or guide them through the state's labyrinth of social services.
They know personal, sometimes intimate details of each student's life: whose father is doing time for gang-related crimes, or which girl is afraid to go home to her verbally abusive mother.
Sometimes, the hardest part is listening without judging.
"You have to be neutral about everything," Frye says, a touch ruefully. "You can't share your personal opinion or beliefs. Your role is guiding them to a decision that will work for them."
...
[See also the associated profiles of 3 of the students.]
Labels: compassionate people
Friday, June 15, 2007
Why was body left in a tub for three days? - Robert Jamieson, P-I columnist
The story of the lady in the bathtub remains a mystery in which the circumstances of her death -- left alone in a tub full of cold water -- are as hazy as her life.
She is 47-year-old Phyllis Buchert, authorities told me Monday. She departed this world in late May in a way that evokes an ineffable sadness, and makes a city shake its head at the limits of human caring.
Shouldn't the man who invited her to his Lake City apartment have done something more when he found her not moving and unresponsive?
Police said instead he downed booze and ignored her in the tub for three long days. Detectives have interviewed the man -- a Seattle construction worker who invited the woman to his home after they met at a bus stop. ...
The story of the lady in the bathtub remains a mystery in which the circumstances of her death -- left alone in a tub full of cold water -- are as hazy as her life.
She is 47-year-old Phyllis Buchert, authorities told me Monday. She departed this world in late May in a way that evokes an ineffable sadness, and makes a city shake its head at the limits of human caring.
Shouldn't the man who invited her to his Lake City apartment have done something more when he found her not moving and unresponsive?
Police said instead he downed booze and ignored her in the tub for three long days. Detectives have interviewed the man -- a Seattle construction worker who invited the woman to his home after they met at a bus stop. ...
4 survive being swept into cave - Seattle P-I
... The five-member hiking group recounted their survival Thursday, expressing gratitude to rescuers, giving thanks and thinking about luck and fate.
The wave could have pulled them to sea, several said. They could have drowned had they been wearing their packs. Hypothermia could have overtaken them.
"You have to assume that somebody was looking over us," said Neil Peterson, 63, who started the Flexcar program in Seattle and is a former transit official.
The group had encountered what is called a surge channel -- a narrow gully where the force of waves rushing in and out is amplified as water is forced into the channel, smashing against the rocks and anything that floats. When the water sweeps back out, it sucks debris, logs, dropped backpacks -- even humans -- out to sea. ...
... The five-member hiking group recounted their survival Thursday, expressing gratitude to rescuers, giving thanks and thinking about luck and fate.
The wave could have pulled them to sea, several said. They could have drowned had they been wearing their packs. Hypothermia could have overtaken them.
"You have to assume that somebody was looking over us," said Neil Peterson, 63, who started the Flexcar program in Seattle and is a former transit official.
The group had encountered what is called a surge channel -- a narrow gully where the force of waves rushing in and out is amplified as water is forced into the channel, smashing against the rocks and anything that floats. When the water sweeps back out, it sucks debris, logs, dropped backpacks -- even humans -- out to sea. ...
Labels: karma
If only we could save them - Timothy Egan, guest columnist for the P-I
Two years ago, I drove to the town where I grew up to bury a boy I knew well enough to love but not enough to help. He was 17, my nephew, dead from a shotgun blast to the head fired by an acquaintance.
...
You put a young man in the ground on a spring day and it changes you forever. I came home feeling like I would never let my own children out of the house again. I came home convinced there was something toxic about our age and theirs -- a collision of trash culture and children in adult bodies.
...
A teenager in Wyoming is four times more likely to die of a traffic accident than a teenager in Washington, D.C. Seven of the top 10 areas in the country for underage binge drinking are in the West.
Growing up in Spokane, the biggest little city in Idaho, Montana and Eastern Washington, I was immortal -- especially when driving on a dirt road at the edge of town. And then I lost my two best friends to the kind of careless hubris that was the mark of those Saturday nights -- to two separate car accidents. ...
Two years ago, I drove to the town where I grew up to bury a boy I knew well enough to love but not enough to help. He was 17, my nephew, dead from a shotgun blast to the head fired by an acquaintance.
...
You put a young man in the ground on a spring day and it changes you forever. I came home feeling like I would never let my own children out of the house again. I came home convinced there was something toxic about our age and theirs -- a collision of trash culture and children in adult bodies.
...
A teenager in Wyoming is four times more likely to die of a traffic accident than a teenager in Washington, D.C. Seven of the top 10 areas in the country for underage binge drinking are in the West.
Growing up in Spokane, the biggest little city in Idaho, Montana and Eastern Washington, I was immortal -- especially when driving on a dirt road at the edge of town. And then I lost my two best friends to the kind of careless hubris that was the mark of those Saturday nights -- to two separate car accidents. ...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Group pays more than $3,000 to liberate 300 lobsters - A.P.
Three hundred lobsters have a new lease on life thanks to an anonymous group that secured their release in Maine. The episode unfolded in the midst of a lobster shortage and record prices when a group of young people arrived at New Meadows Lobster Pound declaring that lobsters are "God's creatures" and deserved a shot at freedom, said owner Pete McAleney.
...
"We told them they're going to get caught again and they said, 'That's OK. We just want them to have a chance before they get caught again,'" McAleney said. "
...
One group that claims no credit is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"We never encourage people to give money to the lobster industry, even if it's for the laudable goal of releasing them," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's national vice president. ...
Three hundred lobsters have a new lease on life thanks to an anonymous group that secured their release in Maine. The episode unfolded in the midst of a lobster shortage and record prices when a group of young people arrived at New Meadows Lobster Pound declaring that lobsters are "God's creatures" and deserved a shot at freedom, said owner Pete McAleney.
...
"We told them they're going to get caught again and they said, 'That's OK. We just want them to have a chance before they get caught again,'" McAleney said. "
...
One group that claims no credit is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"We never encourage people to give money to the lobster industry, even if it's for the laudable goal of releasing them," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's national vice president. ...
Labels: animals
Afghan Mothers Use Opium As Surrogate Medicine - Der Spiegel
More and more people in Afghanistan are using opium as a painkiller due to a severe lack of medical supplies in the country. Some mothers are even giving it to their children, much to the concern of the UN.
...
Many of them take opium without knowing about its dangers, smoking the brownish-black substance through a hookah, because there is no medication in the villages. Opium contains morphine, which initially acts as a painkiller. It also contains codeine which suppresses coughs -- something which almost everyone in the valleys, especially children, suffer from due to the harsh winters.
...
Opium consumption has tended to be the exception in Afghanistan until today, despite the fact that the country is the world's leading opium producer, with an output of 6,100 tons last year. The use of intoxicants is prohibited to the deeply religious Afghans, as decreed in the holy Koran. ...
But now, with a series of record harvests, more and more Afghans are falling prey to the drug. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that a million people between the Hindu Kush mountains and the deserts of southern Afghanistan have now become addicted to opium. ...
More and more people in Afghanistan are using opium as a painkiller due to a severe lack of medical supplies in the country. Some mothers are even giving it to their children, much to the concern of the UN.
...
Many of them take opium without knowing about its dangers, smoking the brownish-black substance through a hookah, because there is no medication in the villages. Opium contains morphine, which initially acts as a painkiller. It also contains codeine which suppresses coughs -- something which almost everyone in the valleys, especially children, suffer from due to the harsh winters.
...
Opium consumption has tended to be the exception in Afghanistan until today, despite the fact that the country is the world's leading opium producer, with an output of 6,100 tons last year. The use of intoxicants is prohibited to the deeply religious Afghans, as decreed in the holy Koran. ...
But now, with a series of record harvests, more and more Afghans are falling prey to the drug. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that a million people between the Hindu Kush mountains and the deserts of southern Afghanistan have now become addicted to opium. ...
Labels: suffering
Missing Doctor Lay Dead in Garage for 22 Years - Der Spiegel
A doctor who went missing 22 years ago has been found dead in the loft of his garage after apparently committing suicide in 1985. His wife and daughter were unaware they were living meters away from his corpse.
...
The man's skeleton was found last Monday by workers repairing the garage roof. There were some farewell notes and a bottle of Schnapps next to him. The body was wrapped in a blanket. ...
A doctor who went missing 22 years ago has been found dead in the loft of his garage after apparently committing suicide in 1985. His wife and daughter were unaware they were living meters away from his corpse.
...
The man's skeleton was found last Monday by workers repairing the garage roof. There were some farewell notes and a bottle of Schnapps next to him. The body was wrapped in a blanket. ...
Suicide Sparks Poison Scare - Der Spiegel
A 48-year-old man has killed himself by spreading a powerful communist-era pesticide in his flat and breathing in the fumes. However he may unwittingly have poisoned his neighbors and several emergency workers too.
...
The 48-year-old man used an old granulated phospate-based pesticide, manufactured in East Germany during the communist era for forestry purposes, to kill himself in his flat in a multi-story apartment block in the eastern town of Marienberg.
A 48-year-old man has killed himself by spreading a powerful communist-era pesticide in his flat and breathing in the fumes. However he may unwittingly have poisoned his neighbors and several emergency workers too.
...
The 48-year-old man used an old granulated phospate-based pesticide, manufactured in East Germany during the communist era for forestry purposes, to kill himself in his flat in a multi-story apartment block in the eastern town of Marienberg.
Labels: suicide
Toddler in Limbo Over U.S. Immigration - A.P.
It never occurred to Abdeloihab Boujrad that the U.S. government may be confusing his 3-year-old son with the former leader of an Islamic militant group.
But that's exactly what a civil rights group believes is blocking Boujrad, a U.S. citizen, from bringing the toddler from Morocco to live with him and his wife, a legal permanent resident.
Boujrad has fought unsuccessfully for more than two years to have his son join him, and the U.S. government has never explained why it has not taken action on his son's immigration application.
The boy's first name, Ahmedyassine, resembles the name of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. ...
It never occurred to Abdeloihab Boujrad that the U.S. government may be confusing his 3-year-old son with the former leader of an Islamic militant group.
But that's exactly what a civil rights group believes is blocking Boujrad, a U.S. citizen, from bringing the toddler from Morocco to live with him and his wife, a legal permanent resident.
Boujrad has fought unsuccessfully for more than two years to have his son join him, and the U.S. government has never explained why it has not taken action on his son's immigration application.
The boy's first name, Ahmedyassine, resembles the name of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004. ...
Photo gallery: Portraits of Alzheimer's patients and the family members who care for them - Newsweek
... John Hummel, 50, lifts his mother, Virginia, 91, in their St. Louis apartment. Hummel quit his job as an auto mechanic and moved in with his mother because he believed that the nursing home where she had been living was neglectful. He says that he does not regret his decision. He is his mother's only child and remembers how she left her career when he was born. 'It's time I do that and take care of her. I feel turnaround is fair play,' he says. ...
... John Hummel, 50, lifts his mother, Virginia, 91, in their St. Louis apartment. Hummel quit his job as an auto mechanic and moved in with his mother because he believed that the nursing home where she had been living was neglectful. He says that he does not regret his decision. He is his mother's only child and remembers how she left her career when he was born. 'It's time I do that and take care of her. I feel turnaround is fair play,' he says. ...
Labels: compassionate people, sickness, suffering
Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses to help - A.P.
Tapes show operators ignored pleas to send ambulance to L.A. hospital
A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.
Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9 at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Relatives said Rodriguez was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes while she was at a hospital waiting area. Experts have said she could have survived had she been treated early enough.
... Relatives reported she died as police were wheeling her out of the hospital after the officers they had asked to help Rodriguez arrested her instead on a parole violation. ...
Tapes show operators ignored pleas to send ambulance to L.A. hospital
A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.
Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9 at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Relatives said Rodriguez was bleeding from the mouth and writhing in pain for 45 minutes while she was at a hospital waiting area. Experts have said she could have survived had she been treated early enough.
... Relatives reported she died as police were wheeling her out of the hospital after the officers they had asked to help Rodriguez arrested her instead on a parole violation. ...
Labels: suffering
Beer for flooded Australian town - BBC News
A flood-isolated Australian town was in danger of running out of beer this week until emergency volunteers came to their rescue.
Residents of Hinton, New South Wales, were stranded following the severe storms that hit the region on Sunday.
There was concern that their pub would run dry before a rugby league match which was due to be played between New South Wales and Queensland.
But the State Emergency Services boated in a huge beer delivery just in time. ...
A flood-isolated Australian town was in danger of running out of beer this week until emergency volunteers came to their rescue.
Residents of Hinton, New South Wales, were stranded following the severe storms that hit the region on Sunday.
There was concern that their pub would run dry before a rugby league match which was due to be played between New South Wales and Queensland.
But the State Emergency Services boated in a huge beer delivery just in time. ...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Boyfriend: family's 'dark side' took Banaz away - Telegraph (UK)
The boyfriend of honour killing victim Banaz Mahmod says police failed to take the threat to his girlfriend's life seriously, and he has been left "heartbroken" by her death.
Rahmat Sulemani said his dreams of their future together had been crushed by her father and uncle, who were today convicted of her murder.
...
"I hope that police are going to take this more seriously now because it is a serious thing and it is happening every day in Britain. We just can't accept that here in modern society."
Miss Mahmod's father, Mahmod, and uncle Ari Mahmod, hatched a plot to kill the couple because they believed Rahmat was an unsuitable boyfriend.
Mr Sulemani said he tried to convince Mahmod to let them marry after their relationship was discovered, but the couple was told "it was never going to happen".
The pair were then subjected to threats and violence, with Banaz locked up in a relative's house for two weeks and beaten. ...
The boyfriend of honour killing victim Banaz Mahmod says police failed to take the threat to his girlfriend's life seriously, and he has been left "heartbroken" by her death.
Rahmat Sulemani said his dreams of their future together had been crushed by her father and uncle, who were today convicted of her murder.
...
"I hope that police are going to take this more seriously now because it is a serious thing and it is happening every day in Britain. We just can't accept that here in modern society."
Miss Mahmod's father, Mahmod, and uncle Ari Mahmod, hatched a plot to kill the couple because they believed Rahmat was an unsuitable boyfriend.
Mr Sulemani said he tried to convince Mahmod to let them marry after their relationship was discovered, but the couple was told "it was never going to happen".
The pair were then subjected to threats and violence, with Banaz locked up in a relative's house for two weeks and beaten. ...
US military pondered love not war - BBC News
The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.
...
The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale. ...
The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.
...
The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale. ...
Labels: war
Amid the Chaos of War, Gifts of Music - Washington Post
Thanks to Couple's Efforts, Troops in Iraq Get Instruments
... And that is how Sgt. Jason Low received an acoustic guitar from Steve Baker, a Vietnam veteran of modest means and powerful purpose. Baker and his wife, Barb, run Fergus Music, a shop here in a rural patch of Minnesota not far from the North Dakota line. Together, they have shipped more than 300 guitars, mandolins, harmonicas, drums and wind instruments to Iraq to ease the strain of the soldiering life.
...
In 2004, his stepson, a soldier in Iraq, requested a guitar, so he sent one. The stepson's friend wanted one, so he dispatched another. Pretty soon, the requests were coming faster than the newly christened Operation Happy Note could respond. The waiting list is now more than 150 names long.
...
"When I was in, nobody cared. I mean, Vietnam, my God," he said, recalling how some Americans swore at troops. "All I got was hooting and hollering, and I remember that to this day. There's no way I'm going to allow that to happen to these kids."
...
After learning of Happy Note from an officer in his unit, he e-mailed the Bakers and quickly received an affirmative reply. He had to read it twice before it sank in. When the guitar arrived in a 3-foot-by-2-foot box, he considered it "satisfying and overwhelming that the kindness of the world has not diminished and people still care about us over here." ...
Thanks to Couple's Efforts, Troops in Iraq Get Instruments
... And that is how Sgt. Jason Low received an acoustic guitar from Steve Baker, a Vietnam veteran of modest means and powerful purpose. Baker and his wife, Barb, run Fergus Music, a shop here in a rural patch of Minnesota not far from the North Dakota line. Together, they have shipped more than 300 guitars, mandolins, harmonicas, drums and wind instruments to Iraq to ease the strain of the soldiering life.
...
In 2004, his stepson, a soldier in Iraq, requested a guitar, so he sent one. The stepson's friend wanted one, so he dispatched another. Pretty soon, the requests were coming faster than the newly christened Operation Happy Note could respond. The waiting list is now more than 150 names long.
...
"When I was in, nobody cared. I mean, Vietnam, my God," he said, recalling how some Americans swore at troops. "All I got was hooting and hollering, and I remember that to this day. There's no way I'm going to allow that to happen to these kids."
...
After learning of Happy Note from an officer in his unit, he e-mailed the Bakers and quickly received an affirmative reply. He had to read it twice before it sank in. When the guitar arrived in a 3-foot-by-2-foot box, he considered it "satisfying and overwhelming that the kindness of the world has not diminished and people still care about us over here." ...
Labels: compassionate people, war
Monday, June 11, 2007
In death, a final trip home for Mexicans in U.S. - International Herald Tribune
Héctor Acevedo was 22, in the United States illegally and far from his mother when he died last month in a car accident outside of town just across the Arkansas River.
But mother and son were soon reunited. The tight-knit immigrant network rallied to repatriate the body, adding Acevedo to a procession of thousands of dead Mexicans making their way home each year.
...
In Mexican immigrant neighborhoods throughout the United States, collection boxes to help pay for the repatriation of a body are placed in grocery store windows. Employers also chip in. Acevedo's relatives, for example, were reimbursed for his burial by the restaurant where he had worked as a cook.
...
"For Mexicans, the bonds of the family unit are very strong," said the Reverend John Brown, who ministers to Hispanics at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Conway and who presided over a memorial service for Acevedo. "The bond is broken when they go to work in the United States. It is restored in death." ...
Héctor Acevedo was 22, in the United States illegally and far from his mother when he died last month in a car accident outside of town just across the Arkansas River.
But mother and son were soon reunited. The tight-knit immigrant network rallied to repatriate the body, adding Acevedo to a procession of thousands of dead Mexicans making their way home each year.
...
In Mexican immigrant neighborhoods throughout the United States, collection boxes to help pay for the repatriation of a body are placed in grocery store windows. Employers also chip in. Acevedo's relatives, for example, were reimbursed for his burial by the restaurant where he had worked as a cook.
...
"For Mexicans, the bonds of the family unit are very strong," said the Reverend John Brown, who ministers to Hispanics at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Conway and who presided over a memorial service for Acevedo. "The bond is broken when they go to work in the United States. It is restored in death." ...
Chinese who left Guantánamo languish in Albanian limbo - International Herald Tribune
Ahktar Qassim Basit says he is not angry about the four years he spent as a U.S. prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before his captors mumbled a brief apology and flew him to this drab Balkan capital to begin a new life as a refugee.
It is this new life in Albania, Basit and other former Guantánamo detainees said, that is driving them to desperation.
The men, Muslims from western China's Uighur ethnic minority, were freed from their confinement in Cuba after they were found to pose no threat to the United States. They have now lived for more than a year in a squalid government refugee center on the grubby outskirts of Tirana, guarded by armed policemen.
The Uighurs have been told that they will need to get work to move out of the center, they said, but that they must learn the Albanian language to get work permits. For now, they subsist on free meals heavy on macaroni and rice, and monthly stipends of about $67, which they spend mostly on quick telephone calls to their families. But some of the men have already lost hope of ever seeing their wives and children again.
"We suffered very much at Guantánamo, but we continue to suffer here," Basit said. "The other prisoners had their countries, but we are like orphans: We have no place to go." ...
Ahktar Qassim Basit says he is not angry about the four years he spent as a U.S. prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before his captors mumbled a brief apology and flew him to this drab Balkan capital to begin a new life as a refugee.
It is this new life in Albania, Basit and other former Guantánamo detainees said, that is driving them to desperation.
The men, Muslims from western China's Uighur ethnic minority, were freed from their confinement in Cuba after they were found to pose no threat to the United States. They have now lived for more than a year in a squalid government refugee center on the grubby outskirts of Tirana, guarded by armed policemen.
The Uighurs have been told that they will need to get work to move out of the center, they said, but that they must learn the Albanian language to get work permits. For now, they subsist on free meals heavy on macaroni and rice, and monthly stipends of about $67, which they spend mostly on quick telephone calls to their families. But some of the men have already lost hope of ever seeing their wives and children again.
"We suffered very much at Guantánamo, but we continue to suffer here," Basit said. "The other prisoners had their countries, but we are like orphans: We have no place to go." ...
Off the Street and in an Apartment, but Unable to Escape Homelessness - N.Y. Times
For years, Johnny Five lived not on the streets but below them, in the dark underworld beneath an abandoned train station in the Bronx. Johnny uses two pieces of plywood as the door to the place he has called home for 21 years. He had to crawl in the dirt at the edge of a concrete platform to get in and out. He bathed with rubbing alcohol, but still his skin was covered with insect bites and infections. He said God talked to him there, sometimes through a portable radio, yet he considered his cave a kind of hell: overheated in the summer, frigid in the winter, a sunless place hard on the body but worse on the soul.
It was Christmas Eve when he first heard the news: Someone was offering him a way out. After reading an article about Johnny in The New York Times, Peter D. Beitchman, the executive director of the Bridge Inc., a nonprofit group that provides housing and services to mentally ill homeless people and others, immediately arranged for him to move into an apartment.
Days later, Johnny celebrated with the one person who had looked after him, Sister Lauria Fitzgerald, a Roman Catholic nun who helps the homeless in the Bronx. They ate dinner with another nun at an Italian restaurant in the Arthur Avenue section, three miles from the cave and around the corner from Johnny’s new home. He feasted on a plate of eggplant parmigiana and enjoyed his first taste of tiramisù.
But he didn’t want to touch the white linen napkin on the table. It was too clean.
...
For the next several months, Johnny would drift between his old life underground and his new one above it, struggling the way a man freed from prison must readjust to society.
...
Johnny’s homelessness was not about a lack of housing. It was more complicated, a result of a variety of spiritual, psychological and emotional causes. “Everything just bothering my conscience,” he said of the reasons he was homeless. “How can I ask God for forgiveness when I don’t forgive myself? So I’ll torture myself and go to the cave.” ...
For years, Johnny Five lived not on the streets but below them, in the dark underworld beneath an abandoned train station in the Bronx. Johnny uses two pieces of plywood as the door to the place he has called home for 21 years. He had to crawl in the dirt at the edge of a concrete platform to get in and out. He bathed with rubbing alcohol, but still his skin was covered with insect bites and infections. He said God talked to him there, sometimes through a portable radio, yet he considered his cave a kind of hell: overheated in the summer, frigid in the winter, a sunless place hard on the body but worse on the soul.
It was Christmas Eve when he first heard the news: Someone was offering him a way out. After reading an article about Johnny in The New York Times, Peter D. Beitchman, the executive director of the Bridge Inc., a nonprofit group that provides housing and services to mentally ill homeless people and others, immediately arranged for him to move into an apartment.
Days later, Johnny celebrated with the one person who had looked after him, Sister Lauria Fitzgerald, a Roman Catholic nun who helps the homeless in the Bronx. They ate dinner with another nun at an Italian restaurant in the Arthur Avenue section, three miles from the cave and around the corner from Johnny’s new home. He feasted on a plate of eggplant parmigiana and enjoyed his first taste of tiramisù.
But he didn’t want to touch the white linen napkin on the table. It was too clean.
...
For the next several months, Johnny would drift between his old life underground and his new one above it, struggling the way a man freed from prison must readjust to society.
...
Johnny’s homelessness was not about a lack of housing. It was more complicated, a result of a variety of spiritual, psychological and emotional causes. “Everything just bothering my conscience,” he said of the reasons he was homeless. “How can I ask God for forgiveness when I don’t forgive myself? So I’ll torture myself and go to the cave.” ...
Labels: compassionate people, forgiveness, homeless
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Patient Gets Second Set of Lungs - A.P.
A patient whose double lung transplant operation was stopped after a plane carrying donor organs crashed into Lake Michigan has received a second set of lungs, doctors announced Friday.
...
The patient already was prepped for surgery, with his chest cut open and his lungs exposed to the air in the operating room, when the plane crashed, killing six members of a Survival Flight team.
Officials learned late Tuesday that another set of donor organs was available. ...
A patient whose double lung transplant operation was stopped after a plane carrying donor organs crashed into Lake Michigan has received a second set of lungs, doctors announced Friday.
...
The patient already was prepped for surgery, with his chest cut open and his lungs exposed to the air in the operating room, when the plane crashed, killing six members of a Survival Flight team.
Officials learned late Tuesday that another set of donor organs was available. ...
Labels: karma
Friday, June 08, 2007
Boy who slept in trash bin is student of the year - A.P.
Plucky preteen, 11, makes transformation from street kid to model student
... For Lewis and her family, taking in D.J. seven months ago has been a long, tough journey. But then, it has been for him, too. ...
... He had a bad attitude, wouldn't do his work and was disrespectful. Because of all of his time on his own, he resented authority and boundaries.
D.J. would come home to Lewis and cry over his homework and tell her he couldn't do it. But she knew better.
"There were several times where he told me he'd like to go back to living on the streets because it was easier for him," she said.
...
"He never had a chance to play or never had a birthday party," she said. "He's missed out on a lot of his childhood things." ...
Plucky preteen, 11, makes transformation from street kid to model student
... For Lewis and her family, taking in D.J. seven months ago has been a long, tough journey. But then, it has been for him, too. ...
... He had a bad attitude, wouldn't do his work and was disrespectful. Because of all of his time on his own, he resented authority and boundaries.
D.J. would come home to Lewis and cry over his homework and tell her he couldn't do it. But she knew better.
"There were several times where he told me he'd like to go back to living on the streets because it was easier for him," she said.
...
"He never had a chance to play or never had a birthday party," she said. "He's missed out on a lot of his childhood things." ...
Cell Phone Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life - WLTX.com
A man survived a shooting at his home Tuesday morning, thanks in part to his cell phone, which slowed a bullet before it hit his chest. Roger Baxter, a Colorado Department of Transportation employee who lost his legs after a semi going 70 mph hit him on I-70 last October, was shot in the chest after interrupting a burglary. "I was in a coma for a little under a month, went through 13 operations, lost my legs," said Baxter. "I'm here."
...
Baxter came home to find a man in his home and yelled at him to get out of his house. "I thought it was pretty low of him to take and try to rob a disabled person," said Baxter. Instead of leaving, Baxter says the man tried to kill him. ...
A man survived a shooting at his home Tuesday morning, thanks in part to his cell phone, which slowed a bullet before it hit his chest. Roger Baxter, a Colorado Department of Transportation employee who lost his legs after a semi going 70 mph hit him on I-70 last October, was shot in the chest after interrupting a burglary. "I was in a coma for a little under a month, went through 13 operations, lost my legs," said Baxter. "I'm here."
...
Baxter came home to find a man in his home and yelled at him to get out of his house. "I thought it was pretty low of him to take and try to rob a disabled person," said Baxter. Instead of leaving, Baxter says the man tried to kill him. ...
Labels: karma
They labor to leave no child in our state behind - by Seattle P-I columnist Susan Paynter
... Doreen Cato and her staff have performed transformations and salvations daily for a decade at the ... First Place School for Seattle's homeless, neediest children.
... Too many of the kids at First Place School witness violence, death and loss firsthand.
I think of a boy I met who watched his estranged father kill his mother. About his strength and his dream come true to go (with help from P-I readers) to camp where he could surf the ocean off Vancouver Island.
Too often, traumatized children like that don't get the help they should, Cato told me. They live in perpetual fear. They get suspended from school. And they rarely can articulate what is causing them to fail.
Cato knows because she was one of those kids.
She was hospitalized from age 3 to 5 with tuberculosis at the tender time when bonding either happens or does not. Then, at 9, her mother died, leaving her struggling single dad with four kids. And leaving the kids to the attentions of predators.
She and her two sisters were sexually abused. But, even that wasn't the worst of it. "Kids didn't have a voice back then. They weren't believed, especially if the abusers were leaders in the community," Cato said.
She refuses to let that happen to kids on her watch. It's why her energy never wanes. ...
... Doreen Cato and her staff have performed transformations and salvations daily for a decade at the ... First Place School for Seattle's homeless, neediest children.
... Too many of the kids at First Place School witness violence, death and loss firsthand.
I think of a boy I met who watched his estranged father kill his mother. About his strength and his dream come true to go (with help from P-I readers) to camp where he could surf the ocean off Vancouver Island.
Too often, traumatized children like that don't get the help they should, Cato told me. They live in perpetual fear. They get suspended from school. And they rarely can articulate what is causing them to fail.
Cato knows because she was one of those kids.
She was hospitalized from age 3 to 5 with tuberculosis at the tender time when bonding either happens or does not. Then, at 9, her mother died, leaving her struggling single dad with four kids. And leaving the kids to the attentions of predators.
She and her two sisters were sexually abused. But, even that wasn't the worst of it. "Kids didn't have a voice back then. They weren't believed, especially if the abusers were leaders in the community," Cato said.
She refuses to let that happen to kids on her watch. It's why her energy never wanes. ...
Labels: compassionate people
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wheelchair man gets highway ride - BBC News
A wheelchair user has been taken for a high-speed ride along a US highway after his handlebars became tangled up in the front grille of a lorry ... leaving a petrol station...
The truck driver drove off, completely unaware that he had a new passenger.
Passing motorists told police, who found the man unhurt - but still attached to the front of the truck.
He had been kept in his wheelchair by a seatbelt.
Police in the town of Paw Paw, Michigan, said the unidentified man told them "it was quite a ride", but complained only that he had spilled his soda.
The truck reached speeds of 50mph (80km/h) as it drove down the Red Arrow Highway.
After several miles the driver pulled over at the depot of a trucking company where police then told him about the man on his front end.
He refused to believe there was a man in a wheelchair stuck to the front of his truck until he saw it for himself, police said.
A wheelchair user has been taken for a high-speed ride along a US highway after his handlebars became tangled up in the front grille of a lorry ... leaving a petrol station...
The truck driver drove off, completely unaware that he had a new passenger.
Passing motorists told police, who found the man unhurt - but still attached to the front of the truck.
He had been kept in his wheelchair by a seatbelt.
Police in the town of Paw Paw, Michigan, said the unidentified man told them "it was quite a ride", but complained only that he had spilled his soda.
The truck reached speeds of 50mph (80km/h) as it drove down the Red Arrow Highway.
After several miles the driver pulled over at the depot of a trucking company where police then told him about the man on his front end.
He refused to believe there was a man in a wheelchair stuck to the front of his truck until he saw it for himself, police said.
Families search Pakistan for lost PoWs - BBC News
Suman Purohit has an uphill struggle, and so do her 13 other companions who are searching Pakistani jails for their relatives, missing since 1971.
... Some of them may have tried to hide their identity, or may have been held on spying charges," says G S Gill.
"They may even have landed at some mental asylum, or in a military facility such as the Attock Fort. We have no way of knowing. Only the government of Pakistan can help us.
...
The visits of the relatives to two jails in Lahore and Karachi have already proved futile. They have eight more jails to see in Sindh and Punjab provinces over the next 10 days.
For many of the relatives, this will be a nerve-wracking experience.
"I had a great hope of finding my husband in the Lahore jail. It was hard to walk out of there without seeing him. But hope will give me strength," says Suman Purohit. ...
Suman Purohit has an uphill struggle, and so do her 13 other companions who are searching Pakistani jails for their relatives, missing since 1971.
... Some of them may have tried to hide their identity, or may have been held on spying charges," says G S Gill.
"They may even have landed at some mental asylum, or in a military facility such as the Attock Fort. We have no way of knowing. Only the government of Pakistan can help us.
...
The visits of the relatives to two jails in Lahore and Karachi have already proved futile. They have eight more jails to see in Sindh and Punjab provinces over the next 10 days.
For many of the relatives, this will be a nerve-wracking experience.
"I had a great hope of finding my husband in the Lahore jail. It was hard to walk out of there without seeing him. But hope will give me strength," says Suman Purohit. ...
Surgery on conjoined twins halted - Independent Online (South Africa)
... The girls share the same circulatory system, so that any medication administered to one will affect the other, and "their brains are connected in a complex fashion", the hospital said.Doctors feared that as the girls grew, the risk of one getting sick could endanger both of their lives."There is a sense of urgency, because if one twin were to become severely ill and die, the other twin would most likely die within minutes or hours of the first. The longer the twins remained conjoined, the more likely it is that one will become ill," the hospital said in a statement.Even though doctors noted that the girls were fortunate to be alive since most cranial conjoined twins die at birth and only 10 percent live until the age of 10, they were frank about the risks involved with the operation.
...
Tatiana, the twin who is attached to back of her sister's head, is the weaker one and also suffers from abnormal heart vessels. She was born with an enlarged heart, has high blood pressure and must wear leg braces because of her unusual positioning behind her sister.Anastasia is missing one kidney and her other kidney does not work, so she relies on Tatiana's kidneys. ...
... The girls share the same circulatory system, so that any medication administered to one will affect the other, and "their brains are connected in a complex fashion", the hospital said.Doctors feared that as the girls grew, the risk of one getting sick could endanger both of their lives."There is a sense of urgency, because if one twin were to become severely ill and die, the other twin would most likely die within minutes or hours of the first. The longer the twins remained conjoined, the more likely it is that one will become ill," the hospital said in a statement.Even though doctors noted that the girls were fortunate to be alive since most cranial conjoined twins die at birth and only 10 percent live until the age of 10, they were frank about the risks involved with the operation.
...
Tatiana, the twin who is attached to back of her sister's head, is the weaker one and also suffers from abnormal heart vessels. She was born with an enlarged heart, has high blood pressure and must wear leg braces because of her unusual positioning behind her sister.Anastasia is missing one kidney and her other kidney does not work, so she relies on Tatiana's kidneys. ...
Crime: Living With Evil - Newsweek
In 2002, Shawn Hornbeck was abducted while riding his bike. He turned up four years later—alive, the alleged captive of a pizza-parlor manager. The saga of a kidnapped boy and his accused tormentor.
...
A spunky, likable kid who loved playing baseball and teasing girls, Shawn Hornbeck set off on his lime green bike to visit a friend in rural Richwoods, Mo., on Oct. 6, 2002. He didn't come back. Authorities have said that Michael Devlin, his alleged kidnapper, used a gun. ...
Cut off from his parents, Shawn became completely dependent on a 6-foot-4, 300-pound strange man for food, sleep, warmth, attention and affection. According to the Associated Press, Shawn said that at times Devlin awakened him every 45 minutes. (Sleep deprivation is often used as torture by intelligence services.) Yet, at the same time, Devlin showered Shawn with goodies. The 11-year-old boy no longer had to go to school. He could watch TV and play videogames all day. He was given an iPod, a computer, an Xbox 360 and a bike. And he was almost surely threatened with gruesome consequences if he said a word about his abduction to anyone else. Child kidnappers "know how to create a paralyzing sense of fear so even when the captor is not present, the child feels he is omnipresent," says Dr. Terri Weaver, psychology professor at Saint Louis University. "Their mental package is very coercive, very convincing, very mean. They don't just say, 'I'll kill your family.' They tell how they'll do it in graphic detail and manner—how they'll kill the child's family and even pets." ...
In 2002, Shawn Hornbeck was abducted while riding his bike. He turned up four years later—alive, the alleged captive of a pizza-parlor manager. The saga of a kidnapped boy and his accused tormentor.
...
A spunky, likable kid who loved playing baseball and teasing girls, Shawn Hornbeck set off on his lime green bike to visit a friend in rural Richwoods, Mo., on Oct. 6, 2002. He didn't come back. Authorities have said that Michael Devlin, his alleged kidnapper, used a gun. ...
Cut off from his parents, Shawn became completely dependent on a 6-foot-4, 300-pound strange man for food, sleep, warmth, attention and affection. According to the Associated Press, Shawn said that at times Devlin awakened him every 45 minutes. (Sleep deprivation is often used as torture by intelligence services.) Yet, at the same time, Devlin showered Shawn with goodies. The 11-year-old boy no longer had to go to school. He could watch TV and play videogames all day. He was given an iPod, a computer, an Xbox 360 and a bike. And he was almost surely threatened with gruesome consequences if he said a word about his abduction to anyone else. Child kidnappers "know how to create a paralyzing sense of fear so even when the captor is not present, the child feels he is omnipresent," says Dr. Terri Weaver, psychology professor at Saint Louis University. "Their mental package is very coercive, very convincing, very mean. They don't just say, 'I'll kill your family.' They tell how they'll do it in graphic detail and manner—how they'll kill the child's family and even pets." ...
Nepal: Street children given hope - BBC News
... My siblings worked in the carpet factory for very little money that wasn't enough for food and housing. In desperation I left my parents and started a life on the streets.
There were 19 street kids in our group fighting the cold on the streets of Kathmandu. Life was very difficult because there weren't many generous people to depend on. So we used to beg from foreigners.
Most of the time we used to collect plastic garbage in order to sell it. But the money we would get for a whole day's work was not enough for one breakfast. So we used to steal fruit and vegetables from the shops.
We were not allowed to sleep in front of the people's houses. So we used to sleep, when there were no policemen, in the corner of the road cuddling with the dogs to keep warm.
New beginning
I was lucky enough to join a school for street children, the Nawa Asha Griha (NAG) which means Home of New Hopes. There I not only got food, clothes and shelter, but also a very good education. It was a great change in my life. ...
... My siblings worked in the carpet factory for very little money that wasn't enough for food and housing. In desperation I left my parents and started a life on the streets.
There were 19 street kids in our group fighting the cold on the streets of Kathmandu. Life was very difficult because there weren't many generous people to depend on. So we used to beg from foreigners.
Most of the time we used to collect plastic garbage in order to sell it. But the money we would get for a whole day's work was not enough for one breakfast. So we used to steal fruit and vegetables from the shops.
We were not allowed to sleep in front of the people's houses. So we used to sleep, when there were no policemen, in the corner of the road cuddling with the dogs to keep warm.
New beginning
I was lucky enough to join a school for street children, the Nawa Asha Griha (NAG) which means Home of New Hopes. There I not only got food, clothes and shelter, but also a very good education. It was a great change in my life. ...
A cure for road rage: close road - L.A. Times
Motorists angry at construction delays threatened road workers and damaged equipment. Also, flagmen have been attacked in what officials describe as bizarre incidents of road rage. Two workers were hit by cars and a third was shot with a BB gun. Now in an unprecedented response to ill will, Caltrans has announced it will close a portion of the highway beginning Monday to complete the project.
...
The highway project is a modest attempt to improve safety on the mostly two-lane route long known by locals as "Blood Alley" and "California Deathway" because of the number of accidents.
...
They were cursed at and had objects, including a burrito, flung at them. Other workers' equipment was sabotaged. One motorist threatened to climb a water tower and shoot workers with a high-powered rifle ... But since last fall, three workers have been physically attacked or otherwise harmed by motorists. In the first incident, last September, a driver refused to stop ... "Other flagmen told him he wasn't permitted through and he said, 'I'm not waiting. I'm not going back,' and just floored it." ... In late November, on the 138 at the landmark known as Mormon Rock, an elderly woman in a van drove through the site, striking another flagman and breaking his back. ...
Motorists angry at construction delays threatened road workers and damaged equipment. Also, flagmen have been attacked in what officials describe as bizarre incidents of road rage. Two workers were hit by cars and a third was shot with a BB gun. Now in an unprecedented response to ill will, Caltrans has announced it will close a portion of the highway beginning Monday to complete the project.
...
The highway project is a modest attempt to improve safety on the mostly two-lane route long known by locals as "Blood Alley" and "California Deathway" because of the number of accidents.
...
They were cursed at and had objects, including a burrito, flung at them. Other workers' equipment was sabotaged. One motorist threatened to climb a water tower and shoot workers with a high-powered rifle ... But since last fall, three workers have been physically attacked or otherwise harmed by motorists. In the first incident, last September, a driver refused to stop ... "Other flagmen told him he wasn't permitted through and he said, 'I'm not waiting. I'm not going back,' and just floored it." ... In late November, on the 138 at the landmark known as Mormon Rock, an elderly woman in a van drove through the site, striking another flagman and breaking his back. ...
Labels: anger
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
High school graduation will be bittersweet for immigrant - Seattle P-I
The one person Nicole Malkandi most wants at her graduation from Inglemoor High School in Kenmore on Wednesday cannot be there -- her father.
It was her father who urged her toward an education, and told her throughout her young life as a refugee, first in Iran and later in Pakistan, that school would be her path to a better life. It was her father who kept her safe from attack in dangerous refugee camps after the death of her birth mother when Nicole was 1 year old.
... Her dad, Sam Malkandi, has been held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac for the past two years while awaiting deportation to Iraq ...
"My mom took on my dad's role, and I took on my mom's," she said. At the same time, she maintained her grades and kept active in programs, including a volunteer project to raise money for victims in Darfur. ...
She hopes one day to work in various countries where dental care is limited. Her desire to be of service is a trait she got from her father, she said. ...
The one person Nicole Malkandi most wants at her graduation from Inglemoor High School in Kenmore on Wednesday cannot be there -- her father.
It was her father who urged her toward an education, and told her throughout her young life as a refugee, first in Iran and later in Pakistan, that school would be her path to a better life. It was her father who kept her safe from attack in dangerous refugee camps after the death of her birth mother when Nicole was 1 year old.
... Her dad, Sam Malkandi, has been held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac for the past two years while awaiting deportation to Iraq ...
"My mom took on my dad's role, and I took on my mom's," she said. At the same time, she maintained her grades and kept active in programs, including a volunteer project to raise money for victims in Darfur. ...
She hopes one day to work in various countries where dental care is limited. Her desire to be of service is a trait she got from her father, she said. ...
Angry motel guest gets free night in jail - A.P.
A man who called police when clerks refused to refund his money when he decided to not stay at their motel ended up with free accommodations anyway - at the county jail.
Phillip Ruch, 26, had checked into the Ramada Inn about 1 a.m. Wednesday but decided after a few minutes that he didn't want to stay there. When employees refused to give him his money back, he called police to complain about the motel's service.
Officers discovered an outstanding warrant for Ruch on a felony marijuana delivery charge and also found more than five ounces of marijuana in the pocket of a fishing vest inside Ruch's car. ...
A man who called police when clerks refused to refund his money when he decided to not stay at their motel ended up with free accommodations anyway - at the county jail.
Phillip Ruch, 26, had checked into the Ramada Inn about 1 a.m. Wednesday but decided after a few minutes that he didn't want to stay there. When employees refused to give him his money back, he called police to complain about the motel's service.
Officers discovered an outstanding warrant for Ruch on a felony marijuana delivery charge and also found more than five ounces of marijuana in the pocket of a fishing vest inside Ruch's car. ...
Tractor kills sleeping homeless man - Seattle P-I
No one knows exactly when Isaac Palmer crawled into his sleeping bag under Interstate 5 near South Massachusetts Street.
When his body was struck by a brush-clearing tractor late Saturday morning, police assumed that he had been dead for some time -- another harsh example of what happens when the roof over your head is a freeway overpass.
But autopsy results released Tuesday revealed that Palmer, 62, was alive when the S2 Spyder tractor's 18-foot arm with a rotary blade struck him in the head just before noon. The impact jolted his body out of the blackberry brambles that hid him from view of the tractor operator ...
... Transients often sleep under the freeway in the area where Palmer was killed. Tuesday evening, almost 20 homeless people were gathered not far from the spot that had been cleared. None of them knew about the brush-clearing efforts nearby, although they said they don't tend to spend a lot of time in the area.
... "It's not uncommon for people who are homeless to stay awake all night as a survival tactic and to sleep all day," she said. "It's dangerous to sleep at night." ...
No one knows exactly when Isaac Palmer crawled into his sleeping bag under Interstate 5 near South Massachusetts Street.
When his body was struck by a brush-clearing tractor late Saturday morning, police assumed that he had been dead for some time -- another harsh example of what happens when the roof over your head is a freeway overpass.
But autopsy results released Tuesday revealed that Palmer, 62, was alive when the S2 Spyder tractor's 18-foot arm with a rotary blade struck him in the head just before noon. The impact jolted his body out of the blackberry brambles that hid him from view of the tractor operator ...
... Transients often sleep under the freeway in the area where Palmer was killed. Tuesday evening, almost 20 homeless people were gathered not far from the spot that had been cleared. None of them knew about the brush-clearing efforts nearby, although they said they don't tend to spend a lot of time in the area.
... "It's not uncommon for people who are homeless to stay awake all night as a survival tactic and to sleep all day," she said. "It's dangerous to sleep at night." ...
Labels: homeless
Understanding and coping with tremors - International Herald Tribune
... For Shari Finsilver, who never even told her parents about the hand tremors that began at age 11, the surgery she underwent in her 50s, called deep brain stimulation, was "a life-altering experience, like someone awakened from a lifetime coma."
As she wrote in Wisniewski's book, "I immediately began doing all the things I had not been able to do for 40 years: write by hand, use a camera, cut with scissors, make change at the cash register, sign checks and credit card receipts, enroll in a public speaking course, dance with men other than my husband and son — all the things most people take for granted.
"But best of all, I was able to walk down the aisle at my children's weddings, and cradle my grandchildren in my arms with steady hands." ...
... For Shari Finsilver, who never even told her parents about the hand tremors that began at age 11, the surgery she underwent in her 50s, called deep brain stimulation, was "a life-altering experience, like someone awakened from a lifetime coma."
As she wrote in Wisniewski's book, "I immediately began doing all the things I had not been able to do for 40 years: write by hand, use a camera, cut with scissors, make change at the cash register, sign checks and credit card receipts, enroll in a public speaking course, dance with men other than my husband and son — all the things most people take for granted.
"But best of all, I was able to walk down the aisle at my children's weddings, and cradle my grandchildren in my arms with steady hands." ...
Labels: suffering
Baghdad gallery owner clings to redemptive virtues of art - International Herald Tribune
Amid the violence, the crumbling economy and rising religious and political intolerance, Hasan Nassar can see a peaceful, democratic Iraq close at hand, one in which ideas, not bullets, are paramount.
The incubator for his vision is his small art gallery in northern Baghdad, which he opened in early 2006 even as most others were shutting down. He has kept it alive with a relentless rotation of exhibits, lectures, poetry readings and film screenings.
There is urgency to this schedule. Nassar believes that culture can provide a pathway out of the hate and fear overwhelming Iraq, and he is trying to marshal like-minded Iraqis to join his movement.
...
Amjad Altayyar, a painter, lamented that the dominant parties and people in Iraqi society were communicating in "the language of power and car bombs."
"In the small society of this cafe," he continued, "you can find artists and educated people who belong to different cultures, different nationalities. But the language among them is this notion of acceptance." ...
Amid the violence, the crumbling economy and rising religious and political intolerance, Hasan Nassar can see a peaceful, democratic Iraq close at hand, one in which ideas, not bullets, are paramount.
The incubator for his vision is his small art gallery in northern Baghdad, which he opened in early 2006 even as most others were shutting down. He has kept it alive with a relentless rotation of exhibits, lectures, poetry readings and film screenings.
There is urgency to this schedule. Nassar believes that culture can provide a pathway out of the hate and fear overwhelming Iraq, and he is trying to marshal like-minded Iraqis to join his movement.
...
Amjad Altayyar, a painter, lamented that the dominant parties and people in Iraqi society were communicating in "the language of power and car bombs."
"In the small society of this cafe," he continued, "you can find artists and educated people who belong to different cultures, different nationalities. But the language among them is this notion of acceptance." ...
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Israelis gone, but rebuilding just starting in Gaza - International Herald Tribune
In a place where most everyone has a hard-luck story, Ibrahim Abu Shatat could write an entire book.
Two of his homes have been destroyed by Israeli troops, he has been out of work for six years, and his family of nine has lived in the storage room under Rafah's soccer stadium for three years.
Yet Shatat may be one of the few Gazans who see a ray of hope.
Partly through his persistence, construction has begun on 300 homes in the sand dunes next to the former Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam.
Along with a neighboring school, they are the first major construction projects in or near a settlement since Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005.
...
Then, five years ago, with Palestinian militants in Rafah battling Israeli troops, Shatat's home was rendered uninhabitable when Israeli forces demolished his neighbor's home. The Shatats rented a home nearby; that was destroyed in January 2004 when Israel tore down more homes. The only shelter Shatat could find for his wife and eight children, now aged 3 to 20, was the storage room under the Rafah stadium. ...
In a place where most everyone has a hard-luck story, Ibrahim Abu Shatat could write an entire book.
Two of his homes have been destroyed by Israeli troops, he has been out of work for six years, and his family of nine has lived in the storage room under Rafah's soccer stadium for three years.
Yet Shatat may be one of the few Gazans who see a ray of hope.
Partly through his persistence, construction has begun on 300 homes in the sand dunes next to the former Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam.
Along with a neighboring school, they are the first major construction projects in or near a settlement since Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005.
...
Then, five years ago, with Palestinian militants in Rafah battling Israeli troops, Shatat's home was rendered uninhabitable when Israeli forces demolished his neighbor's home. The Shatats rented a home nearby; that was destroyed in January 2004 when Israel tore down more homes. The only shelter Shatat could find for his wife and eight children, now aged 3 to 20, was the storage room under the Rafah stadium. ...
Mass Holocaust grave unearthed in Ukraine - A.P.
A mass grave holding the remains of thousands of Jews killed by the Nazis has been found in southern Ukraine near the site of what was once a concentration camp, a Jewish community representative said Tuesday.
The grave was found by chance last month when workers were preparing to lay gas pipelines in the village of Gvozdavka-1, near Odessa, said a ... spokesman for the regional Jewish community.
The Nazis established two ghettos during World War II near the village and brought Jews there from what is now Moldova as well as Ukrainian regions, Shvartsman said. In November 1941, they set up a concentration camp and killed about 5,000 Jews, he said. ...
A mass grave holding the remains of thousands of Jews killed by the Nazis has been found in southern Ukraine near the site of what was once a concentration camp, a Jewish community representative said Tuesday.
The grave was found by chance last month when workers were preparing to lay gas pipelines in the village of Gvozdavka-1, near Odessa, said a ... spokesman for the regional Jewish community.
The Nazis established two ghettos during World War II near the village and brought Jews there from what is now Moldova as well as Ukrainian regions, Shvartsman said. In November 1941, they set up a concentration camp and killed about 5,000 Jews, he said. ...
What Were They Thinking? More Than We Knew - Washington Post
...The provocative new experiment indicated that dogs can do something that previously only humans, including infants, have been shown capable of doing: decide how to imitate a behavior based on the specific circumstances in which the action takes place.
...
"Every day, we're discovering surprises about animals and finding out animals are far more intelligent and far more emotional than we previously thought," said Marc Bekoff, an animal behaviorist who recently retired from the University of Colorado. "We're really breaking down the lines between the species." ...
...The provocative new experiment indicated that dogs can do something that previously only humans, including infants, have been shown capable of doing: decide how to imitate a behavior based on the specific circumstances in which the action takes place.
...
"Every day, we're discovering surprises about animals and finding out animals are far more intelligent and far more emotional than we previously thought," said Marc Bekoff, an animal behaviorist who recently retired from the University of Colorado. "We're really breaking down the lines between the species." ...
Labels: animals
Monday, June 04, 2007
Victims' mothers trying to move on, save others - Philadelphia Inquirer
... Mandell's 13-year-old son, Koby, was stoned to death in a West Bank cave six years ago by Palestinian attackers; Giddings' and Washington's loved ones fell victim to Philadelphia's gun-violence epidemic.
...
Several of the women who met Friday with Mandell belong to Mothers in Charge, a Philadelphia antiviolence group that offers mentoring, anger management and other supports. It is headed by Dorothy Johnson-Speight, who started it after her son was shot to death over a parking space in 2001
...
Giddings recalled how her son Andre, along with a friend and her mother, were shot to death at her mother's home more than two years ago in a neighborhood dispute by a man whom her son knew. ... "The loss of a child is one thing, then the loss of a mother is another. But to put those two together, do you know what the total sum would be?" she asked.
She tells people she is coping better, but she has her "moments." A nun told her once: "You can have a moment, but don't take an hour."
Her work with Mothers in Charge and her teenage daughter keep her going, she said. ...
... Mandell's 13-year-old son, Koby, was stoned to death in a West Bank cave six years ago by Palestinian attackers; Giddings' and Washington's loved ones fell victim to Philadelphia's gun-violence epidemic.
...
Several of the women who met Friday with Mandell belong to Mothers in Charge, a Philadelphia antiviolence group that offers mentoring, anger management and other supports. It is headed by Dorothy Johnson-Speight, who started it after her son was shot to death over a parking space in 2001
...
Giddings recalled how her son Andre, along with a friend and her mother, were shot to death at her mother's home more than two years ago in a neighborhood dispute by a man whom her son knew. ... "The loss of a child is one thing, then the loss of a mother is another. But to put those two together, do you know what the total sum would be?" she asked.
She tells people she is coping better, but she has her "moments." A nun told her once: "You can have a moment, but don't take an hour."
Her work with Mothers in Charge and her teenage daughter keep her going, she said. ...
Labels: compassionate people, grief
Going for the Throat - Newsweek
Though illegal, dog fighting continues to draw crowds hungry for the sight of blood and the gambling thrill. A law enforcement officer takes us inside this underground world.
...
How do you know who wins? ... If you get a dog with a broken limb or a broken leg, it’s over. Broken limbs are common. You just see how much punishment the other dog will take until he just gives up or he's incapacitated so he can't fight any more.
...
How do they train the dogs? These dogs are conditioned, not trained. That entails such things as treadmills, or cat-mills—they'll either use a caged cat or a rabbit. They’ll simply tie a cat or rabbit to a hot walker like for a horse—it’s a big thing that looks like a merry go round with spokes on it. They’ll tie a dead cat or a live cat to one of the spokes and tie the dog to one of the other spokes and let him tug that around all day. They use weight training where they have the dogs pull weighted sleds. ...
Though illegal, dog fighting continues to draw crowds hungry for the sight of blood and the gambling thrill. A law enforcement officer takes us inside this underground world.
...
How do you know who wins? ... If you get a dog with a broken limb or a broken leg, it’s over. Broken limbs are common. You just see how much punishment the other dog will take until he just gives up or he's incapacitated so he can't fight any more.
...
How do they train the dogs? These dogs are conditioned, not trained. That entails such things as treadmills, or cat-mills—they'll either use a caged cat or a rabbit. They’ll simply tie a cat or rabbit to a hot walker like for a horse—it’s a big thing that looks like a merry go round with spokes on it. They’ll tie a dead cat or a live cat to one of the spokes and tie the dog to one of the other spokes and let him tug that around all day. They use weight training where they have the dogs pull weighted sleds. ...
Labels: animals
Moroccan family barred from toilet - BBC News
A family living in a public toilet in Morocco have spent seven years requesting more hygienic accommodation.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears, and Aze Adine Ould Baja has had to endure the ignominy of having "Sidi toilets" as the official address on his identity papers.
...
But a few days later the local authorities moved in to block up the toilet's entrance with cement and concrete.
Mr Baja, his wife and three children now find themselves barred from the only home they had.
...
His troubles began several years ago when his daughter was kidnapped and he had to sell everything to try to find her.
She was eventually found, but he could not afford to rent the place where he had been living and the family moved into the toilet as a temporary measure. ...
A family living in a public toilet in Morocco have spent seven years requesting more hygienic accommodation.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears, and Aze Adine Ould Baja has had to endure the ignominy of having "Sidi toilets" as the official address on his identity papers.
...
But a few days later the local authorities moved in to block up the toilet's entrance with cement and concrete.
Mr Baja, his wife and three children now find themselves barred from the only home they had.
...
His troubles began several years ago when his daughter was kidnapped and he had to sell everything to try to find her.
She was eventually found, but he could not afford to rent the place where he had been living and the family moved into the toilet as a temporary measure. ...
Labels: suffering
The Tortured Lives of Interrogators - Washington Post
Veterans of Iraq, N. Ireland and Mideast Share Stark Memories
In Iraq, when Tony Lagouranis interrogated suspects, fear was his friend, his weapon. He saw it seep, dark and shameful, through the crotch of a man's pants as a dog closed in, barking. He smelled it in prisoners' sweat, a smoky odor, like a pot of lentils burning. He had touched fear, too, felt it in their fingers, their chilled skin trembling.
... "I tortured people," said Lagouranis, 37, who was a military intelligence specialist in Iraq from January 2004 until January 2005. "You have to twist your mind up so much to justify doing that." Being an interrogator, Lagouranis discovered, can be torture.
At first, he was eager to try coercive techniques. ...
...
For Lagouranis, problems include "a creeping anxiety" on the train, he said. The 45-minute ride to Chicago's O'Hare airport "kills me." He feels as if he can't get out "until they let me out." Lagouranis's voice was boyish, but his face was gray. The evening deepened his 5 o'clock shadow and the puffy smudges under his eyes.
Not long ago in Iraq, he felt "absolute power," he said, over men kept in cages. Lagouranis had forced a grandfather to kneel all night in the cold and bombarded others in metal shipping containers with the tape of the self-help parody "Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction," by comedians Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. ("They hated it," Lagouranis recalled. "Like, 'Please! Just stop that voice!' ") ...
Veterans of Iraq, N. Ireland and Mideast Share Stark Memories
In Iraq, when Tony Lagouranis interrogated suspects, fear was his friend, his weapon. He saw it seep, dark and shameful, through the crotch of a man's pants as a dog closed in, barking. He smelled it in prisoners' sweat, a smoky odor, like a pot of lentils burning. He had touched fear, too, felt it in their fingers, their chilled skin trembling.
... "I tortured people," said Lagouranis, 37, who was a military intelligence specialist in Iraq from January 2004 until January 2005. "You have to twist your mind up so much to justify doing that." Being an interrogator, Lagouranis discovered, can be torture.
At first, he was eager to try coercive techniques. ...
...
For Lagouranis, problems include "a creeping anxiety" on the train, he said. The 45-minute ride to Chicago's O'Hare airport "kills me." He feels as if he can't get out "until they let me out." Lagouranis's voice was boyish, but his face was gray. The evening deepened his 5 o'clock shadow and the puffy smudges under his eyes.
Not long ago in Iraq, he felt "absolute power," he said, over men kept in cages. Lagouranis had forced a grandfather to kneel all night in the cold and bombarded others in metal shipping containers with the tape of the self-help parody "Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction," by comedians Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. ("They hated it," Lagouranis recalled. "Like, 'Please! Just stop that voice!' ") ...
Labels: war
Sunday, June 03, 2007
No group discount for autism care - Washington Post
Best birthday gift for triplets is not upsetting their uneasy equilibrium
Randy and Lynn Gaston received the distressing diagnosis not once but three times.
Their sons, Zachary, Hunter and Nicholas, are triplets, and as the brown-haired boys grew into toddlers, Lynn noticed how oddly they played, how little they babbled, how they cried inconsolably at doctor's offices and family gatherings.
Two years ago, when the boys were 4, specialists confirmed the Gastons' suspicions: The boys have varying degrees of autism, a neurological disorder that hampers communication and social interactions and can include obsessive-compulsive behavior.
...
Now even mundane details of the daily routine are carefully orchestrated, driven by the boys' need for sameness: identical sheets on their beds, baths in the same order every night, the same kind of pizza from the same kind of box.
The Gastons rarely go out as a couple; it's difficult to find babysitters. The family has never eaten in a restaurant together, because crowded, unfamiliar environments sometimes make the boys anxious and upset. And the couple never get a full night's rest.
...
Zachary speaks in snippets, Hunter speaks only occasionally and Nicholas doesn't speak at all.
"We want words. We want speech," said Randy ... It would be a special day, say the Gastons, if their boys complained of a stomachache or said they were hungry. ...
Best birthday gift for triplets is not upsetting their uneasy equilibrium
Randy and Lynn Gaston received the distressing diagnosis not once but three times.
Their sons, Zachary, Hunter and Nicholas, are triplets, and as the brown-haired boys grew into toddlers, Lynn noticed how oddly they played, how little they babbled, how they cried inconsolably at doctor's offices and family gatherings.
Two years ago, when the boys were 4, specialists confirmed the Gastons' suspicions: The boys have varying degrees of autism, a neurological disorder that hampers communication and social interactions and can include obsessive-compulsive behavior.
...
Now even mundane details of the daily routine are carefully orchestrated, driven by the boys' need for sameness: identical sheets on their beds, baths in the same order every night, the same kind of pizza from the same kind of box.
The Gastons rarely go out as a couple; it's difficult to find babysitters. The family has never eaten in a restaurant together, because crowded, unfamiliar environments sometimes make the boys anxious and upset. And the couple never get a full night's rest.
...
Zachary speaks in snippets, Hunter speaks only occasionally and Nicholas doesn't speak at all.
"We want words. We want speech," said Randy ... It would be a special day, say the Gastons, if their boys complained of a stomachache or said they were hungry. ...
A Quarantined Life - Newsweek
Robert Daniels has been confined to his small, cinder-block room for nine months so far and he doesn’t know when his confinement will end. He has one barred window that is frosted over so little light shines through, a metal toilet with a metal sink and he spends most of his day in bed. He hasn’t had a hot shower since his detention and has to bathe with sanitary wipes, since he has only been allowed out of his room once. But Daniels is not a criminal, and has not yet been charged with any crime. Instead he is a tuberculosis patient who was quarantined at the Maricopa County hospital in Phoenix last July after failing to wear his mask in public. ...
Robert Daniels has been confined to his small, cinder-block room for nine months so far and he doesn’t know when his confinement will end. He has one barred window that is frosted over so little light shines through, a metal toilet with a metal sink and he spends most of his day in bed. He hasn’t had a hot shower since his detention and has to bathe with sanitary wipes, since he has only been allowed out of his room once. But Daniels is not a criminal, and has not yet been charged with any crime. Instead he is a tuberculosis patient who was quarantined at the Maricopa County hospital in Phoenix last July after failing to wear his mask in public. ...
Rural China's suicide problem - BBC News
China has one of the highest rates of female suicide in the world. And the problem is most acute in poor rural areas.
In his small home, deep in the poor mountainous north of China, Sun Jiangbao slowly lifts himself from his bed into his wheelchair. A recent mining accident left him paralysed from the waist down.
That alone would be hard enough to live with. But just a few years before the accident his wife killed herself by drinking poison after they got into an argument.
Now every day is a struggle to survive. The only person left to care for him is his 60-year-old mother.
"I never believed my wife would kill herself," Mr Sun said. "I'm paralysed and I can't do anything, not even look after my own 12-year-old son."
Mr Sun and his wife had no money, so he went to the city to find work. That pushed their relationship to breaking point.
His story is a common one in rural China. ...
China has one of the highest rates of female suicide in the world. And the problem is most acute in poor rural areas.
In his small home, deep in the poor mountainous north of China, Sun Jiangbao slowly lifts himself from his bed into his wheelchair. A recent mining accident left him paralysed from the waist down.
That alone would be hard enough to live with. But just a few years before the accident his wife killed herself by drinking poison after they got into an argument.
Now every day is a struggle to survive. The only person left to care for him is his 60-year-old mother.
"I never believed my wife would kill herself," Mr Sun said. "I'm paralysed and I can't do anything, not even look after my own 12-year-old son."
Mr Sun and his wife had no money, so he went to the city to find work. That pushed their relationship to breaking point.
His story is a common one in rural China. ...
Labels: suicide
Brick making sustains peasant families in India - International Herald Tribune
... Much of that work is done by migrant labor families like the Khabhus, who trek from their home villages near and far to brickyards for eight months of the year, except during the monsoon season, when rains halt production.
The Khabhus said they gave up when seawater from the nearby Gulf of Kutch crept in and killed their fields. ...
The Khabhus’ home... is locked up for the season. A thorny bundle of dead brush blocks their front door. It is a billboard announcing that they will be back only when the rains come and the brickyards close. Nearly half of the homes in Manomara’s low-caste Dalit quarter are locked.
Of all the backbreaking work available to the poorest Indian peasant, making bricks offers some of the best earnings. It pays better than making salt, or working in the roof-tile factories. It can allow families to build a proper house, pay for a wedding or buy a goat or a television.
But the work is hazardous, especially at kilns like this one. Smoke spills out everywhere. Within minutes it chokes a novice hovering nearby. It is so laden with heavy soot that it blackens nearby mango blossoms, to say nothing of the lungs of the people like the Khabhus, who live and breathe bricks. Home is a small room made of bricks, on the edge of the kiln. They sleep on cots outside.
On most days, they work 14 hours, breaking for meals and sleep during the hottest part of the afternoon, when temperatures climb to more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is not counting the heat that rises from the kilns day and night. ...
... Much of that work is done by migrant labor families like the Khabhus, who trek from their home villages near and far to brickyards for eight months of the year, except during the monsoon season, when rains halt production.
The Khabhus said they gave up when seawater from the nearby Gulf of Kutch crept in and killed their fields. ...
The Khabhus’ home... is locked up for the season. A thorny bundle of dead brush blocks their front door. It is a billboard announcing that they will be back only when the rains come and the brickyards close. Nearly half of the homes in Manomara’s low-caste Dalit quarter are locked.
Of all the backbreaking work available to the poorest Indian peasant, making bricks offers some of the best earnings. It pays better than making salt, or working in the roof-tile factories. It can allow families to build a proper house, pay for a wedding or buy a goat or a television.
But the work is hazardous, especially at kilns like this one. Smoke spills out everywhere. Within minutes it chokes a novice hovering nearby. It is so laden with heavy soot that it blackens nearby mango blossoms, to say nothing of the lungs of the people like the Khabhus, who live and breathe bricks. Home is a small room made of bricks, on the edge of the kiln. They sleep on cots outside.
On most days, they work 14 hours, breaking for meals and sleep during the hottest part of the afternoon, when temperatures climb to more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is not counting the heat that rises from the kilns day and night. ...
Labels: suffering
Saturday, June 02, 2007
How instant road repairs keep army ants marching - The Independent
A new study has shed light on the selfless heroism and teamwork displayed by army ants, long considered to be among the most belligerent small carnivores in the animal kingdom.
New research has found that the ants, on their way back to their nest after a feeding trip, co-operate to plug potholes on bumpy rainforest floors, "selflessly" using their bodies to smoothly pave the way for their fellow ants.
The insects, which often forage in large groups, even "choose" which of them is best to fit in different-sized gaps, and co-operate over how to fill bigger holes ...
...
* Army ants are nomadic and make temporary nests from their own bodies. The ants form walls by fastening to each other using their jaws and claws.
* Nests are hierarchically divided. The larger soldiers focus on defence, the medium-sized workers forage and the smallest tend the queen's brood.
* The ants migrate to find food, "marching" at night. Acting together, they can kill lizards, snakes, chickens, pigs, goats, scorpions and even birds.
A new study has shed light on the selfless heroism and teamwork displayed by army ants, long considered to be among the most belligerent small carnivores in the animal kingdom.
New research has found that the ants, on their way back to their nest after a feeding trip, co-operate to plug potholes on bumpy rainforest floors, "selflessly" using their bodies to smoothly pave the way for their fellow ants.
The insects, which often forage in large groups, even "choose" which of them is best to fit in different-sized gaps, and co-operate over how to fill bigger holes ...
...
* Army ants are nomadic and make temporary nests from their own bodies. The ants form walls by fastening to each other using their jaws and claws.
* Nests are hierarchically divided. The larger soldiers focus on defence, the medium-sized workers forage and the smallest tend the queen's brood.
* The ants migrate to find food, "marching" at night. Acting together, they can kill lizards, snakes, chickens, pigs, goats, scorpions and even birds.
Labels: animals
Great escape: survivors reveal horror of North Korean concentration camps - The Independent
Two survivors of a North Korean concentration camp have spoken out about the grim conditions in the gulag where inmates are left to die in tiny cells, in the latest accounts to shed light on the human rights atrocities carried out in the world's most isolated country.
...
... they faced torture and imprisonment for "betraying their homeland" by trying to flee the famine-hit North Korean "socialist paradise" in search of food. least five of the seven were dispatched to North Korea's Camp Number 15, known as Yodok in the West, where inmates labour 15 hours or more a day on meagre rations for such deeds as criticising the government or trying to escape because of famine ...
The only woman among the seven - Pang Young Sil - "shrivelled to the size of a dog" by the time she arrived in Yodok in July 2000 after months of torture by North Korea's notorious National Security Agency and died in the camp two months later, Mr Kim said.
Ms Pang fled North Korea because her parents would not allow her to marry her boyfriend ...
Two survivors of a North Korean concentration camp have spoken out about the grim conditions in the gulag where inmates are left to die in tiny cells, in the latest accounts to shed light on the human rights atrocities carried out in the world's most isolated country.
...
... they faced torture and imprisonment for "betraying their homeland" by trying to flee the famine-hit North Korean "socialist paradise" in search of food. least five of the seven were dispatched to North Korea's Camp Number 15, known as Yodok in the West, where inmates labour 15 hours or more a day on meagre rations for such deeds as criticising the government or trying to escape because of famine ...
The only woman among the seven - Pang Young Sil - "shrivelled to the size of a dog" by the time she arrived in Yodok in July 2000 after months of torture by North Korea's notorious National Security Agency and died in the camp two months later, Mr Kim said.
Ms Pang fled North Korea because her parents would not allow her to marry her boyfriend ...
Labels: suffering
Europe's shame - The Independent (UK)
For three days and three nights, these African migrants clung desperately to life. Their means of survival is a tuna net, being towed across the Mediterranean by a Maltese tug that refused to take them on board after their frail boat sank.
Malta and Libya, where they had embarked on their perilous journey, washed their hands of them. Eventually, they were rescued by the Italian navy.
...
As their flimsy boat from Libya floundered adrift for six days, two fishing boats failed to rescue them. On Wednesday, the Maltese boat, the Budafel allowed them to mount the walkway but refused to have them on board.
This is the latest snapshot from the killing seas of the southern Mediterranean, the stretch of water at the European Union's southern gate that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says "has become like the Wild West, where human life has no value any more and people are left to their fate".
On Friday, The Independent reported how a Maltese plane photographed a crazily overloaded boat in this area carrying 53 Eritreans, several of whom telephoned desperate pleas for help to relatives in London, Italy and Malta. The boat disappeared with all hands before anything was done to save them. They died, not because help was unavailable, but because no-one wanted to do anything. ...
For three days and three nights, these African migrants clung desperately to life. Their means of survival is a tuna net, being towed across the Mediterranean by a Maltese tug that refused to take them on board after their frail boat sank.
Malta and Libya, where they had embarked on their perilous journey, washed their hands of them. Eventually, they were rescued by the Italian navy.
...
As their flimsy boat from Libya floundered adrift for six days, two fishing boats failed to rescue them. On Wednesday, the Maltese boat, the Budafel allowed them to mount the walkway but refused to have them on board.
This is the latest snapshot from the killing seas of the southern Mediterranean, the stretch of water at the European Union's southern gate that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says "has become like the Wild West, where human life has no value any more and people are left to their fate".
On Friday, The Independent reported how a Maltese plane photographed a crazily overloaded boat in this area carrying 53 Eritreans, several of whom telephoned desperate pleas for help to relatives in London, Italy and Malta. The boat disappeared with all hands before anything was done to save them. They died, not because help was unavailable, but because no-one wanted to do anything. ...
Labels: suffering
Meeting the world's heaviest man - BBC News
... At his peak, he weighed 1234lb. That's half a ton. Small Japanese cars come in lighter.
...
A short while ago, Manuel tried to take his own life, so depressed was he by his size.
But these days you could not meet a more engaging, funny and contented man.
...
He lived for 14 years in Dallas, Texas, and he himself blames an unending diet of burgers, pizzas and fizzy drinks.
But the doctors and other scientists are not so sure.
They believe even the most gluttonous over-indulgence could not produce the kind of excess body weight Manuel has succumbed to. Instead, they think Manuel was super-sized by nature.
A fault in his genes which triggered the inflammation of his molecular structure.
Whatever the cause, the team of medics and nutritionists around him now have come up with a specialist diet that has produced remarkable results.
...
"I take one day at a time," he says, "the doctors told me I had a choice. To choose life or to choose death. I chose life."
... At his peak, he weighed 1234lb. That's half a ton. Small Japanese cars come in lighter.
...
A short while ago, Manuel tried to take his own life, so depressed was he by his size.
But these days you could not meet a more engaging, funny and contented man.
...
He lived for 14 years in Dallas, Texas, and he himself blames an unending diet of burgers, pizzas and fizzy drinks.
But the doctors and other scientists are not so sure.
They believe even the most gluttonous over-indulgence could not produce the kind of excess body weight Manuel has succumbed to. Instead, they think Manuel was super-sized by nature.
A fault in his genes which triggered the inflammation of his molecular structure.
Whatever the cause, the team of medics and nutritionists around him now have come up with a specialist diet that has produced remarkable results.
...
"I take one day at a time," he says, "the doctors told me I had a choice. To choose life or to choose death. I chose life."
Hard life for African street children - BBC News
Unicef estimates that more than 200 million children are living on the streets globally.
In Uganda, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that rebel groups are snatching homeless youngsters and forcing them to become child soldiers.
Marsali Campbell, a nurse from Portree in the Isle of Skye, has been working for a mission in Kampala, the country's capital, where she helps to turn around the lives of these vulnerable children.
...
Many suffer from depravity, disease, hunger and abuse. We see newborns to teenagers and families headed by children."
Marsali has witnessed five-year-olds living alone on the street and has even seen teenage girls who have spent their whole life on the streets having their own babies while homeless.
These are broken, troubled children who have only ever known suffering
She has also come across numerous abandoned babies. They have been found on the street, in dustbins, tied up in plastic bags and found in pit latrines and swamps. ...
Unicef estimates that more than 200 million children are living on the streets globally.
In Uganda, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that rebel groups are snatching homeless youngsters and forcing them to become child soldiers.
Marsali Campbell, a nurse from Portree in the Isle of Skye, has been working for a mission in Kampala, the country's capital, where she helps to turn around the lives of these vulnerable children.
...
Many suffer from depravity, disease, hunger and abuse. We see newborns to teenagers and families headed by children."
Marsali has witnessed five-year-olds living alone on the street and has even seen teenage girls who have spent their whole life on the streets having their own babies while homeless.
These are broken, troubled children who have only ever known suffering
She has also come across numerous abandoned babies. They have been found on the street, in dustbins, tied up in plastic bags and found in pit latrines and swamps. ...
Labels: compassionate people
Pole wakes up from 19-year coma - BBC News
A Polish man has woken up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed, Polish TV reports.
Railway worker Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988.
"Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he told Polish television.
He credits his survival to his wife, Gertruda, who cared for him.
Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour to prevent bed sores.
"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot," Mrs Grzebski said on Polsat television.
...
"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning," said Mr Grzebski.
"I've got nothing to complain about."
A Polish man has woken up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed, Polish TV reports.
Railway worker Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988.
"Now I see people on the streets with mobile phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin," he told Polish television.
He credits his survival to his wife, Gertruda, who cared for him.
Mrs Grzebski is reported to have moved her husband every hour to prevent bed sores.
"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot," Mrs Grzebski said on Polsat television.
...
"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning," said Mr Grzebski.
"I've got nothing to complain about."
Missing jogger gives thanks, cash - Seattle P-I
... Schreck told his family that he had fallen down a slope, hit his head and remained mostly unconscious all the time he was missing. He said he covered himself with leaves for warmth and drank water from a nearby creek. He made his way home by retracing his steps.
Earlier this week, Schreck sent a letter to King County Search and Rescue along with a $1,000 donation. ...
... Schreck told his family that he had fallen down a slope, hit his head and remained mostly unconscious all the time he was missing. He said he covered himself with leaves for warmth and drank water from a nearby creek. He made his way home by retracing his steps.
Earlier this week, Schreck sent a letter to King County Search and Rescue along with a $1,000 donation. ...
Many troops don't go to war: Half in military serve on home front - A.P.
Even as troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are serving longer and more often -- three, four, even five times -- roughly half of Americans in uniform have not been sent at all.
...
By this spring, roughly 150,000 active duty soldiers, 85,000 sailors, 90,000 airmen and 65,000 Marines had gone more than once to Iraq, Afghanistan or surrounding countries. About half the total force had not deployed to either conflict, Defense Department figures show.
Fifty-three percent of the active duty Air Force and 50 percent of the Navy had not been to the wars, not surprising since the fighting is overwhelmingly on the ground.
Still, 45 percent of the Marines and 37 percent of Army forces had never been deployed. ...
Even as troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are serving longer and more often -- three, four, even five times -- roughly half of Americans in uniform have not been sent at all.
...
By this spring, roughly 150,000 active duty soldiers, 85,000 sailors, 90,000 airmen and 65,000 Marines had gone more than once to Iraq, Afghanistan or surrounding countries. About half the total force had not deployed to either conflict, Defense Department figures show.
Fifty-three percent of the active duty Air Force and 50 percent of the Navy had not been to the wars, not surprising since the fighting is overwhelmingly on the ground.
Still, 45 percent of the Marines and 37 percent of Army forces had never been deployed. ...
Friday, June 01, 2007
Toddler dies in dishwasher - A.P.
An 18-month-old boy died inside a dishwasher that began running automatically when its door closed ... His 13-year-old brother found the boy inside the appliance, and he died before paramedics arrived. ...
An 18-month-old boy died inside a dishwasher that began running automatically when its door closed ... His 13-year-old brother found the boy inside the appliance, and he died before paramedics arrived. ...
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