Decapitation in Canada

Man beheaded on Greyhound bus

By: Gabrielle Giroday and Ian Hitchen

Updated: July 31, 2008 at 11:50 AM CDT

BRANDON - Thirty-six passengers of a Greyhound bus travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg Thursday night watched in horror as a fellow passenger stabbed another man sleeping next to him, eventually decapitating him and waving the man's severed head.

"He didn't do anything to provoke the guy. The guy just took a knife out and stabbed him, started stabbing him like crazy and cut his head off," said Garnet Caton, 36, a passenger.

The bus made an emergency stop, and passengers fled in terror onto the Trans-Canada Highway while the bus's driver and a driver of a nearby truck shut the crazed man inside the bus with the victim. Passengers say they stood outside the bus and watched through the window, horrified, as the man disfigured the victim's body.

By 10:30 p.m. the eastbound bus was stopped on the highway about 10 kilometres west of Portage La Prairie, surrounded by RCMP cruisers. Police have since taken the attacker into custody and charges will be laid, RCMP said today in a news release.

Caton and others said once they escaped, they prevented the attacker from getting off the bus by threatening him with makeshift weapons like a hammer and a metal bar.

"We were telling him, 'Stay put, stay put, stay there, don't try to come out!' He tried to get the bus working and the bus driver disabled the bus somehow in the back, I'm not sure how he did it, and at that point, I think the police showed up," he said, adding officers rushed the passengers away.

"Some people were puking, some people were crying, other people were in shock ... everybody was running, screaming off the bus."

Caton described the man who attacked the passenger as about six feet tall, 200 pounds, with a bald head and wearing sunglasses. He seemed oblivious to others when the stabbing occurred, said Caton.

Caton said the victim boarded in Edmonton, was aboriginal in appearance, was wearing hip-hop clothing, and appeared to be about 20 years of age.

"When we saw the head, we knew he was dead," he said. "I don't think the guy knew him at all. I think he was really crazy... the poor guy, he didn't see it coming."

Two yellow school buses were brought in to the closed-off stretch of highway near MacGregor for passengers to sit in while the stand-off between officers and the man inside the bus proceeded for hours.

Caton said the attacker was only on the bus for a brief period of time, after boarding in western Manitoba.

The passengers were later taken to Brandon to be interviewed by police and to stay overnight at a hotel there.

Crisis counsellors were also at the hotel to provide support to the passengers, and counsellors could be seen chatting with them outside the hotel as groups went out to local stores for snacks or to smoke cigarettes.

One small boy, who was with an adult man and woman, was given a plush teddy bear by a crisis health worker.

Another young man from Nova Scotia sat outside the Brandon hotel smoking around 3 a.m. Visibly shaken, he said RCMP had taken 36 witnesses in for questioning. He said later: "I felt bad that all the young people and old people had to see that."

The man, who did not want his name used, said the victim of the stabbing had been sleeping before the attack.

Other passengers said that the two men were sitting in the rear of the bus and the stabbing victim was listening to music through his headphones. The attack appeared to be unprovoked.

"The first thing I heard was something like a terrible type (of) yowl and that was from the guy who got stabbed," said an elderly woman from Winnipeg who was on the bus.

The woman and her adult daughter said they were three or four rows in front of the suspect when the attack began.

"(My daughter said) 'Oh my God' and everybody else started screaming," she said. "They had terror in their eyes."

Passengers said there was a rush of people towards the front of the bus to get off.

An RCMP spokesman said neither the victim nor the attacker are being identified.

Two other passengers on the bus, a 22-year-old man and 21-year-old woman, from France, said they were heading to Winnipeg after visiting the woman's father in Whitehorse. The 22-year-old man said in French that he saw a man holding a long kitchen knife repeatedly stab another passenger. He and his girlfriend said they were shocked by the attack, and the isolation in the middle of the prairies when it occurred.

"There was nowhere to go," she said.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called the Greyhound murder “bizarre” and potentially a “one-of-a-kind event in Canadian history”.

Day said he would never totally rule out the idea of putting improved safety checks on buses and other forms of transportation but he said because this incident is so rare one would also have to apply common sense.

“We’re never closed to looking at how Canadians can be more secure but we also want to look at the risk," said Day.

The witnesses were brought to a Brandon WalMart at 10 a.m. this morning by Brandon Bus Lines to pick up a few necessities.

The belongings of the people who were en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton last night remained in the bus as part of the crime scene.

As WalMart staff greeted the witnesses at the entrance, managers barred reporters from talking to them. Inside WalMart, some witnesses were throwing clothes, underwear, toothbrushes, deodorant and other necessities into their baskets.

Before the shopping trip, witnesses outside the Comfort Inn hotel where they stayed last night were still visibly shaken and sleep-deprived. Some found comfort in smoking cigarettes while others paced around the front entrance of the hotel.

“I watched them chop someone’s head off,” said Cody Olmstead, who was three seats ahead of the where the stabbing took place last night. “I was worried about everyone but myself.”

There are reports the witnesses will be brought to Winnipeg sometime today. RCMP will be holding a press conference in Winnipeg at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Historical Panty Fetish

Canadian snaps up Queen Victoria's bloomers for $9,000 at British auction

Wed Jul 30, 1:11 PM

By The Associated Press

LONDON - Her majesty would not be amused.

A pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers, with a 50-inch waist, were snapped up for $9,000 by a Canadian buyer at a central England auction Wednesday.

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said Queen Victoria's underpants belonged to "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth." She was said to be 5 feet tall.

The handmade knickers - which date back to the 1890s - bear the monogram "VR" for Victoria Regina. They are open-crotch style, with separate legs joined by a drawstring at the waist, popular in the late Victorian era.

The royal drawers belonged to a family in western England whose ancestor was a lady-in-waiting for the queen.

"These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting," Hanson said. "They are monogrammed and crested and we know that they are hers."

Also up for auction was Queen Victoria's chemise, with a 66-inch bust, sold for $8,000. Her nightgown sold for $11,000.

Before the auction, Hanson valued the underwear at $1,000, while the chemise and nightgown were valued at $600 each.

Queen Victoria lived from 1819 to 1901. She became queen at age 18 and was the U.K.'s longest-reigning monarch. Her reign is noted for both imperial expansion and the decreasing political power of the monarch.

Oedipal Market Trends

New Report Reveals Rise and Influence of Gamma Women, a 55 Million Strong and Growing Consumer Segment
Meredith releases The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency

NEW YORK, Jul 28, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Meredith Corporation the leading media and marketing company serving American women, today released The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency. This new report uncovers the rise of Gamma women: a growing segment - significant both in number and influence - that is creating a groundswell in today's new media and marketing landscape.

According to the report, written by marketing-to-women experts Lisa Finn and Lisa Johnson, the Gamma audience is estimated at more than 55 million American women. Meredith's own study* estimates that Gammas represent nearly 60% of Meredith's audience. The report forecasts that, as the social and technological environment in which they exist becomes more and more suited to their communication and interaction styles, Gammas' influence in the marketplace will continue to increase.
Gamma women share and exchange information, ideas, opinions, contacts and recommendations with their wide-reaching network using multiple media and channels of communication. This is in sharp contrast to the 'Alpha' style of communication - a top down model of selectively passing along information. While a Gamma's sense of self is guided by her internal beliefs, passions, and priorities, an Alpha is driven by external social hierarchies or other indicators of status or popularity.

"This report single-handedly crystallizes our understanding of the significance of the Meredith woman," remarks Jack Griffin, president of Meredith Publishing. "Gammas are true brand advocates who are passionate and spread the word about what they like. It comes as no surprise that these Gamma women make up the very core of our customer base. It's time for marketers to engage Gammas where they are already looking for social currency - talking with them versus talking at them. Meredith is proud to be part of that conversation."

The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency, explains how the social behavior, media habits and sheer magnitude of Gamma women represent a tidal force that is redefining the marketing model. By providing strategies and anecdotes for capturing the attention and advocacy of Gamma women, the report reveals how information travels within the Gamma landscape, and how marketers can effectively communicate with Gamma women to leverage the power of this vast and influential segment.

"With Gammas, it's all about content," says Brenda White, Senior Vice President/Publishing Activation Director, Starcom USA. "And with this group of women most certainly on the rise, it's becoming crucial for our clients to speak to Gammas in a way that not only resonates, but also engages. From an agency perspective, The Gamma Factor really hits the mark on what it takes to capitalize on this profound shift in the marketplace."
The report identifies five key personality profiles within the Gamma mindset. Each Gamma profile embodies a specific set of beliefs and behaviors and responds to a specific combination of marketing techniques and messaging. They are:

-- Connector - She believes people can accomplish more together than they can alone. She enjoys sharing her experiences, passions and recommendations with her network of friends and family. Fluent in social interactivity aspects of Web 2.0, her interest stems from a desire to keep in touch rather than simply the love of technology.

-- Catalyst - She wants to impact her community, and ultimately the world at large, in meaningful ways. She finds great pleasure in volunteering her time and inspiring others to do the same.

-- Family-Focused - These Gammas put their family first; work exists to serve family needs, not the reverse. She looks to family and close friends to stay grounded and considers her loved ones her personal board of advisors. She uses technology to seek out information, but relies more heavily on personal connections for support.

-- DIY Creator - She lives life by her own compass and expresses herself by creating. She enjoys sharing ideas and techniques with fellow enthusiasts, and finding a way to bring creativity into their daily lives.

-- Challenge-Seeker - She is always ready for a great adventure and focuses on the possibilities, not limits. She seeks out the exotic and challenging in all aspects of her life.

"When a Gamma finds something she likes, she doesn't keep it to herself; she happily spreads the word to her network of friends and family," says Meredith's Gayle Butler, editor in chief, Better Homes and Gardens. "Our readers possess powerful Gamma traits and continuously share their experiences, thoughts and ideas with us via email, events, letters, reader surveys, blogs and online communities. This dialogue allows us to stay connected and keep our finger on the pulse of what means the most to Gammas."

According to co-authors Finn and Johnson, "By striving to take advantage of Gammas' preferred communication styles, learning their language of influence and developing strategies that utilize Gammas' webs of connection, marketers can harness the influence of Gamma women and gain an early-to-market advantage that taps into this emerging power in the marketplace."

Meredith Corporation ( www.meredith.com) is one of America's premier media and marketing companies. Meredith combines well-known national brands - including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, American Baby, Fitness and More - with local television brands in fast growing markets. Meredith is the industry leader in creating content in key consumer interest areas such as home, family, health and wellness and self-development. Meredith then uses multiple distribution platforms - including print, television, online, mobile and video - to give consumers content they desire and to deliver the messages of its marketing partners. Additionally, Meredith uses its many assets to create powerful custom marketing solutions for many of the nation's top brands and companies. The goals of these programs are to increase consumer loyalty and produce repeated consumer interaction. In the last two years, Meredith has significantly added to its capabilities in this area through the acquisition of cutting-edge companies in areas such as online, word-of-mouth and database marketing. Meredith employs approximately 3,600 people throughout the United States and its 2007 annual revenues were $1.6 billion.

*Meredith/NBC Universal "What do Women Want?" survey of 3,000 women 18-64.

SOURCE: Meredith Corporation

"Biblical History is the Key to Understanding the Dinosaur"

The Creation Museum presents a “walk through history.” Designed by a former Universal Studios exhibit director, this state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life.

A fully engaging, sensory experience for guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animals, life-sized people and dinosaur animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with misty sea breezes and rumbling seats. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy.

Via
or

When the Market Crashes

The world's first great stockmarket crash occurred in 1720 in England, France and, to a lesser degree, Holland. Without going much into specifics, if only to prevent my eyes glazing over, there are a few notable names and events associated with these speculative episodes of financial history that help give the illustrative response some context.

Via

When Puritans Fight Pt. 1

The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a series of air raids conducted by the RAF on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.

The operation was originally formulated by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with help from Air Chief Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris (who famously said of the Germans "They have sown the wind, and now they shall reap the whirlwind") and was actually a joint effort between the RAF Bomber Command, the RCAF, and the USAAF (specifically 8th Air Force Bomber Command), who combined to create an "around-the-clock" bombing mission spanning 8 days and 7 nights — the Americans conducting the daylight raids with the British following after nightfall.

On July 24, at approximately 00:57AM, the first bombing started by the RAF and lasted almost an hour. A second daylight raid by US Army Air Force was conducted at 2:40PM. A third raid was conducted on the morning of the 26th. The night attack of July 26 at 00:20AM was extremely light (due to a severe thunderstorm and high winds over the North Sea during which a considerable number of bombers jettisoned the explosive part of their bomb loads) with only two bomb drops reported. That attack is often not counted when the total number of Operation Gomorrah attacks is given. There was no day raid on the 27th.

On the night of July 27, shortly before midnight, 739 aircraft attacked Hamburg. A number of factors combined to give the enormous destruction that followed; the unusually dry and warm weather, the concentration of the bombing in one area and that the city's firefighters were unable to reach the initial fires — the high explosive "Cookies" used in the early part of the raid had prevented them getting into the center of the city from the periphery where they were working on the results of the 24th. The bombings culminated in the spawning of the so-called "Feuersturm" (firestorm). Quite literally a tornado of fire, this phenomenon created a huge outdoor blast furnace, containing winds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) and reaching temperatures of 800 °C (1,500 °F). It caused asphalt on the streets to burst into flame, cooked people to death in air-raid shelters, sucked pedestrians off the sidewalks like leaves into a vacuum cleaner and incinerated some eight square miles (21 km²) of the city. Most of the casualties (40,000) caused by Operation Gomorrah happened on this single night.

On the night of July 29, Hamburg was again attacked by over 700 aircraft. The last raid of Operation Gomorrah was conducted on August 3.

Operation Gomorrah caused at least 50,000 deaths and left over a million German civilians homeless. Approximately 3,000 aircraft were deployed, 9,000 tons of bombs dropped, and 250,000 houses destroyed.[citation needed] No subsequent city raid shook Germany as did that on Hamburg; documents show that German officials were thoroughly alarmed and there is some indication from later allied interrogation of high officials, that Hitler thought that further attacks of similar weight might force Germany out of the war. Hamburg was hit by air raids another 69 times before the end of World War II.

RAF Bomber Command lost 12 bombers on the first day of the attack. In total during the war, 440 were lost over Hamburg.

Via

The general mobilization of ants

China denies text message preceded bus bomb blasts

2 hours, 8 minutes ago

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese official dismissed reports that a bizarre text message had warned residents of Kunming to avoid buses hours before two bomb blasts killed two passengers in Monday's rush hour, state media said.

The attack, which came during a nationwide security clampdown ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics, also wounded 14 people in the city, capital of the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan.

Local media reported that police were investigating a text message allegedly received by residents hours before the blast, warning them not to take buses on Monday morning.

"The general mobilization of ants... (I) hope citizens receiving this message will not take bus lines 54, 64 and 84 tomorrow morning," the Southern Metropolitan Daily quoted the message as saying.

The explosions, which came within an hour of each other, hit two line 54 buses close to each other, blowing holes in the side. In both cases, ammonium nitrate was wrapped under the seats.

Kunming vice mayor Du Min dismissed the message as a fabrication.

"In fact, there was no such message," Xinhua news agency quoted Du as saying on Tuesday.

One of the injured passengers was in critical condition, while most of the others suffered shattered eardrums, state media reported earlier.

Police had started roadside checks in Kunming and stepped up security across the province. A team of experts had also arrived from Beijing.

Police had also offered a reward of 100,000 yuan ($14,660) for any information leading to solution of the case, Xinhua news agency said.

The attack happened less than three weeks before the Aug 8-24 Beijing Games, which China has warned could be a target of terror attacks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao condemned the blasts, but said there had been no evidence to link them with terrorists.

"There has been no evidence so far to show that the incident is related to the upcoming Beijing Olympics," Liu said at a news conference.

China has occasionally had bus explosions staged by disgruntled farmers or laid-off workers wanting to air grievances over poverty, demolitions or corruption.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom, Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by David Fogarty)

The Internet promises to have particularly far-reaching effects on cognition. In a paper published in 1936, the British mathematician Alan Turing proved that a digital computer, which at the time existed only as a theoretical machine, could be programmed to perform the function of any other information-processing device. And that’s what we’re seeing today. The Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.

Pope's Environmental Warning

Pope issues tough warning over pop culture, environment

Thu Jul 17, 7:06 AM

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday warned Catholics of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth's resources after a rapturous welcome at the world's biggest Christian festival in Australia.

Speaking against the spectacular backdrop of Sydney's famous harbour, the pontiff told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Australia's biggest and trendiest city that "something is amiss" in modern society.

"Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises," the pope said after a welcoming ceremony by Aborigines in tribal paint.

Benedict told a vast sea of youths from around the world, gathered under a forest of national flags for World Youth Day, that humanity was squandering the earth's resources to satisfy its insatiable appetite for material goods.

In one of his strongest-ever messages on the environment , the pope spoke poetically of his 20-hour flight from Rome to Australia, saying the wondrous views from his plane evoked a profound sense of awe.

But the 81-year-old pontiff told his young audience that the planet's problems were also easier to perceive from the sky.

"Perhaps reluctantly, we come to acknowledge that there are scars which mark the surface of our earth -- erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.

Earlier, shouts of "Viva, Papa" rang out over the harbour as a "boat-a-cade" of 13 vessels led by a water-spouting fire tug and flanked by bodyguards on jet skis glided past Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge en route to the pope's World Youth Day debut.

Benedict arrived in Sydney last Sunday, but took a four-day holiday before beginning his formal duties, which end with a papal mass expected to draw 500,000 people on Sunday.

Ahead of his public appearance, he was welcomed by Governor-General Michael Jeffery, the representative of Australia's head of state, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

In a brief speech at the ceremony at Sydney's Government House, the pontiff hailed Rudd's apology to Aborigines for past injustices in an historic address to parliament in February.

"Thanks to the Australian government's courageous decision to acknowledge the injustices committed against the indigenous peoples in the past, concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation based on mutual respect," Benedict said.

"This example of reconciliation offers hope to peoples all over the world who long to see their rights affirmed and their contribution to society acknowledged and promoted."

But there was some confusion over whether the pope would deliver an apology of his own -- to Australian victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergymen, as the scandal cast a shadow over the festival.

Benedict indicated to journalists on his plane on the way to Australia that he would apologise but a Vatican official late Wednesday raised doubts over the issue.

The angry parents of two Australian girls sexually abused by a Catholic priest urged Benedict not to back away from his apparent pledge to apologise.

"I can't really understand why they're backpedalling on that," said Anthony Foster, as he and his wife Christine flew into Sydney after cutting short a holiday in London.

The Fosters' daughter Emma committed suicide this year aged 26, after struggling to deal with abuse by a priest while she was at primary school.

Her sister Katie was also abused and turned to alcohol in her teens before being involved in a motor accident which left her brain-damaged.

Rudd, a committed Christian who attends Anglican services, told the pope that he was welcomed by Australians of all faiths "as an apostle of peace."

The pope later toured the city in his bullet-proof "popemobile" through thousands of cheering, flag-brandishing pilgrims and bemused locals heading home from work.

World Youth Day, a celebration of the Catholic faith aimed at rejuvenating the church, has been held in a different host city around the world every two or three years since 1986.

Gay Italian labelled as disabled wins discrimination case against gov't

Mon Jul 14, 1:59 PM

By Marta Falconi, The Associated Press

ROME - The Italian government was ordered to pay $160,000 to a gay man who received a driver's licence for the disabled after he volunteered information on his sexual orientation to military authorities, he said Monday.

Danilo Giuffrida, 27, said he told officials about his homosexuality when he took a physical after being called up in 2000 for Italy's mandatory year of military service, which has since been abolished.

Giuffrida told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his hometown, Catania, that he had hoped to avoid service and keep working to help support his family.

Giuffrida was disqualified for psychological reasons.

"It's the old assumption that if one is homosexual then he is also psychologically disturbed," said Aurelio Mancuso, president the main Italian gay rights group, Arcigay.

Giuffrida's lawyer, Giuseppe Lipera, said a military official sent his client's paperwork to motor-vehicle officials in Catania, who changed his standard driver's licence to one for the disabled.

Giuffrida said the disabled licence must be renewed every year instead of every 10 years, as is the case for standard licences.

"Some overzealous officer took upon himself the task of sending the paperwork" to the motor vehicle office, Lipera said. "Evidently, they thought that his sexual preferences were a mental disorder."

A judge in Catania, Sicily, ordered the transport and defence ministries to pay damages to Giuffrida in a ruling handed down last week. The transport ministry had no immediate comment on Monday, while defence officials said they had requested information on the case from military authorities in Catania.

Arcigay praised the court ruling and said it hoped the case would raise awareness about discrimination.

"In Italy, we still need to understand that differences among people make a country richer, not poorer," Giuffrida said. He did not say if his standard licence had been restored.

He said that he will use some of the money to buy a car.

Virtual History

New Italian museum offers 3D virtual tour of ancient city

Wed Jul 9, 2:57 PM

HERCULANEUM, Italy (AFP) - Visitors to Herculaneum, destroyed along with Pompeii in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, can now take a 3D virtual tour recreating life in the ancient Roman town.

The virtual walk, inaugurated Wednesday, seems to take the visitor through the town, stopping at the noisy market or going into luxurious villas as residents dressed in togas go about their business.

Other stops include the baths and a perfumery wafting the actual scents of balsam and other spices.

A special badge identifies the visitor as adult or child, foreigner or Italian.

Children will thus be unaware that when they reach the "lupanar" -- or brothel -- its erotic paintings will be substituted by more suitable images for their age group.

Man sues Tennessee church for $2.5 million over spiritual fall

Thu Jul 10, 2:35 PM

By The Associated Press

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A man in Knoxville, Tenn., says he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while worshipping.

Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay US$2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.

Matt Lincoln says he is suing after the church's insurance company denied his claim for medical bills.

The 57-year-old has had two surgeries since the June 2007 injury, but still feels pain in his back and legs.

He says he was asking God to have "a real experience" while praying.

Lawyers for the church say he failed to look out for his own safety, and other congregants even saw him on the floor laughing after his fall.

Silence Day

Silence Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silence Day is the name the followers of Meher Baba give to their practice of commemorating July 10th of each year by maintaining verbal silence for twenty-four hours.

From July 10, 1925 until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent. He communicated first by using an alphabet board, and later by hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali (devoted disciples), usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala. For many years, Baba asked his followers to undertake austerities on this date. These took various forms: in addition to keeping silence, Baba had asked his followers to fast, to pray, to repeat the names of God, and similar practices. In his last request to his followers on the subject, in 1968, he requested that they keep silent. Typically Baba had said that fasting might be done as an alternative to silence, but in this final request, there was no option given.

While Meher Baba did not establish any special ongoing requirement of his followers to keep silence on this day, the majority make it a practice to keep silent, on an informal and voluntary basis. Some stay in seclusion for the duration, while others attempt to engage in their typical activities; there are therefore many humorous anecdotes associated with keeping silent on Silence Day.

About his silence Meher Baba wrote,

Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence.

Over the Top

Stabbing deaths of French students in London shocks police, horrifies public

2 hours, 44 minutes ago

By Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

LONDON - The tabloids are calling them the "Tarantino murders."

The two young Frenchmen, promising research students at one of Britain's top universities, had been bound and stabbed repeatedly in the head, neck and torso before their bodies were doused in fuel and set alight. A senior Scotland Yard detective said their wounds were the worst he had ever seen.

Even for a city assailed almost daily by reports of knife crime, this was shocking - a burst of brutality reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino film. No one has been charged in the June 29 deaths that horrified people on both sides of the English Channel, and prompted some French journalists to depict London as a city of mean streets, rampant crime and "no-go" areas.

On Tuesday, bouquets of flowers lay behind police tape outside the brick townhouse where Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were killed. One note expressed hope that they had not died in vain: "Maybe something will be done," it said.

Detectives were questioning a 33-year-old man who surrendered Monday after police released a description of a man seen running from the area on the day of the killings. The suspect, who has not been named, was treated in hospital for burns after this arrest.

Det. Chief Insp. Mick Duthie of London's Metropolitan Police said the students were subjected to "a frenzied, horrible, horrific attack."

"I have never seen injuries like this throughout my career," he said.

Police have found no obvious motive for the killings. They say the two bioengineering students, who were on three-month research placements at London's Imperial College, were talented academics and had not been involved in criminal activity.

On June 29, Ferez visited Bonomo's apartment in the New Cross area of south London. That night, neighbours called police when they heard what sounded like an explosion and saw the ground-floor apartment ablaze. Police initially thought the men died in the fire, but autopsies showed they had been stabbed to death. Bonomo had almost 200 wounds, Ferez almost 50. Police believe some of the injuries were inflicted after they died.

One theory is that the men were victims of mistaken identity, or of a robbery gone wrong. Police are trying to trace two Sony PlayStation consoles they believe were taken from the apartment. They are also investigating possible links between the deaths and a robbery at the apartment a week earlier in which a laptop computer was stolen.

David Nias, a clinical psychologist who has studied criminals, said the level of violence was "way over the top for a burglary" and pointed to a sadistic killer who may have murdered before.

"A first offender would be more restrained or inhibited," he said. "These sort of incidents are very, very rare. That's what makes it difficult for the police."

In France, news reports depicted the district where the men were killed as drug-ridden and violent.

"Never go south of the river. In London, among the large French community, the adage is well-known," read the opening lines of an article in France-Soir. "But considering the exorbitant price of rents in the British capital, there are numerous students who, like Laurent, settle on the other side of the Thames."

France-Soir quoted a young Frenchman who said he never goes out after dark in New Cross. Le Parisien newspaper described the neighbourhood as dominated by refugees and students, and said it was adjacent to drug-and gang-infested areas.

Residents say such descriptions are misleading. Bonomo rented a ground-floor apartment on a quiet cul-de-sac in a suburban area that contains Victorian, 1930s and modern architecture. A mix of public housing and private homes, it is not the best neighbourhood in London, nor the worst.

On New Cross' busy, run-down main street, locals said the area's large Afro-Caribbean population coexists mostly peaceably with thousands of students from the University of London's Goldsmith's College.

"It's a bit of a weird mix," said Laura Kenny, a bartender at the Amersham Arms, a pub and music venue that attracts hipsters from across London. "But there's no sense of antagonism.

"I live in New Cross and I don't feel scared walking down the street."

London is undergoing a period of soul-searching about violence because of knife crimes involving young people. Nineteen teenagers have been killed in the city this year, many of them stabbed by other young people.

The killings of Ferez and Bonomo don't fit that pattern, in part because they are foreigners and because of the level of violence.

"We're all shaken up," said David Chrisp, who lives on the street where the men died. "This is a quiet area. There's a few people who have complained about robberies and break-ins, but that's life, isn't it?"

No immediate laws that then come to nothing.

Healthy woman's assisted suicide sets off a firestorm in Germany

2 hours, 38 minutes ago

By Patrick Mcgroarty, The Associated Press

BERLIN - Bettina Schardt knew that the combination of drugs she drank in the living room of her home in Wuerzburg last week would kill her, and she died alone.

But this was no ordinary suicide. A German doctor told her just the right formula of antimalarial drugs and tranquilizers she needed to commit suicide painlessly - and he set up a camera to film her death.

The case has set off a firestorm here not only because of the way Dr. Roger Kusch has publicized his role in the death - holding a press conference in which he played snippets of the woman's last moments - but also because of the motives behind her suicide.

The 79-year-old Schardt was not in chronic pain or suffering from a terminal illness. She was healthy and simply wanted to avoid moving into a nursing home.

On Friday, five of Germany's 16 states plan to push the federal government to tighten laws on assisted suicide. They want to make it illegal for companies to profit from teaching people how to kill themselves.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the conservative Christian Democratic Union, told a German television broadcaster Wednesday that she opposes assisted suicide "in whatever form it comes."

But liberal politicians have cautioned against amending suicide laws too quickly.

"No snap decisions," Peter Struck, parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats, said this week. "No immediate laws that then come to nothing."

Suicide is not illegal in Germany, nor is assisting one. But mercy killing and euthanasia carry a heavy stigma here because of Nazi eugenics programs that killed more than 70,000 mentally ill and handicapped people before and during the Second World War.

Kusch, a Hamburg physician and former state justice senator told Schardt how to take enough of the antimalarial drug chloroquine and the tranquilizer diazepam to make her drift into unconsciousness and then arrest her breathing. He did not administer the deadly mixture and broke no law.

He told reporters in Hamburg on Monday that he set up a camera in Schardt's home and then let her be.

"I said, 'farewell,' and then I left," Kusch said. He also showed clips of the tape in which Schardt confirmed that she was ending her life of her own free will.

Kusch did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.

In a farewell note addressed to Kusch, Schardt assured him that she planned her own death "smilingly and systematically."

"Should the manner of my death help you in your fight, my life goal - the freedom to die in dignity - will be achieved," Schardt wrote.

Foreign Accent Syndrome

Southern Ontario woman gets Newfoundland accent after stroke, researchers say

Thu Jul 3, 3:28 PM

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - A southern Ontario woman who suffered a serious stroke two years ago is also experiencing a rare medical mystery, one that researchers say causes her to sound like a Newfoundlander.

Rose Dore had a stroke in 2006, triggering a phenomenon known as foreign-accent syndrome. When the 52-year-old checked herself into a Hamilton, Ont., hospital, staff assumed she was from the East Coast.

It wasn't until her family arrived and heard Dore speak that health-care workers realized they had a special case on their hands. Staff then contacted speech specialists who mapped Dore's language patterns and concluded she was experiencing foreign-accent syndrome.

A new report, published in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, found that although Dore's accent isn't identical to that of a Newfoundlander there are striking similarities.

Principle investigator Karin Humphreys of McMaster University said family members noticed specific changes in Dore's speech.

"Instead of saying 'that' and 'this' she was saying 'dat' and 'diss' at least some of the time. So the 'ths' were turning into 'ds' and 'ts' and her vowels were really changing so they were getting really elongated," said Humphreys.

"She was saying things like 'doog' (instead of dog)."

Researchers took recordings of Dore's speech and matched them with known features of a Newfoundlander's accent.

It provided a "pretty good match," said Alexandre Sevigny, one of the study's co-authors.

In an interview published Wednesday, Dore, who deals with paralysis from her stroke and now lives in Windsor, Ont., said she feels lucky, regardless of her new accent.

Dore wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday.

Considering the sometimes catastrophic affects of strokes, including complete loss of speech, Humphreys said Dore's new accent "is actually a very good outcome language-wise."

Her speech sounds completely normal. Nobody thinks that she sounds disordered at all, like she's had a stroke," she said. "It just sounds a bit different."

There are 50,000 strokes in Canada every year, with Dore's case the first confirmed case of foreign-accent syndrome, Sevigny said.

There are only 20 known cases worldwide, with each having been confirmed by brain scans, she added.

Arcology

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