Beijing - Thousands of residents protested in a southeastern Chinese city after a traffic accident, smashing police cars and overturning three police vans, police and residents said.
The reason for the protest in Fuan city in Fujian province was unclear. Police said it was instigated by "a handful of lawless people." One resident said people became angry because police and paramedics took nearly an hour to arrive to help the injured, while a Hong Kong-based human rights group said it was to do with corruption.
But such protests have become increasingly common in China, and Saturday's violence is another reminder that the country's new leadership has to deal with underlying social discontent that often boils over. People are fed up with corruption and high-handed officialdom, pensions that have not kept pace with inflation, and families being forced from their homes to make way for developments.
Residents said police were stopping cars and checking people for driving after drinking on Saturday evening when the accident happened on a main road in Fuan.
Wanting to avoid being tested, a driver in a sedan accelerated away and police started chasing the car, said a resident, who would give only his surname, Lin. About three motorcycles were hit during the chase, said Lin, adding he wasn't sure who hit them.
"About 10,000 to 20,000 onlookers became angry because police officers and paramedics took nearly one hour to arrive," said Lin.
He estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 people clashed with police and overturned three police vans.
Society's Child
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spokesperson Klare Kennett said the training exercises, which take place twice a year in Denmark, were "abhorrent and shocking".
"Pigs are intelligent animals and most people would be appalled by this, especially as there is an alternative available which does not involve harming any animals," she said.
The ministry said the training gave surgeons "invaluable experience" and "helped save lives on operations".
The animals are heavily anaesthetised before being shot at close range "to damage organs but not kill the animals", and are then operated on before being killed humanely, the ministry said.
© The Associated Press/Institute for Marine Mammal Studies
This November 2012 photo provided by the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies of Gulfport Miss., shows a fatally wounded dolphin. A gunshot wound can be seen at lower left. Authorities are investigating several attacks on dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico after some were found with gunshot wounds, cuts and missing jaws.
This November 2012 photo provided by the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies of Gulfport Miss., shows a fatally wounded dolphin. A gunshot wound can be seen at lower left. Authorities are investigating several attacks on dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico after some were found with gunshot wounds, cuts and missing jaws.
The Sun Herald reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a "heads up" directive. That puts officials on alert for an increase in human interaction with dolphins in the waters across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Authorities say cases of gunshot wounds, mutilations and other injuries have been detected in recent months.
Scientists from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport have responded to four dolphin strandings. And on Friday, a team went to Deer Island and found a second dolphin dead with a portion of his jaw missing.
A dolphin found dead earlier near Gautier had a 9mm bullet wound.
© Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
A coalition of Southland labor and community leaders are calling for the protest of alleged violations by LAX contractor Aviation Safeguards (AVSG) after breaking their contract with the airport earlier this year.
Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division of SEIU, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that AVSG left more than 400 LAX workers without affordable family health care when it failed to comply with the city's Living Wage Ordinance.
© Santa Rita Jail
Geoffrey McGann
Geoffrey McGann
Geoffrey McGann, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes was taken into custody Thursday night after he tried to pass through airport security with an ornate watch that had switches, wires and fuses, according to Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.
A bomb squad arrived within five minutes and determined there were no explosive materials in the watch, Nelson said. The checkpoint was closed while officers secured the area.
McGann was taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin where he was charged with possessing materials to make an explosive device, sheriff's officials said. He was still in custody Friday night and could not be reached for comment.
© Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
Utility workers pick up supplies stored in the staging area located in the Essex County Shopping Center in he early morning hours. West Orange, NJ
Utility workers pick up supplies stored in the staging area located in the Essex County Shopping Center in he early morning hours. West Orange, NJ
It was just one ray of light on an otherwise mild, gray day, as many New Jerseyans struggled to get back to normalcy, crowding malls and supermarkets, while others continued to struggle just to get by.
Residents of Long Beach Island were finally allowed back in to see the damage caused by the superstorm, while about 113,000 homes and businesses statewide remained without power.
About 90,000 Jersey Central Power & Light customers were expected to have their electricity restored last night, according to Chris Eck, a company spokesperson. However, for many customers in the barrier island communities "the damage is so great that it's going to be awhile," he said.
Erica Lembo, a spokeswoman for Public Service Electric & Gas, said most of the roughly 15,800 customers still in the dark and cold would also be back online last night.
While some waited for light and heat and others sifted through debris, what became abundantly clear over the weekend was that aide was continuing to pour into the state. From all corners of America, by car, by bus and by rail, volunteers extended hands and hearts, offering food, supplies or just hard work. Sometimes the impetus to assist was as simple as the text exchanged between two Louisiana women:
"We've got to help these people."
That was the message Kim Bergeron received from her friend, Donna O'Daniels, nine days ago.
"We got the idea about midnight last Thursday," said Bergeron, director of cultural and public affairs for Slidell, La., a city of about 30,000, some 34 miles northeast of New Orleans. She jumped at the chance and the next day she and Bergeron got to work.
© The Confluence Group
© commondreams.org
For a host of reasons, including a major decline in public dollars for higher education, going to college today means borrowing - and all that borrowing has resulted in a growing and heavy hand for Wall Street in the lending, packaging, buying, servicing and collection of student loans. Now, with $1 trillion of student loans currently outstanding, it's becoming increasingly clear that many of the same problems found in the subprime mortgage market - rapacious and predatory lending practices, sloppy and inefficient customer service and aggressive debt collection practices - are also cropping up in the student loan industrial complex.
This similarity is especially striking in the market for private student loans - which currently make up $150 billion of the $1 trillion of existing student loans.
"They don't deserve to live, they need to die"
"May your children die, you dogs"
"Now we want to go back there [to Gaza] and kick out all the Arabs."
"The people demand more shooting"
"Muhammad is dead"
These were some of the calls from a group of Israelis demonstrating in favor of Israel's attack on Gaza in the streets of Tel Aviv last night.
Peaceful protests by Palestinian students at Israeli universities were met with similar incitement.
In Tel Aviv, across the road, another group of Israelis protested against the assault. "We came here to say that we must end this war immediately," Knesset member Dov Khenin of the communist Hadash party told the anti-war crowd, "every additional drop of blood is needless."
The duelling demonstrations were filmed by David Sheen. While anti-war voices exist, there's little doubt that much of the Israeli Jewish population stands behind Israel's attack on Gaza, believing the government propaganda that Palestinians are firing rockets at Israel unprovoked while Israel seeks peace and quiet.
Cortland County District Attorney Mark Suben
Mark Suben, the DA in Cortland County near Syracuse since 2008, held a news conference Friday to say he had lied about his past in the days before this year's election.
"Recently materials have been circulated alleging that I was involved in the adult film industry about 40 years ago in New York. Those allegations are true," he said. "I was an actor in adult films for a short period in the early 70s. I was also an actor in other venues including off Broadway, soap operas and commercial advertisements."
He apologized for his actions and said he used "bad judgment" by acting in porn and by lying about it. He wouldn't take questions, including whether he should resign. On his way out of the news conference, several people said "You lied to me, Mark."
Suben's spokeswoman, Aimee Milks, said Suben will not resign.
