Bystanders held the man suspected of this crime until the police arrived.
There were two people hit in the gunfire. There is no word on their condition at this time.
The death toll now stands at 28,881 from Monday’s massive 7.9 quake. Earlier on Saturday waves of people fled a potential flood zone near the epicenter of the first quake. While there has not been flooding the potential is there and if the river does flood it will inundate the town.
“I’m very scared. I heard that the water will be crashing down here,” said Liang Xiao, one of the people fleeing on Saturday. “If that happens, there will be over 10 yards of water over our heads.”
There are close to 11,000 still buried under the rubble in Sichuan province according to the regional government.
The United Nations just authorized a grant of up to $7 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to help those caught up in this crisis.
In Shifang, a city north of Chengdu there is a tent city serving as a home for 2,000 people. Tents though are in short supply.
Unlike other areas hit by disasters of this magnitude China reports that there have yet to be any major diseases or serious health care problems.
Kelly wore a white bridal gown and carried a bouquet of white flowers. She was given away by her father, Brian Kelly.
The couple, both 30, had a private wedding with about 300 guests. Prince William was not at the wedding, instead he attended another wedding of a childhood friend’s. His girlfriend Kate Middleton attended the wedding though in Prince William’s absence.
Those watching the Royal family are taking this as a sign that William and Kate will be the next Royal couple to wed.
Kelly and Phillips meet while working at Montreal Grand Prix in 2003. They had been engaged for a year.
Kelly had to renounce her Catholic faith and join the Church of England in order to marry the young Royal. Because of centuries old laws a member of the Royal family who marries a Catholic can not inherit the throne. Phillips does not have a royal title himself. When the couple first met he did not reveal his heritage. Kelly only learned of his connection to the throne when they were watching a show about Prince William.
Kelly is from Montreal. Her middle class upbringing has been a source of many tabloid stories.
Phillips now works at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The couple have sold their wedding story to the magazine Hello! for what is believed to be $1 million.
Many of those who are listed among the dead are the children that were buried in the rubble of their schools.
For the parents that survive their children their grief may make restarting their live that much harder as they set forth with added guilt and regret that they only had one child.
“She died before becoming even a young adult,” said Bi, an intense, wiry chemical plant worker, standing beside the grave of 13-year-old Yuexing - one of dozens sprinkled amid fields of ripened spring wheat and newly planted rice. “She never really knew what life was like.”
As common policy in many schools all but the main doors were locked leaving only one exit for children to attempt to escape from.
In China the quake toppled almost 6,900 classrooms. The shoddy construction highlighted that the schools were woefully underfunded in small towns.
Launched in the late 1970’s China imposed a one child only law limiting family sizes. This policy was meant to enable China to be able to give their children a better education and medical care. Because of the law there have been forced abortions, sterilizations and an imbalanced sex ratio with families aborting girls in favor of having a son.
In some rural areas the policy has been relaxed if the first child born is a girl allowing for an additional birth. That though is not the case in much of the region hit by Monday’s earthquake.
Surviving parents can be expected to feel intense guilt that they lived on while their child died. They can feel that they failed their role as parents by not protecting their young. Often these parents will look back and regret their interaction with their children, dwelling on negatives (thinking they were too stern, did not show them sufficient love or did not interact with them enough) instead of positives.
Hopefully China will be able to provide grief counselling for these parents after the initial recovery effort has eased.
As the waters rise 1.2 million people are in the process of being evacuated from Qingchuan 55 miles from Beichuan. In the city of Beichuan, already hard hit by the earthquake, there are 46 people who are in dire need of help to escape the flood waters but too seriously injured to make the trek up into the mountains on their own.
At this point even the rescue workers have been running for their lives as the radio announced an “all retreat” warning.
There has been concern about the hundreds of dams in China that were structurally damaged during Monday’s earthquake and the continuing aftershocks that have shook the region. In the mountainous province of Sichuan the concerns have been growing daily. The area is the size of Spain.
Five days into the recovery effort there is some good news to report as survivors are still being found in the rubble. A German tourist was pulled out from debris in Wenchuan after being buried for 114 hours.
The current death toll in China has reached over 22,000 but it is expected to reach a much higher 50,000 as more bodies are found.
The quake has left about 4.8 million people homeless.
“Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first 72 hours after an earthquake, has passed, saving lives remains the top priority of our work,” President Hu told distraught survivors just over a week after a jubilant China celebrated the Olympic torch reaching the summit of Mount Everest.
In other earthquake disasters in the world survivors have been found alive after two weeks but those cases are few and far between.
33 people were found alive in the rubble of Beichuan on Saturday. One man and 18 scientists were among those rescued.
Not only is the region having to deal with the destruction on towns and cities from the earthquake itself but as the concern grows daily on the shape of the dams this area will take a long time to recover. Some of the dams have already reported leaks. Several of those are along the Min River.
Another growing concern is that there are possible radiation leaks in the area as well. China’s chief nuclear weapons research lab is in hard hit Mianyang. There are also several secret atomic sites in the area but there are no nuclear power stations there.
After the union that represents the guards learned on Thursday about the asbestos guards have not reported to work for their Thursday evening or Friday morning work detail. There are about 10 guards per shift. It’s not clear on how many refused to work.
“At the moment we’re satisfied that managers are safely managing the situation there,” said Sheri Aikenhead, a spokeswoman for the provincial Justice Department.
“If the RCMP are required, they will be called upon.”
Last month the asbestos was discovered in piping in some areas of the jail. The jail is 33 years old. Aikenhead said that air testing done May 8 failed to find any traces of the mineral.
“Asbestos, if it’s left undisturbed, doesn’t pose an immediate threat to anyone,” Aikenhead said.
According to the union the guards are within their rights because of the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act. If they feel that they are in danger business of work related issues they can demand to have a through investigation completed before they go back on the clock.
The prison violated their rights by not informing their employees as soon as the asbestos was found.
“Everybody should have been notified when they found out there was asbestos found in the wrap on those pipes. They refused to do that,” Gordie Gosse, a New Democrat in the legislature for Cape Breton Nova said.
“It’s like taking a handful of fish hooks and eating them. Your lungs can
“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”
Obama supports extending the assault rifle ban, limiting gun sales and a nation law banning concealed weapons. These choices don’t make for fans with the NRA.
John McCain on the other hand has the NRA’s support. He will be speaking to the convention later on Friday.
Mike Huckabee is endorsing McCain.
Nearly a decade ago the Conservative government at that time stopped the coverage for those who were undergoing the procedure.
Between 1997-1998 OHIP paid $122,000 for eight sex changes. Those eight were the last ones in the province to not have to foot the bill of a sex change operation. Once the details have been ironed out, four people who have been approved for surgery will get the go ahead.
The demand isn’t that large; only eight to ten people qualify for the surgery each year. It is likely the province will pay about $200,000 a year for those needing gender reassignment surgery.
“It is the government’s intention to move forward with the provision of services on about the same level as they were (when) cancelled some number of years ago,” Smitherman said, noting the details of the leaked announcement have yet to be finalized.
To undergo the surgery an individual must complete a rigorous psychological evaluation at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
The previous government’s refusal to pay for such operations has been deemed discriminatory and McGinty’s government was compelled to put things rightly back into place.
A population which has needs that are quite difficult to understand were subjected to a lot of politics,” Smitherman said. “I think we should be careful not to use what is $200,000 dollars on a $40.2 billion budget as an excuse to try and create a them-and-us conversation,” he added noting the government also funds other people with specialized needs.
The procedure will likely take place in Montreal where most sexual reassignment surgery is currently performed. The current cost for a sex-change operation at the Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie Plastique is $17,000.
“It probably makes sense from a clinical outcome standpoint that those be done in a place that is most specialized in the country,” Smitherman said. “That is the way it had been in the prior circumstances.”
Ontario will join the ranks of Alberta, B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan covering this surgery. With medical documentation Newfoundland and Labrador also will cover costs. Quebec will not be funding patients for this particular surgery. While the surgery is covered for many in Canada, travel expenses and post surgical accommodations are not.
Activists are happy that the province will finally be keeping its promise made years ago.
“This will save lives,” DiNovo said. “It’s the end of a long journey and it’
The young Austrian was kidnapped at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998 as she made her way to school. Priklopil kept her locked away for the next eight and a half years in a dungeon under his home.
While Kampusch owns the property it is not thought that she is residing on it. She had been awarded two-thirds of the property with Priklopil’s mother owning the other third. Kampusch made a deal with the woman to gain control of the final third. The home was built by Priklopil’s father.
Now 20 Kampusch escaped her captive in 2006 while washing his car. A cell phone call pulled him away from her side and she ran through yards until her pleas of help were finally taken seriously by a neighbour who called the police. Priklopil killed himself by jumping in front of a train after Kampusch escaped.
But she also said: “I always had the thought: Surely I didn’t come into the world so I could be locked up and my life completely ruined. I give up in despair about this unfairness. I always felt like a poor chicken in a hen house. You saw my dungeon on television and in the media. Thus you know how small it was. It was a place to despair.” Dietmar Ecker, Kampusch’s media advisor, said Kampusch told him Priklopil “would beat her so badly she could hardly walk. When she was beaten black and blue, he tried to smarten her up. Then he would take his camera and photograph her”.
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