[size=5]He said his troops have been hunting the Abu Sayyaf band in the jungles of Jolo since August last year, and military intelligence confirmed the presence of the five JI members in Jolo but the only ones whose names were released were Indonesians - Dulmatin and Patek - wanted for assembling and detonating bombs in nightclubs in the Indonesian island resort of Bali in 2002, killing more than 200 including 88 Australians.
Huge claps for the indonesian military on this one. They should hurry up Indonesian courts can't wait for ever to clear terrorists of charges........
I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
My mum was born in the 20's. She was most loving, caring and wonderful woman but could she play the martyr syndrome to the hilt. I thought it was normal for all mums until I reached my late teens and then found it's an actual mental affliction.
My wife still tends to do this somewhat and she's in her early 30s. You're right, it is a mental affliction and is developed throughout their lives. I guess it is understandable given women have been subservient to men for so many centuries and treated as second class citizens up until as recently as the late 20th century (and it's still happening in many parts of the world).
It is quite sad as I believe they, including my wife, could be happier if they 'gave up the struggle' so to speak. I guess centuries of conditioning and societal attitudes towards women which have only changed in the last half a century are difficult obstacles to overcome overnight.
One dead in US school shooting Thursday Jan 4 06:42 AEDT
AP - A gunman has shot and killed a male student at a US high school in Tacoma before the start of classes, police say.
Police have arrested another student found wandering in a neighbourhood a few kilometres away.
The slain student's age and many details of the 7.30am (local time) shooting at Foss High School in Tacoma were not immediately released, but police spokesman Mark Fulghum said no one else was hurt.
Fulghum said police were trying to determine what prompted the attack.
The suspected shooter, another Foss student, was captured about two hours later without putting up a fight, Police Detective Chris Taylor said.
The shooting happened in a hallway at the US west coast school, on the first day back for students after the winter break, he said.
Sam Sao, 14, said she was in the lunchroom, waiting for the bell to ring, when the shots were fired.
"Everyone was yelling, 'Get in the gym! Get in the gym!"' she said. "At first we thought it was a fight. Then the teachers started getting on the tables and screaming."
Jacki Phongsavath, a student at Foss, told KOMO-TV of Seattle he was in a nearby hall and did not know who the shooter was.
"I thought it was fireworks, but it was probably three shots," Phongsavath said. "I looked around the corner and saw someone laying on the ground and blood on the lockers."
The school was locked down after the shooting. By about 8.30, police had secured the building and students were being sent home, Tacoma School District spokeswoman Pam Thompson said. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
Just heard on the news that the suggestion that Shane Warne be made 'Australian of the Year' has caused an uproar. I should damned well hope so. I do not care how good of a cricketer he is, he is a slime bag off the pitch and lower than a snakes belly when it comes to his treatment of women especially his ex-wife. Why give the accolade of "Australian of the Year' to a man that has no moral compass and is such an appalling role model.
Other news.....
Speed camera signs a hazard Thursday Jan 4 15:00 AEDT
By Wade O'Leary
Signposted speed cameras may actually make roads more dangerous, according to experts.
Road safety advisor Ray Shuey told ninemsn that speed cameras have a positive local influence but signposting them could make other areas of the road network more hazardous.
The warning follows the revelation of a 25 percent dip in speeding fines in NSW since a trial of mobile speed cameras in unmarked police vehicles was abandoned in 2004.
"If you analyse the traffic flows near overt speed cameras along the Hume Highway on the NSW side, you'll see that many motorists break before the camera zone and accelerate afterwards," he said.
"It does reduce crashes in this location but then you have to consider the collision displacement effect – has this strategy really reduced crash rates?"
Mr Shuey, a former Victorian assistant police commissioner, cited a 2003 study showing that accident blackspots in the United Kingdom monitored by overt speed cameras reported a 30 percent reduction in collisions.
Toddler found on highway, mother charged January 4, 2007 - 3:10PM
Nancy Dyer, 30, was charged with four counts of felony neglect.
"A couple of the charges are related to the condition of the home and another child that was still in the apartment," said Helen Marchal, a deputy Marion County prosecutor.
Damon and his two-year-old sister have been taken into protective custody.
Investigators said the boy left the second-storey apartment on Saturday morning and walked down the stairs, around a fence and onto the highway about 180 metres away.
Dyer told police that she had recently moved to Indiana from Florida and said the apartment was messy because she had not finished unpacking.
Dyer was scheduled to appear on Thursday for an initial hearing in Marion Superior Court.
She was being held at the county jail after a judge set bail at $US3500 ($4400).
Yes.... her recent move was why the younger child was found with a heavily soiled nappy on and eating spaghetti off the floor at the time the older one was lucky not to be killed by traffic on a highway!
Fishermen rescued after 47 days at sea January 4, 2007 - 5:28PM
Five Costa Rican fishermen were rescued off the coast of El Salvador after spending more than six weeks adrift on the Pacific Ocean surviving on rain water and sea turtles.
The fishermen, one a 15-year-old, had set off in a small fishing boat from the town of Playas del Coco, 250 kilometres northwest of the capital of San Jose on November 16, and were blown into the ocean by fierce winds, Costa Rica's security department said today in a news release.
On New Year's Eve, a Polish cargo ship spotted the fishermen burning plastic bags 185 kilometres off El Salvador's coast and alerted authorities.
The fishermen were rescued by the Costa Rican coast guard.
The boat's captain, Gregorio Collado, said he and his crew survived on fishing skills and self-discipline.
Parents use blog to defend disabled child's treatment Friday Jan 5 10:40 AEDT
The parents of a severely disabled nine-year-old girl given doses of oestrogen to stunt her growth and a hysterectomy to prevent menstrual cycles defended their treatment decisions as necessary for their child's quality of life.
The parents of Ashley, who cannot walk or talk and has the mental ability of a baby, made their first public statements about her treatment in a blog posting this week after her doctors detailed the growth-attenuation treatment in a medical journal in October. Ashley's last name has not been disclosed.
The treatment, which started when Ashley was six, drew criticism from other doctors and has stirred up an ethical debate about whether stopping normal life development overstepped the bounds of medical treatment.
Ashley's parents, who live in Seattle and did not disclose their names, said the effort is a more humane solution for the girl who suffers from an irreversible brain impairment called static encephalopathy.
"Ashley was dealt a challenging life and the least that we could do as her loving parents and care-givers is to be diligent about maximising her quality of life," her parents wrote. "A fundamental and universal misconception about the treatment is that it is intended to convenience the care-giver."
In the post on ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/blog Ashley's parents said the decision to adopt this course of treatment for their "pillow angel" — she stays right on the pillow where they leave her — was not a difficult one.
High doses of oestrogen should keep Ashley's height and weight near current levels at 1.35 metres and around 34 kilograms.
"Ashley can continue to delight in being held in our arms and will be moved and taken on trips more frequently and will have more exposure to activities and social gatherings," they said.
Without the treatment, Ashley would grow to be a 1.67 metre woman weighing 57 kg, according to normal growth estimates.
The parents also said doctors had performed a hysterectomy so Ashley would not have to deal with discomfort related to menstrual cycles and to eliminate the possibility of uterine cancer. They also removed her breast buds to limit the development of breasts, they added.
Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the "do no harm" rule governing physicians is very powerful and "stopping growth is not the ethical way to head".
"Puberty, growth (and) aging happen to all of us and there are plenty of people out there who will require help from family or society," Caplan told Reuters. "The solution isn't to take every person who is schizophrenic or autistic or behaviorally disoriented and keep them in a child-like state."
David Fleming, a physician who is director of the Center for Health Ethics at the University of Missouri, said, "Only history will know and only time will be able to witness whether they (the parents) made the right decision. It seems likely they were acting in the best interest of the child."
Ashley's parents started to consider this course of treatment in 2004 when she began to show early signs of puberty. Before proceeding with the surgeries or oestrogen treatment, they needed to gain approval from a 40-person ethics committee at Seattle Children's Hospital.
This could be an interestind debate. Should they have left the child be, or do they have the right as parents to act in the childs best interests? I for one feel they have done the right thing for their situation.
The deaths of an American boy, a teenage girl in India and a boy in Pakistan have been linked to the television coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution.
Relatives told police in Webster, Texas, that 10-year-old Sergio Pelico had seen the video of the former Iraqi leader's hanging and asked about it before the child hung himself on Sunday.
"We're theorising he tried to experiment or mimic the behaviour and it got out of control," Webster Police Captain Thomas Claunch said.
Police said the boy apparently went to his room, attached a piece of clothing to a bunk bed and tied it around his neck. Adults and other children were in the house at the time.
"There was nothing to indicate any criminal wrongdoing," Claunch said. "It appears to be a tragic accident."
A 15-year-old girl from eastern India also hanged herself, reportedly in response to Saddam's execution.
"She said they had hanged a patriot. We didn't take her seriously when she told us that she wanted to feel the pain Saddam did during the execution," the girl's father, Manmohan Karmakar, told AFP by phone from the town of Kharda.
He said his daughter, called Moon Moon, had become extremely depressed after watching Saddam's execution on television.
"She kept watching the scene over and again and didn't take food on Saturday and Sunday to protest the hanging," he said.
Police superintendent Pravin Kumar confirmed the suicide, saying the girl had strung herself up from a ceiling fan and was found dead early on Wednesday.
The communist-ruled state of West Bengal has condemned Saturday's execution of Saddam, with thousands of people taking to the streets.
ITV reports that nine-year-old Mubashar Ali, from Pakistan, also died in a tragic hanging incident. He was playing with his ten-year-old sister, who tied a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck.
The children had watched the footage of Saddam's execution on TV before the incident, their father said.
Should they have left the child be, or do they have the right as parents to act in the childs best interests? I for one feel they have done the right thing for their situation.
Surprisingly, I'm inclined to agree. Some may argue that they're "playing God" but it seems that they're maintaining this unfortunate girls' lifestyle and acting in her best interests, and I for one support their decision. Very few parents would do this for a disabled child.
And it's unfortunate that at least three children have died over the execution of Saddam simply due to a lapse in judgement. I for one am absolutely appalled that in many countries, they've aired his execution UNCUT on television. Absolutely disgraceful. My dad said they've aired it during the Turkish news so I wouldn't be surprised with all the other countries that have played it.
It's sad that other countries have such poor censorship standards. I for one, didn't mind viewing the footage on YouTube, where I had viewed it on my own accord. But this sort of content could have a profound impact on other people.
Well, there you go. Many countries just air it without any sort of warning. I mean really, is it really necessary? Heaven forbid that Steve Irwin's death tape ever leaks out.
Quoted from Simpson "This could be an interestind debate. Should they have left the child be, or do they have the right as parents to act in the childs best interests? I for one feel they have done the right thing for their situation."
AND from Sillygostly
"Surprisingly, I'm inclined to agree. Some may argue that they're "playing God" but it seems that they're maintaining this unfortunate girls' lifestyle and acting in her best interests, and I for one support their decision. Very few parents would do this for a disabled child."
I totally agree. These parents obviously intend to take care of their 'little girl' for as long as they are able and NOT institutionalise her until absolutely necessary. How hard would it be for people to bathe, feed, change, roll and just care daily for this severely disabled girl IF she were the size of a fully grown adult. I have no doubt in my mind that they have done the 'right' thing for their daughter and themselves.
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