Pilot dies after take off, passenger with less than 200 hours in 4 - seater Cessna safely lands twin engine Beechcraft turboprop King Air with his wife and two girls aboard.
Passenger turned pilot Doug White turned to his wife and two daughters:
More good news this Easter Sunday, Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips had enough of Somali pirates threatening him with AK-47s and jumped overboard at 7:19 PM local time as Navy snipers opened fire on the small craft killing three of the pirates.
Capt. Phillips unhurt from his experience is safe and recuperating. His family has been notified and are understandably relieved and very happy.
Associated Press:
MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — U.S. Navy snipers opened fire and killed three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day high-seas hostage drama on Easter Sunday.
Capt. Richard Phillips was in “imminent danger” of being killed before snipers shot the pirates in an operation authorized by President Barack Obama, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.
He said the pirates were armed with AK-47s and small-caliber pistols and were pointing the rifles at the captain when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge gave the order to open fire.
Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said the White House had given “very clear guidance and authority” to take action if Phillips’ life was in danger.
Phillips’ crew, who said they had escaped after he offered himself as a hostage, erupted in cheers aboard their ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. Some waved an American flag and fired flares in celebration.
Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was not hurt in several minutes of gunfire and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet said he was resting comfortably on a U.S. warship after receiving a medical exam.
“I’m just the byline. The real heroes are the Navy, the Seals, those who have brought me home,” Phillips said by phone to Maersk Line Limited President and CEO John Reinhart, the company head told reporters. A photo released by the Navy showed Phillips unharmed and shaking hands with the commanding officer of the Bainbridge
Obama said Phillips had courage that was “a model for all Americans” and he was pleased about the rescue, adding that the United States needs help from other countries to deal with the threat of piracy and to hold pirates accountable.
The Defense Department twice asked Obama for permission to use military force to rescue Phillips, most recently late Friday evening, U.S. officials said. On Saturday morning, Obama signed off on the Pentagon’s request, as he had a day earlier, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Amazing interview you won’t hear from the “sound bite” media.
Friend and fellow Master Mariner of captured Cpt. Richard Phillips speaks to talk show host Alex Jones about the current piracy of the Maersk Alabama.
Cpt. Pillips is currently being held captive by a small number of Somalis in a small life boat out of fuel and drifting dead in the water into the Indian Ocean.
The crew of the Maersk Alabama are prohipted by the company from carrying weapons and are easy targets for lightly armed pirates.
Video: Capt. Kelley Sweeney talks with Alex Jones about Somali Pirates
Ian Tomlinson the man police claim died of a heart attack near the Bank of England appears in a recently release video being pushed to the ground by riot police.
The City of London Police said: “A post-mortem examination found he died of natural causes.
“[He] suffered a sudden heart attack while on his way home from work.
“The family thanked all the people who rushed to Ian’s aid when he collapsed and said how grateful they are for all the efforts that were made to help him.”
A number of media photographers and reporters on the scene reported that Mr. Tomlinson was pushed to the ground and hit in the head with a baton by police.
As many as three million people took to the streets across France today to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis and demand more help for struggling workers.
The protests, which polls show are backed by three quarters of the French public, reflect growing disillusion with Sarkozy’s pledges of reform as the crisis has thrown tens of thousands out of work and left millions more worried about their jobs.
Video: BBC France shut down by populous revolt
March 19, 2009:
France took to the streets en masse today in protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s economic cutbacks. The trade unions claim that two and a half million people came out in protest during the course of the day. Police put the figure at one million.
The strikes brought the country to a virtual standstill. Nearly all schools were closed and, as a result, large numbers of parents stayed home. Public transport was almost completely paralyzed. Even some hospital personnel were on strike. President Sarkozy says he understands the unrest, but he will not concede to the strikers’ demands.
Video: France24English reports on the national strikes, The Vatican & Condoms
Mexican border towns rocked by violence as police and army clash with powerful transnational drug cartels and hundreds of protesters block bridges into Texas.
Texas state senator Dan Patrick (R) tells Fox News that his state has gone on alert for the first time in modern history over concerns of violence spilling into the U.S. He believes that Mexico could be on the verge of civil war with the potential of several hundred thousand refugees streaming across the border.
“Yesterday the drug cartels used bazookas to take on police in Reynosa. There where eight people killed yesterday including the police operations director and his bodyguard.” Said Senator Patrick
Officials expect a rapid escalation of violence in towns along the Mexican border to include Nuevo Laredo, Warez and Reynosa.
Senator Patrick said Texas will be ready to secure the border if the federal government is not.
Video: Texas on alert as violence spills across the border
According to Amnesty International over 334 people had been killed by TASERS in America since 2001. Yet Arizona based TASER International manufacturer of the popular electrocution devices maintains there is no risk of death.
Police agencies, their unions and taser makers have successfully maintained a force field between the message that surging 50,000 volts of electricity through a human being is safe and the hundreds of people who died while being zapped.
RCMP Commissioner William Elliot makes contradictory statements during a press conference where he said, “I do not think there is evidence that TASERS kill. But certainly we have had some incidents were shortly after a TASER was deployed individuals died. Certainly there is a distinct possibility that the deployment of the TASER and the experience generally contributed to the individuals death.”
Video: Canadian Police Officials Admit TASERs KILL!
GATT, NAFTA, tax laws and environmental restrictions continue to destroy America’s industrial base sending high quality jobs overseas. Families all across this land are feeling the American dream slip through their fingers in this post industrial society.
General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, will cut 10,000 salaried jobs globally and reduce pay by as much as 10 percent to slash costs and prove its viability to keep $13.4 billion in government loans.
About 3,400 of GM’s 29,500 U.S. salaried workers will be dismissed by May 1, the Detroit-based automaker said in a statement. U.S. salaries will be cut temporarily by 10 percent for executives and by 3 percent to 7 percent for most others. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, who already sliced his annual salary to $1, is reviewing salaries and benefits abroad.
“This is a dramatic step — it shows they are turning a corner” in their restructuring plan, said Gary Chaison, a labor relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. “It gives GM tremendous leverage in talking to bondholders and the unions about their own cuts.”
GM must submit to the Treasury Department by Feb. 17 a plan to reorganize, restore profit and repay U.S. loans by the end of 2011. Advisers to GM, the United Auto Workers and bondholders are in meetings this week in Detroit to negotiate agreements that cut unsecured debt by two-thirds and win concessions on labor costs, people familiar with the talks said.
Columnist Tony Blankley appears on Fox News to promote the idea of a “universal draft” in America.
“If we don’t do a lot of things smart and tough, we could get overwhelmed,” Blankley told the hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday. “We’ve failed to exploit our energy. We’re not paying enough attention to what our kids are learning — Bill Ayers is actually a senior person in guiding the curriculum design of America.”
One of Blankley’s more eye-catching proposals in American Grit is that all eighteen year olds should be subject to two years of required military service.
“I don’t like it, I love the volunteer army … but we don’t have enough troops,” Blankley explained. “When George Bush wanted to have the surge, he was told by the senior generals we didn’t have the extra 20,000 troops to finish the war. … Now Obama wants to go to Afghanistan … but he says we don’t have the troops unless we pull them out of Iraq. What happens if Pakistan goes jihad-y? We don’t have the troops to go in there and stop them from taking over the nuclear weapons.”
“If we had had enough troops in Iraq, we wouldn’t have lost 4,000 great young men and women,” Blankley concluded. “We needed to flood the field … with 300,000 troops occupying every village and every building and they would never have been able to rise up.”
Much of what Blankley says is based on common sense but had we just listened to the founding fathers we would have never extended the voluntary Armed Services in the first place and a discussion about a draft would not be necessary.
Video: Author Tony Blankley tells Fox News we need a draft to survive
Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu tells Australian based photo radar company Redflex to hit the road in Pinal County:
CameraFraud.com’s reporting that Pinal County’s newly elected Sheriff Paul Babeu has ended Pinal’s photo enforcement contract with Redflex, the Australian firm responsible for so many of those mechanical Orwellian shutterbugs plaguing motorists throughout the state.
Video: 4409 - New Sheriff kicks Redflex out of county
Before CameraFraud.com posted the YouTube video above, I called the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office to confirm the initial report and spoke to public information officer Vanessa White. According to White, the Redflex contract with Pinal involved just three vans, and no stationary cameras. The contract was set to expire December 31 at midnight. She said the decision not to renew the contract was the new sheriff’s.
Shortly after being sworn in, Babeu told CameraFraud.com that he was against photo enforcement because he was a “strict Constitutionalist,” and that its purpose was to “create money for the government.” He expressed the opinion that, “It’s corrupting law enforcement for us to be partnered with a private entity that creates revenue.”
Geez, keep talking like that Sheriff, and people’ll want you to run for Governor!
Babeu did say he supported redlight cameras because there was a safety issue involved, but on the issue of the speed cameras, he was unbending.
“I’ve never seen a photo radar camera arrest a drunk driver,” Babeu said to CameraFraud.com. “Or arrest a person with a warrant, see if someone has insurance, or to just simply give directions to somebody.
“So I’m against it, we have ended photo radar for speeding. Photo radar’s last days are now behind us, because they ended on the 1st of January.”
Video: Interview with Sheriff Paul Babeu
Babeu also expressed his hope that incoming Governor Jan Brewer would see the light on photo enforcement, and he praised citizens groups such as CameraFraud.com for pushing the issue.
Over at the Arizona Department of Public Safety, spokesman Lt. James Warriner said the new sheriff’s action changes nothing for AZ DPS, which also contracts with Redflex, and that, “We will still be operating our cameras on state and federal highways as mandated by the Governor and State Legislators.” However, he conceded that DPS has no stationary cameras in Pinal County, and that currently DPS only utilizes mobile technology there.
Redflex flack Shoba Vaitheeswaran could not be reached for comment. I would have loved hearing her spin on losing this contract, and what this might mean for her employer, as more politicians realize how hated these camera are and begin to stand up to the Redflex giant.
Kudos to Babeu for doing the right thing, and to CameraFraud.com for scoring this news first. CameraFraud.com’s motto is “the cameras are coming down.” And at least in Pinal County, they certainly are, thanks to a new sheriff in town.
Valur Gunnarsson reports for the Associated Press:
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A nationally televised meeting between Iceland’s prime minister and other political leaders was forced off the air Wednesday night when angry protesters disrupted the broadcast.
For more than two decades, the leaders of Iceland’s political parties have met every New Year’s Eve over champagne and spiced herring to talk about the year ahead on Iceland’s Channel 2 television.
But this year’s show with Prime Minister Geir Haarde was cut short 45 minutes into the program when a torch-wielding crowd stormed Reykjavik’s Hotel Borg in an attempt to get to the studio.
Protesters inside and outside the hotel clashed with police, who fired pepper spray to disperse the 500-strong crowd. Some demonstrators threw water balloons, while others tossed firecrackers.
At one point, the broadcaster’s television cables caught fire, interrupting the live broadcast. The program cut to commercials, followed by an announcement that Channel 2’s equipment had been damaged and the show would be suspended.
Outside the hotel, a policeman hit on the head with a brick had to be hospitalized. Three protesters were arrested.
The disruption was the latest in a series of demonstrations that have rocked Iceland since the country’s economy imploded this fall under a mammoth load of bad debt. Unemployment has increased and inflation has soared.
Demonstrations have been largely peaceful — some protesters were reportedly invited in for coffee when they showed up at President Olafur Grimsson’s home earlier this month.
But other events have been violent. Icelandic authorities used tear gas for the first time since 1949 when a huge crowd tried to storm a police station in Reykjavik in November, and on Dec. 18, protesters smashed the windows of the country’s financial watchdog agency.
Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, a journalist for private Iraqi television channel Al-Baghdadia, was swiftly overpowered by Iraqi security forces after he threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in a gesture seen as the supreme mark of disrespect in the Muslim world.
The show thrower was quickly dragged out of the room and away from the cameras lenses to be beaten by Iraqi security police. This fact was known and reported immediately after the incident but only a handful of blogger around the world mentioned the beatings following the hours of it happening.
Given the brutal reality of what present day Iraq is; a violent chaotic country were life is cheap and not the emerging “democracy” as the corporate media would have you believe the beating and torture of Zaidi was inevitable.
Durgham Zaidi the shoe throwing jounalists brother reported to AFP…
“He has been taken to Ibn Sina hospital because he has a broken arm and ribs and is also suffering injuries to his eye and leg,” Durgham al-Zaidi said of his brother Muntazer.
He said he had been told that his brother was initially held by Iraqi forces in the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in central Baghdad where the US embassy and most government offices are housed.
An AFP journalist said that blood was visible on the ground as he was led away into custody although it was unclear if it was his.
But Zaidi’s action won him widespread plaudits in the Arab world where Bush’s policies have drawn broad hostility.
With small arms and a modern GPS device Yemeni and Somali pirates are attacking commercial shipping on the Gulf of Aden.
In small slow moving watercraft the pirates are approaching ships firing their AK-47 full auto weapons in the air and threaten the vessel and crew with shoulder fired rocket propelled grenades.
The skull of a young child was discovered by a utility worker who found a bag containing the bones of a child. The local Orland police were notified of the discovery near the home of Caylee Anthony’s grandparents this morning.
Unknown gunman have killed 80 people and wounded another 250 in a multi-pronged attack on hotels and tourist destinations in India. Police say that about eight places in the city of Mumbai’s financial district are under siege.
Believed to be either Muslim militants or Hindu extremists groups of men have been lobbing grenades and firing automatic weapons at crowds in railway stations, restaurants and hotels popular with foreigners. There are reports of western hostages being held at the Taj Mahal hotel in Colaba district.
“They wanted anyone with British or American passports,” one eyewitness at the hotel told the NDTV Indian news channel. “They wanted foreigners.”
India has been subjected to numerous co-ordinated attacks in recent months.
Last night in the Netherlands famous television crime reporter Peter de Vries airs sex trafficking tape of Joran van der Sloot offering to provide Thai women for Dutch sex trade.
Thai authorities have asked the producers for a copy of the tape that aired last night showing Joran van der Sloot conspiring to traffic in sex slaves.
A spokesman for TV crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who made the two-hour show using hidden cameras, told the paper that the transcript was now being translated for Thai embassy staff.
Van der Sloot fled Bangkok, Thailand on Friday wanting to be out of the country with strict human trafficking laws before the taped aired Sunday. Reports of the tape leaked onto the internet early Friday.
Joran’s lawyer Bert de Rooij, has been unable to speak to him. “I am hoping to get in touch with him soon,” says Mr Rooij.
In Sunday night’s show, De Vries showed Van der Sloot in Bangkok telling a reporter from the show and another man, both posing as Dutch sex industry entrepreneurs, that he could get Thai girls to work for them in the Netherlands on false documents.
Updated @ 4:19 PM - EST
ABC News is the first mainstream media source to pick up on the Joran van der Sloot Thailand Sex Trafficking scandal.
ABC writers say an older, heavier Joran van der Sloot with scruffy facial hair was recorded at the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok accepting $1,000.00 cash advance for his services.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed and another 21 injured in an accident aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the navy said Sunday, in the worst submarine disaster since the Kursk sank eight years ago.
A Russian naval spokesman said 208 people were on board the submarine when an accident involving the activation of a fire extinguishing system occurred during sea trials. He said the nuclear reactor was intact and radiation levels were normal.
The death toll makes it the worst mishap for the accident-prone Russian navy since the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 with the loss of all 118 sailors.
“More than 20 people were killed on a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean during routine testing as a result of the unsanctioned functioning of the fire extinguishing systems,” the navy spokesman, Igor Dygalo, said by telephone.
“The reactor section (of the submarine) is working properly,” he said. “The radiation levels on the ship are normal.”
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More good news this Easter Sunday, Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips had enough of Somali pirates threatening him with AK-47s and jumped overboard at 7:19 PM local time as Navy snipers opened fire on the small craft killing three of the pirates.
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