Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tribute to Ingmar Bergman

The great man has played his last chess game.
* Remains of 4 babies discovered in suburban home
* Accusations Tour de France winner used drugs
* Another hostage murdered by Taliban

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Second Korean hostage 'killed' by Taliban
From news.com.au From correspondents in Ghazni, Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban militia said it shot dead a South Korean hostage late yesterday after its deadlines expired for the Government to free prisoners in jail.
“We set several deadlines and the Afghani Government did not pay attention to our deadlines,” spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

“Finally tonight at 8.30 (2am AEST) we killed one of the Koreans named Sung Sin with AK-47 gunshots.”

The body of the hostage was dumped in the Qarabagh district of the southern province of Ghazni, Ahmadi said, the area where 23 South Korean Christians, officially on an aid mission, were captured on July 19.

There was no independent confirmation of the death.

The South Korean embassy in Afghanistan has refused to comment to the media on the case.

The leader of the group, a 42-year-old pastor, was shot dead on Wednesday and his bullet-riddled body found in a desert area of the province.

It was reported earlier that Ghazni province governor Marajudin Pathan said the militants agreed to extend their deadline until Wednesday to allow time for additional negotiations over the Taliban prisoners' release, but Ahmadi could not be reached for comment.

Anonymous said...

Tour win 'greatest swindle'
From Fox Sports From correspondents in Berlin
A LEADING German expert in the fight against doping claims to have evidence indicating that Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has used drugs.

Twenty-four hours after the Spaniard donned the winner's yellow jersey on the Champs Elysees in Paris, narrowly holding out Australia's Cadel Evans, Wener Franke described the 24-year-old's victory as "the greatest swindle in sporting history".

Franke bases his claim on documents, he says are in his possession, from the Spanish police's "Operation Puerto" inquiry into Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor said to have masterminded doping programs for athletes.

"The name of this Mr Contador appears on several occasions on the court and police documents," Franke told a German television station.

"All of this has been simply concealed and hidden under the carpet whilst the name Contador was erased from the list of supicious riders.

Franke said he had a detailed list of banned products used by Contador, which appear in sworn statements made following the raid on Fuentes's medical practise.

"He took insulin, HMG-Lepori, a hormone to stimulate the secretion of testosterone and also a product for asthma called TGN," Franke said.

"In brief, I have before my eyes a protocol for doping.

"All of this has been covered up, at least in Spain."

Contador, who inherited the lead in the Tour de France last week after Michael Rasmussen's expulsion in a row over missed random drug tests, denied he'd had any links with Fuentes's program.

"I was in the wrong team at the wrong time, and somehow my name got among the documents, but the UCI corrected the mistake and now I've got no link to Puerto," Contador said when asked after the penultimate time-trial in Angouleme on Saturday why his name had been linked to Fuentes.

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was among the cyclists associated with Fuentes.

Agence France-Presse

Anonymous said...

Four dead babies found in home
By Jon Hurdle
THE remains of four premature babies have been found hidden in garbage bags and a blanket at a woman's home in the US state of Maryland, police said overnight.

Christy Freeman, 37, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the death of one of the babies.

Further charges may follow, said Ocean City police spokesman Barry Neeb.

Police found the body of one baby wrapped in a blanket in Ms Freeman's apartment on Friday after she was admitted to a local hospital with cramps and bleeding, Mr Neeb said.

Doctors at the hospital determined that Ms Freeman had been pregnant but not anymore, prompting police to search her apartment.

At the apartment, police also found a garbage bag hidden in a trunk in Ms Freeman's bedroom.

Inside were three smaller plastic bags, two of which contained the remains of two more infants, and a third contained what police said was a placenta.

The next day, the remains of a fourth infant were found in another garbage bag inside a Winnebago motor home parked in Ms Freeman's driveway, according to a police statement.

A medical examiner's report on the ages of the infants and the cause of their deaths is expected this week.

"None of them were full-term," Mr Neeb said.

Police are continuing to search Ms Freeman's home and excavate its surroundings in an operation that also involves the FBI.

Ms Freeman has four other children who are believed to be teenagers, Mr Neeb said.

Ms Freeman was at a bail hearing overnight, and the case is expected to be referred to a grand jury, Mr Neeb said.