none of this has anything to do with one another (obviously goes without saying)
did y'all hear about that bear killing that 5 month old baby? well if you didn't........read this......
Bear Mauls Baby Girl
in Upstate New York
5-Month-Old Girl Was Sleeping
in Stroller Outside Vacation Cottage
By Connor Ennis
The Associated Press
F A L L S B U R G, N.Y., Aug. 20 — Five-month-old Ester Schwimmer was nestled in her carriage for an afternoon nap outside her family's mountain bungalow when the screams began to pour through their community.
"Bear, bear, bear," witnesses yelled Monday shortly before a black bear snatched Ester from her stroller and dragged her into the woods as her mother brought her two other children to safety. Residents desperately hurled rocks at the bear as it ran away.
The bear eventually dropped the New York City infant, but she had severe injuries to her head and neck, and was pronounced dead at Ellenville Hospital, said Fallsburg Police Chief Brent Lawrence.
Authorities shot and killed the bear after hunting it down through the woods.
"It may be the first season that it may have been on its own, and it may very well have perceived this infant as a food source," Lawrence said.
The death stunned visitors of the Catskills resort community about 70 miles northwest of New York City and baffled wildlife officials who say black bears rarely attack humans. The American Bear Association says only 40 deaths in all of North America were caused by black bears in the last century.
"In all my many years, 34 summers, we've had them eat birdseed, get into trouble eating dog food in people's yards, but black bears are just not noted for attacking humans," said Ward Stone, state wildlife pathologist.
Ester was sleeping in her carriage by the porch of the bungalow, near her mother and two siblings at around 2 p.m. when the attack occurred. After hearing the screams, the mother shuttled her 4- and 2-year-old children inside, Lawrence said. Moments later, when she came outside again, the infant was gone.
Witnesses reported seeing the young bear with the baby in its mouth as it ambled into dense woods 20 feet from the bungalow.
Isaac Abraham, a community leader from Brooklyn, said people desperately tried to save the girl. "People started chasing the bear, throwing rocks at it," he said.
Familiar With People and Garbage
Department of Environmental Conservation and police officers pursued the young black bear into the woods, Lawrence said. Fallsburg officer David Decker shot it once.
"It was just standing there. It wasn't scared," Decker said. "As I walked toward the bear, the bear climbed up a tree. And that's when I shot the bear."
Initial test results showed the young adult male wasn't rabid. Its stomach had ants, seeds, vegetation and small plastic bags and fruit labels, showing it was familiar with people and their garbage, Stone said.
Black bears are common in that area of the Catskills region, Lawrence said. Fallsburg police get up to a dozen reports weekly of bears pawing through garbage cans or bird feeders, he said.
The attack happened about 70 miles northwest of New York City, in the heart of what is known as the Borscht Belt. Big hotels and bungalows attract thousands of visitors each summer, many of them Jewish families from New York City. Scattered bungalow colonies still remain.
The town swells from a year-round population of about 13,000 to 60,000 in the summer, Lawrence said.
But many campers were cutting short their stays and heading home after the attack.
"Everybody's paranoid," camper Toby Tessler said Monday night.
crazy huh?..........and here's the iraqi shit............
A previously unknown Iraqi opposition group occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, injuring two people and taking hostages, according to German police.
German special police forces secure the area in front of the Iraqi Embassy in the Berlin. Members of an Iraqi opposition group were occupying the building. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters) Under Siege
Two Hurt in Hostage-Taking at Iraqi Embassy in Berlin
By Nick Tattersall
B E R L I N, Aug. 20 — An obscure Iraqi opposition group occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin today, taking hostages, and police said two people were injured.
The group, calling itself the Democratic Iraqi Opposition of Germany, issued a statement saying it was launching "peaceful and temporary action" to press its demand for an end to President Saddam Hussein's rule in Baghdad.
"Iraqi opposition members tried to force their way into the embassy and then there were shots from the embassy," a police spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
Another police spokesman at the scene said two people had been injured and said the number of hostages taken at the embassy was believed to be fewer than 10, but among those held was thought to be the Iraqi first secretary, the highest-ranking diplomat at the mission.
"We are already trying to make contact with the group," said police spokesman Joerg Nittmann. The two people injured, a man and a woman, were not shot and had been taken from the scene for treatment.
The spokesman said police did not have any more information about the identity of the opposition group. He said German special forces had been informed about the incident.
‘In the Name of the Iraqi People’
The group sent a statement to Reuters saying: "In the name of the Iraqi people and their legitimate leadership, the Iraqi opposition, we declare that the liberation of Iraqi soil begins today. We are taking over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin and with this the first step in the liberation of our beloved fatherland."
The statement, which appeared to have been sent by fax from the town of Hamburg, listed contact details at the bottom of the page which included the number of the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin.
Police sealed off the street outside the embassy in a leafy district of Berlin. There were seven police vans, an armored personnel carrier and three fire engines outside the building, which was screened by trees and bushes.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said the street was quiet with police standing around their vehicles.
INC Condemns Occupation
The Iraqi National Congress, the country's main opposition group in exile, condemned the occupation of the Iraqi Embassy by what it called an obscure organization not representing the opposition.
The Iraqi Embassy in Berlin is situated in the leafy suburb of Zehlendorf. (ABCNEWS.com,Maps.com)
"We confine our war of liberation to Iraq proper," a spokesman said in London for the Iraqi National Congress, which includes at least six main factions of the Iraqi opposition.
"We are trying to get more information on these people. We do not condone such violence," the spokesman said.
The statement by the embassy occupiers said: "This first step against the terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein and his killers, which is taking place with a peaceful purpose, is intended to make the German people, its organizations and its political powers understand that our people have a desire to be free and will act on it."
Germany Opposes Possible U.S. Attack on Iraq
The occupation comes after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, fighting an election next month, has stepped up his criticism of possible U.S.-led military action against Iraq.
Iraqi opposition leaders met with senior U.S. officials in Washington at the weekend to discuss ousting Saddam, who the United States accuses of massing weapons of mass destruction.
The incident comes almost exactly 30 years after Palestinian guerrillas took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Lax security and police botches were blamed for the death of the 11 Israelis and five of the gunmen.
The incident prompted Germany to improve its elite police training and revise its procedures for dealing with hostage taking.
In the attack that took place on Sept. 5, 1972, the Palestinian guerrillas killed two Israeli athletes straight away and took nine athletes and officials hostage, demanding the release of 200 prisoners held in Israel.
Later at Munich's Furstenfeld military airport, from where the guerrillas were hoping to leave Germany, police opened fire and a gun fight broke out. All nine remaining hostages were killed, as well as five of the gunmen. A policeman also died.
just a post to keep those who aren't.........informed.
did y'all hear about that bear killing that 5 month old baby? well if you didn't........read this......
Bear Mauls Baby Girl
in Upstate New York
5-Month-Old Girl Was Sleeping
in Stroller Outside Vacation Cottage
By Connor Ennis
The Associated Press
F A L L S B U R G, N.Y., Aug. 20 — Five-month-old Ester Schwimmer was nestled in her carriage for an afternoon nap outside her family's mountain bungalow when the screams began to pour through their community.
"Bear, bear, bear," witnesses yelled Monday shortly before a black bear snatched Ester from her stroller and dragged her into the woods as her mother brought her two other children to safety. Residents desperately hurled rocks at the bear as it ran away.
The bear eventually dropped the New York City infant, but she had severe injuries to her head and neck, and was pronounced dead at Ellenville Hospital, said Fallsburg Police Chief Brent Lawrence.
Authorities shot and killed the bear after hunting it down through the woods.
"It may be the first season that it may have been on its own, and it may very well have perceived this infant as a food source," Lawrence said.
The death stunned visitors of the Catskills resort community about 70 miles northwest of New York City and baffled wildlife officials who say black bears rarely attack humans. The American Bear Association says only 40 deaths in all of North America were caused by black bears in the last century.
"In all my many years, 34 summers, we've had them eat birdseed, get into trouble eating dog food in people's yards, but black bears are just not noted for attacking humans," said Ward Stone, state wildlife pathologist.
Ester was sleeping in her carriage by the porch of the bungalow, near her mother and two siblings at around 2 p.m. when the attack occurred. After hearing the screams, the mother shuttled her 4- and 2-year-old children inside, Lawrence said. Moments later, when she came outside again, the infant was gone.
Witnesses reported seeing the young bear with the baby in its mouth as it ambled into dense woods 20 feet from the bungalow.
Isaac Abraham, a community leader from Brooklyn, said people desperately tried to save the girl. "People started chasing the bear, throwing rocks at it," he said.
Familiar With People and Garbage
Department of Environmental Conservation and police officers pursued the young black bear into the woods, Lawrence said. Fallsburg officer David Decker shot it once.
"It was just standing there. It wasn't scared," Decker said. "As I walked toward the bear, the bear climbed up a tree. And that's when I shot the bear."
Initial test results showed the young adult male wasn't rabid. Its stomach had ants, seeds, vegetation and small plastic bags and fruit labels, showing it was familiar with people and their garbage, Stone said.
Black bears are common in that area of the Catskills region, Lawrence said. Fallsburg police get up to a dozen reports weekly of bears pawing through garbage cans or bird feeders, he said.
The attack happened about 70 miles northwest of New York City, in the heart of what is known as the Borscht Belt. Big hotels and bungalows attract thousands of visitors each summer, many of them Jewish families from New York City. Scattered bungalow colonies still remain.
The town swells from a year-round population of about 13,000 to 60,000 in the summer, Lawrence said.
But many campers were cutting short their stays and heading home after the attack.
"Everybody's paranoid," camper Toby Tessler said Monday night.
crazy huh?..........and here's the iraqi shit............
A previously unknown Iraqi opposition group occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, injuring two people and taking hostages, according to German police.
German special police forces secure the area in front of the Iraqi Embassy in the Berlin. Members of an Iraqi opposition group were occupying the building. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters) Under Siege
Two Hurt in Hostage-Taking at Iraqi Embassy in Berlin
By Nick Tattersall
B E R L I N, Aug. 20 — An obscure Iraqi opposition group occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin today, taking hostages, and police said two people were injured.
The group, calling itself the Democratic Iraqi Opposition of Germany, issued a statement saying it was launching "peaceful and temporary action" to press its demand for an end to President Saddam Hussein's rule in Baghdad.
"Iraqi opposition members tried to force their way into the embassy and then there were shots from the embassy," a police spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
Another police spokesman at the scene said two people had been injured and said the number of hostages taken at the embassy was believed to be fewer than 10, but among those held was thought to be the Iraqi first secretary, the highest-ranking diplomat at the mission.
"We are already trying to make contact with the group," said police spokesman Joerg Nittmann. The two people injured, a man and a woman, were not shot and had been taken from the scene for treatment.
The spokesman said police did not have any more information about the identity of the opposition group. He said German special forces had been informed about the incident.
‘In the Name of the Iraqi People’
The group sent a statement to Reuters saying: "In the name of the Iraqi people and their legitimate leadership, the Iraqi opposition, we declare that the liberation of Iraqi soil begins today. We are taking over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin and with this the first step in the liberation of our beloved fatherland."
The statement, which appeared to have been sent by fax from the town of Hamburg, listed contact details at the bottom of the page which included the number of the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin.
Police sealed off the street outside the embassy in a leafy district of Berlin. There were seven police vans, an armored personnel carrier and three fire engines outside the building, which was screened by trees and bushes.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said the street was quiet with police standing around their vehicles.
INC Condemns Occupation
The Iraqi National Congress, the country's main opposition group in exile, condemned the occupation of the Iraqi Embassy by what it called an obscure organization not representing the opposition.
The Iraqi Embassy in Berlin is situated in the leafy suburb of Zehlendorf. (ABCNEWS.com,Maps.com)
"We confine our war of liberation to Iraq proper," a spokesman said in London for the Iraqi National Congress, which includes at least six main factions of the Iraqi opposition.
"We are trying to get more information on these people. We do not condone such violence," the spokesman said.
The statement by the embassy occupiers said: "This first step against the terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein and his killers, which is taking place with a peaceful purpose, is intended to make the German people, its organizations and its political powers understand that our people have a desire to be free and will act on it."
Germany Opposes Possible U.S. Attack on Iraq
The occupation comes after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, fighting an election next month, has stepped up his criticism of possible U.S.-led military action against Iraq.
Iraqi opposition leaders met with senior U.S. officials in Washington at the weekend to discuss ousting Saddam, who the United States accuses of massing weapons of mass destruction.
The incident comes almost exactly 30 years after Palestinian guerrillas took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Lax security and police botches were blamed for the death of the 11 Israelis and five of the gunmen.
The incident prompted Germany to improve its elite police training and revise its procedures for dealing with hostage taking.
In the attack that took place on Sept. 5, 1972, the Palestinian guerrillas killed two Israeli athletes straight away and took nine athletes and officials hostage, demanding the release of 200 prisoners held in Israel.
Later at Munich's Furstenfeld military airport, from where the guerrillas were hoping to leave Germany, police opened fire and a gun fight broke out. All nine remaining hostages were killed, as well as five of the gunmen. A policeman also died.
just a post to keep those who aren't.........informed.