Random Strangers Hunted, Slashed With Razor Blades For Gang Initiations In Florida
Posted: 26 Apr 2008 02:20 AM CDT
Investigators said a gang in Flagler County is sending its future members to Daytona Beach to seek out victims to cut. Once a gang recruit slashes a stranger, he gains the respect of his peers and is inducted into their underground society.
The latest victims have prompted a warning to the community from police.
“It could be anybody they see,” Daytona Beach police Sgt. Bill Walden said. “In both incidents, it was just someone walking down the road, taken by surprise.”
Joshua Burgundy, one of the victims, required 22 staples after suffering slash wounds on his abdomen and back.
“That’s close to my heart, you know. Just a little bit up would’ve been my heart,” Burgundy said, showing his scars. “I thought I was going to die. I mean, that was the only thing that was going through my mind.”
Burgundy and another victim told Daytona Beach police that the assailants jumped out of a car, approached them and slashed them with razor blades without saying a word.
“Even when they left they did not say one word. They didn’t try to go in my pockets. They didn’t try to take anything from me. They didn’t ask for anything. I just felt they were out to kill me,” Burgundy said.
Burgundy said the assailants were wearing all-black clothing with red bandanas covering their faces.
Dozens of stitches were required for the other victim’s wounds, police said.
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Al-Qaeda Pirates Target UK Ships - Attacks Increasing
Posted: 26 Apr 2008 02:01 AM CDT
Britains 18,000 merchant sailors face a growing danger from pirates with links to al-Qaeda.
Attacks worldwide are up 20 per cent this year – and tourists on passenger liners are now feared to be at risk.
One of the most dangerous areas is the 1,800-mile coastline of east African country Somalia – where extremist militias with ties to Osama Bin Laden’s terror network operate unhindered.
A British skipper was seized in the area earlier this year and held hostage for 47 days by pirates demanding a £350,000 ransom.
And only this week the Japanese oil tanker Takayama came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades.
Around the world in the past year, 36 vessels have been boarded, with six crew kidnapped, three killed and one missing, presumed dead.
The modern-day pirates use high-powered motor-boats, grenade launchers and machine-guns.
British seamen’s union Nautilus wants the Government to review its policy on piracy.
Nautilus spokesman Andrew Linington said: “We are talking about sophisticated, organised, violent gangs, who jeopardise the lives of seafarers.
“The number of attacks and the level of violence are increasing.
Sooner or later, there will be a major incident in the region.”
One notorious gang with terror links calls itself the “Somalia Coastguard”.
Mr Linington said: “Intelligence indicates gangs like the Somalia Coastguard have links to al-Qaeda.
Unless there is action against these thugs, it amounts to a green light for a terrorist outrage.”
One dreads to think what would happen if a cruise ship fell into their hands.”
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Hanford High School - Two Arrested In Pipe Bomb Explosion - Hanford California
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 10:47 PM CDT
A pipe bomb exploded behind the auto shop at Hanford High School shortly after noon today. The explosion sent debris flying for 30 feet, but no one was injured.
After the incident, the school was placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure, and students were sent home at the end of the school day.
Police and ATF officials are investigating the incident, trying to find out who planted the bomb on the school campus.
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Nuclear Gauge Likely Stolen In Philadelphia
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 10:41 PM CDT
Philadelphia police said they are seeking to recover a portable nuclear gauge that was reported stolen Friday.
The device was apparently stolen from the truck bed of a construction vehicle on the 500 block of Dickinson Street, although the complainant’s truck had also recently been in the communities of Hatfield and Glenside in Montgomery County.
Police said the gauge contains small amounts of radioactive material and is used for measuring the density of soil at construction sites. It is enclosed in a bright-yellow case with an exterior decal of three triangular shapes surrounding a small circle — the universal symbol for radioactive contents.
When the gauge is in its yellow plastic case (pictured above), it does not pose any threat or harm. The container should not be opened, however, because the device inside consists of a shielding container with a plunger-type handle protruding from the top.
As long as the source elements of the gauge are in the shielded position, the gauge does not present a hazard to the public, police said. But any attempt to tamper with the device or handle the source would subject the person doing so to potentially dangerous radioactive exposure.
A similar theft occurred in March 2007. In that case, the case was found and a piece of the device was missing, but it was later recovered.
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Semi Truck Plows Into Chicago Train Station, 2 Dead, Several Injured
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 07:34 PM CDT
A fire department spokesman two people are dead and more than a dozen others injured after a tractor trailer crashed into the stairwell of a Chicago Transit Authority station during rush hour.
Spokesman Larry Langford says the two women killed Friday apparently were walking near the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line elevated train station on the city’s South Side when the collision occurred. They were dead at the scene, Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez said.
Eighteen people were transported to area hospitals, Rodriguez said. Seven adults and four children were in critical condition, five adults were in stable condition and two adults were in good condition.
Rodriguez did not know the driver’s condition, or whether the driver was injured.
Witnesses say the truck didn’t appear to slow down before it plowed into the station.
Chicago police say the accident happened about 5:20 p.m.
WBBM reports the tractor trailer truck crashed into the north stairwell of the station, where an escalator carries passengers up to the elevated platform. The crash appears to have caused extensive damage. The truck remains jammed underneath the tracks.
“We’re working right now to get into the wreckage to find out if there are any more victims in there, triage anyone we find and deal with the medical situation,” said Fire department spokesperson Larry Langford. “And also we’re dealing with the structural integrity of the CTA platforms and the glass walls and whatnot that are around the station.”
“It’s going to take a little time to get to anyone that’s in there, but we’re moving as fast as we can,” Langford added.
Witness Maury said, “I was standing across the street from the entrance to the CTA elevated trains on Cermak, for the Cermak/Chinatown stop. Then, as I looked back towards the entrance of the train station, I saw this tractor trailer truck, and I think the company name is Xtra, he either was coming off the Dan Ryan Expressway or the Stevenson, headed north and you’re supposed to make the left on Cermak. He just, like he was out of control, went straight ahead to the base of where the escalator is to the train station.”
Authorities are still trying to confirm the cause of the accident.
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Interpol Says Terror Attack At Olympic Games Possible
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 12:26 PM CDT
The head of Interpol said on Friday that there is a “real possibility” that the Beijing Olympics will be targeted by terrorists or that anti-China groups could attack athletes.
China, whose Communist rulers value stability above all else, have come down hard on anyone they fear could upset the Games, from people protesting against the demolition of their houses for venues to the country’s sometimes restless ethnic minorities.
“An attempted act of terrorism is a real possibility and a real concern that all Olympic host countries have shared in recent years,” Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble told the opening of the International Conference on Security Cooperation in Beijing. “Recent Tibet-related protests have introduced significant additional complications to the normal security considerations for a major international event like these Olympics.” The international leg of the Olympic torch relay has been dogged by pro-Tibet and anti-China protests, following unrest in Tibet last month in which China says about 20 people died.
“In light of recent events, all countries whose athletes will participate and whose citizens will attend the Beijing Olympics must be prepared for the possibility that the groups and individuals responsible for the violence during the global torch relay could carry out their protests at the actual Games,” Noble, the police organisation’s chief full-time official, said.
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UK Police Say 3 Terror Suspects Have Been Arrested in London
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 12:23 PM CDT
Scotland Yard says it has arrested three terror suspects in London.
Britain’s Metropolitan police say the three men are aged 24, 25, and 23. They say they were arrested at separate addresses Wednesday morning by officers from the force’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Police said in a statement Friday that the men remain in custody at a central London police station.
The men have not been identified. Authorities in Britain do not usually name suspects until they are charged.
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Pipe Bomb Explodes at Fed Ex Building In San Diego
Posted: 25 Apr 2008 12:16 PM CDT
A pipe bomb exploded at a Federal Express building in Webster early this morning. The bomb blew up just before 2 a.m. at the building on 47th Avenue near Federal Boulevard and broke the glass front door and set off the alarm, San Diego police said.
The fire department found a second bomb in the parking lot and detonated it, police said.
An employee at the business was unhurt. He told investigators he thought some boxes had fallen over.
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