South Africa In The News Again

I've noted before how news seems to come in groups. At one point, I seemed to be finding items coming out of Cyprus almost daily. So it is with South Africa. Yesterday, there was an article about a brave man using a really short spear to kill a rogue leopard. Today, we have an item about South African officials celebrating by preparing a traditional culinary delight!

Whale flambé!

KOMMETJIE BEACH, South Africa (Reuters) - South African officials set fire to a 34-tonne whale carcass on Wednesday, sending white smoke into the air near Cape Town as spectators clambered over blubber-strewn rocks for a closer look.

The dead southern right whale washed up onto the quiet Kommetjie beach, 40 km (25 miles) south of the country's top tourist city nearly two weeks ago.

Officials packed tons of wood and poured 80 litres of a petrol and diesel fuel mix over the decomposing 15 metre (47 foot) whale to spark a fire expected to burn for up to two days.

"The first prize would have been to leave it here to decompose but with residents nearby, and the smell," Robin Adams, operations manager for the Table Mountain National Park, told Reuters that wasn't an option.

"The oil and fat seeping back into the sea was also attracting sharks," he said as a strong wind blew smoke away from adjacent homes.

Mmmm. Sounds tasty.

THIS Is amusing

AP must have gotten a LOT of flack for it's unquestioning PR type headline about Cuba that I posted about last night. They have substantially re-written the story and changed the headline. It now reads; "Cuba tries to reassure its citizens". Instead of: "Castro says he's stable after surgery".

They either took a lot of flack or they read, and heed, Blue Crab Boulevard!

Ok, ok, they got a lot of flack.

UPDATE: Never fear, though. AFP is still acting as PR personnel for Castro: "Castro says he is in 'good spirits'" the story is reporting about the same statement read on Cuban television.

HAVANA (AFP) - Fidel Castro said he was in "good spirits" after surgery, according to a statement read out on Cuban television, but he made no public appearance, as Cuban-Americans in Florida celebrated his decline.

Meanwhile, In Canada

Every now and then we've all heard stories of towns being overrun with pigeons, other birds or stray cats or dogs. These are all manifestations of the animal uprising we keep trying to warn people about, of course. But this kind of infestation is relatively minor-league. A town in Canada is finding that out the hard way. They are experiencing a major league animal invasion.

They are being overrun by buffalo.

The so-called wood bison wandered into Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories in May and seemed to like its thick manicured lawns, open spaces and lack of predators such as wolves, Darren Campbell told AFP by telephone.

But the buffalo also rub siding off houses, knock down fences, kick dogs and trucks, and scare children off playgrounds, he said.

"It's pretty comical at a glance, but folks here have had enough. They each weigh 2,500 lbs. That's about the size of a Volkswagen (car). It's quite a large pest," he said.

"You're sure to run into one when you walk to the corner store for milk. One of them kicked a vehicle. Try and get an insurance claim done after your car was kicked by a buffalo," he said. "The adjustor will just laugh at you."

Some of the buffalo have returned to a nearby forest in search of mates, but two very "troublesome" giants were shot by resource officers.

Now it's bad enough that your morning jaunt to the market may result in a buffalo kicking heck out of your car, but what will happen when it escalates? What happens when the buffalo begin panhandling? Or offering to wash your car window with a dirty rag for a buck? Hmmm? Nobody ever thinks of these things until it's too late.

Forget Snakes On A Plane

After all, that's just a movie, isn't it? We have a real problem now. Monkeys on a train! The animal uprising just keeps getting worse and worse.

NEW DELHI - In an effort to keep monkeys out of the New Delhi subways, authorities have called in one of the few animals known to scare the creatures — a fierce-looking primate called the langur, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

The decision to hire a langurwallah — a man who trains and controls the langurs — came after a monkey got into a metro car in June, the newspaper reported.

The langur handler is being paid a retainer of India rupees 6,900 ($160) a month, and "he will be called whenever there is a monkey problem," Anuj Dayal, the spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp., was quoted as saying.

On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.

So now the monkeys are jumping turnstiles. New Delhi needs Rudy Giuliani to show them how to crack down on those types of low-level crime before the monkeys move on to bigger things!

Hezbollah Uses Iranian Rockets

Hezbollah suddenly returned to launching a barrage of rockets today after a two day lull. This time the barrage included long-range Iranian Kaibar-1 rockets. A village some 45 miles from the border came under attack for the first time.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas bombarded northern Israel with rockets and fought up to 6,000 Israeli troops in Lebanon on Wednesday after Israel vowed to pursue the war until a strong international force arrived.

Israeli commandos snatched suspected Hizbollah members from the ancient city of Baalbek in a helicopter-borne raid backed by air strikes that killed 19 people, including four children.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Reuters he wanted the international force to be mandated to enforce a U.N. resolution calling for Hizbollah to be disarmed, adding that Israel had already destroyed much of the group's military power.

Soon after he spoke, one of more than 80 rockets fired by Hizbollah on Wednesday, landed just inside the West Bank after flying further than any fired at Israel in the past three weeks.

Hizbollah said it had hit the Israeli town of Beit Shean, almost 70 km (45 miles) from the border, with "Khaibar 1" rockets to avenge Israeli attacks on civilians in Lebanon.

The Hizbollah barrage, which killed one person in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, followed a relative lull in its attacks over the previous two days.

The Jerusalem Post puts the number of rockets today at over 150. One person was killed.

One person was killed when a Hizbullah-fired rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the Nahariya area Wednesday afternoon.

Bringing another city under Hizbullah's sights, A Khabar-1 rocket landed near Beit She'an Wednesday. Israel, which claims the rocket is Iranian-made, confirmed the hit and said at least seven people were wounded.

Beit Shean is about 70 kilometers (42 miles) south of the Lebanese border and marks the farthest town to date to come under fire.

The death marked the first fatality since rockets began raining down all over the North on Wednesday morning after a relative lull in rocket attacks for two days.

At least six people were wounded by shrapnel - two in light to moderate condition - in the morning's attacks, and 15 people were treated for shock.

More than 150 rockets have fallen on northern cities so far.

Where's the outcry over the Hezbollah war crimes?

Hospital Raid Captures Hezbollah Officials

Jerusalem Post is reporting that a number of unidentified Hezbollah officials were captured during the Israeli commando raid on a Baalbek hospital. Israel reports no commandos were injured despite loud chest-thumping from Hezbollah spokesmen.

 After several hours of intense fighting in and around the hospital in the eastern Lebanon town of Baalbek, which was built by Iran for the express purpose of treating Hizbullah operatives, IDF commando forces on Wednesday morning took a number of Hizbullah operatives captive.

An IAF helicopter dropped commando forces a short distance from the hospital late Tuesday night. The force was discovered as it moved towards the structure, where Hizbullah operatives were suspected of hiding. Several hours of gunfights ensued, and at least 10 Hizbullah guerrillas were reported killed.

Another force was helicoptered in to extricate the commandos and provide backup for the mission.

After inspecting the identification of everyone in the hospital, the IDF soldiers proceeded to arrest several Hizbullah officials, who were later transported back into Israel. The officials' names and positions in the organization were not revealed.

The main target of the operation was allegedly Muhammad Yazbek, a senior figure in the organization; however, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said in a briefing on Wednesday that IDF forces "weren't there to obtain something specific." Yazbek was not in the hospital at the time of the raid.

No IDF soldiers were wounded in the operation, an army spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post.

I saw over at the Counterterrorism blog that the men captured might have been fairly low level. At least one of the men had a name very similar to the leader of Hezbollah.

I saw over at the Counterterrorism blog that the men captured might have been fairly low level. At least one of the men had a name very similar to the leader of Hezbollah.

Murtha To Be Sued

John Murtha is being sued by one of the marines he slandered when he declared them all "cold-blooded killers". This is a thing of beauty and I cannot wait to see how badly this one is going to singe Murtha's reelection bid.

A Marine Corps staff sergeant who led the squad accused of killing two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, will file a lawsuit today in federal court in Washington claiming that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) defamed him when the congressman made public comments about the incident earlier this year.

Attorneys for Frank D. Wuterich, 26, argue in court papers that Murtha tarnished the Marine's reputation by telling news organizations in May that the Marine unit cracked after a roadside bomb killed one of its members and that the troops "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Murtha also said repeatedly that the incident was covered up.

Now, the details are still not known completely on the cover-up investigation, however preliminary reports indicated that there was no cover-up. So Murtha is already caught in one lie. The fact that this marine is willing to take on Murtha of the latter's execrable remarks is a breath of fresh air. Read the whole article for the full story, but here's the one part that really caught my eye:

The move by Wuterich is rare, as statements made by members of Congress generally are protected under the "speech or debate" clause in Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution. But legal experts said the clause grants immunity only for what lawmakers say in legislative proceedings and does not apply to news releases, speeches and other public comments.

Rodney A. Smolla, dean of the University of Richmond Law School and a libel expert, said yesterday that Wuterich would have the burden of proving that he is innocent and that Murtha's statements were false, but he added that the quotations appear to be actionable in court. He said the suit shows that Wuterich probably thinks he did nothing wrong.

"Part of the subtext of this is it's a showing of confidence and a preemptive strike of sorts," Smolla said. "The congressman's statement does not sound as if it is merely hyperbole or opinion or name-calling. Instead, it conveys the idea that the Marines violated professional standards and perhaps the law."

I've said all along, since the first time I read Murtha's outrageous statements that he was badly out of line to do so. One hopes he gets soundly spanked in court for this one.

UPDATE: A commenter beat me to this before I could link it. An AP story just released a short while ago.

WASHINGTON - Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have completed their initial work on the incident last November, but may be asked to probe further as Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors review the evidence and determine whether to recommend criminal charges, according to two Pentagon officials who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

The decision on whether to press criminal charges ultimately will be made by the commander of the accused Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is scheduled to move to a Pentagon assignment soon; his successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

The case is one of several involving alleged unjustified killings of Iraqi civilians that have emerged this year, damaging the military's reputation for humane treatment of civilians and triggering calls by some Iraqi leaders to end the arrangement under which U.S. troops are immune from prosecution by Iraqi authorities.

One has to question whether this unsourced story was released just after the news of the lawsuit or whether the lawsuit was announced in anticipation of the story. Regardless, the wording of the AP report is unusual as it says: "supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children". That's an odd turn of phrase in this context and appears to be directly addressing Murtha's accusations not criminal charges. Something is odd about that, I think.

This also does nothing whatever to negate the fact that a separate report shows their was no coverup, either.