anyhow, i'm going thru my regular ritual of waking this morning. turned on the "news" and found out that everything is slowly coming back to normal.....
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Robert Davis, 64, lies handcuffed on the sidewalk after being arrested by police on Conti St. near Bourbon St. in the French Quarter of New Orleans over the weekend. AP/Mel Evans
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/national/10Orleans.html
Three Officers Suspended
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 10, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 9 (AP) - Two New Orleans police officers were arrested late Sunday, accused of repeatedly punching a 64-year-old man suspected of public intoxication as a cameraman taped the confrontation. A third officer on the scene was arrested after an altercation in which he hit a television news producer.
The three officers were also suspended, said Capt. Marlon Defillo, a Police Department spokesman.
The confrontation occurred Saturday night outside a bar near Bourbon Street. The cameraman and the producer were working for Associated Press Television News.
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and of course, there's more angry Mother Nature stories
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/10/10/quake.asia/
Quake toll soars above 30,000
Monday, October 10, 2005; Posted: 9:11 a.m. EDT (13:11 GMT)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll has soared to 30,800 in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit Pakistan, as nations around the world try to get aid to the northern parts of the devastated country and to Kashmir.
Pakistan says it has been overwhelmed by the disaster, but the international community is beginning to come through after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pleaded for helicopters to get relief supplies to people in remote and mountainous towns and villages.
The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday morning was felt across South Asia, from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh, shaking three nations and bringing down a large apartment building in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. (See video on survivors pulled from rubble )
About 43,000 people were injured in the quake, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on Sunday.
Regarding the casualty figures, he said: "They will certainly go up."
At midday Monday, an incomplete count from Pakistan, including Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, put the number of dead at 30,000, government, police and hospital officials said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said at least 17,000 people had died in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir alone.
Although the majority of Indian-controlled Kashmir was spared the devastation, it is estimated that 80 percent of the border town of Udi, India, was destroyed.
So far 799 people have died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, with one death in Afghanistan, officials say.
The epicenter of the quake was in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which sits in the Himalayan foothills 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Islamabad. (Full story) The Pakistani army hospital in Muzaffarabad suffered heavy damage, and mass burials were being held on Monday.
Also badly hit was Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, where many villages were completely leveled and roads destroyed, making travel all but impossible.
"In certain areas, almost entire towns, they have vanished from the scene," Pakistan's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told CNN. The country, he said, has launched its largest relief operation.
CNN's Matthew Chance, reporting Monday from the city of Balakot in the North-West Frontier province, described a "scene of utter devastation," saying nearly every building in the tourist town of 250,000, had been destroyed. (Eyewitness accounts)
People picked through the rubble with pick axes and their bare hands, looking for family and friends, Chance said, adding there were only four doctors to serve the thousands of injured.
Relief and rescue workers have yet to reach 30 to 40 percent of the affected areas, said military spokesman, Brig. Shah Jahan.
In a report from The Associated Press, the United Nations warned that more than 2.5 million people are in need of shelter following the earthquake.
'Bear with us'
Unknown numbers of Pakistanis are sleeping in the open in near freezing temperatures at night and they have lost everything. Across wide areas there is no power, or adequate food or water.
Stunned Pakistanis have camped out in the streets overnight, fearful of returning home because of aftershocks, one of which measured 6.2 in magnitude.
Some slept in their cars, while others gathered in outdoor areas such as soccer fields.
Many survivors have been critical of the government's relief operation. They say thousands still need help, and with only a trickle of aid, angry Kashmiris were blocking roads and demanding relief. (Full story)
Meeting with emotionally charged victims Gen. Pervez Musharraf has appealed for patience and calm.
"For heaven's sake bear with us. There are certain limitations. We are trying our best,'' he said.
Government officials are focusing on getting help to dig survivors from the rubble, take them to hospitals and begin repairing the region's shattered infrastructure.
Prime minister Aziz has appealed to the international community to send heavy-lift helicopters as well as tents, blankets, medicine and "hundreds of millions of dollars."
Nations come forward
Planes packed with supplies are arriving, while rescue teams are being dispatched to help those who have been left injured, homeless or stranded. (Full story)
Late Sunday, the White House announced the United States would provide initial aid of up to $50 million for reconstruction and relief efforts in Pakistan. (Full story)
U.S. President George W. Bush has become an ally of Pakistan, using the nation's help since the September 11 attacks on America, and he was quick to come forward with help.
The United States is flying over five CH-47 Chinook helicopters and three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from Afghanistan, the Central Command said in a written statement.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said ties to Pakistan "are made even closer by the large population of British citizens who trace their origin to the Kashmir region. Such ties make the growing number of casualties even harder to bear."
A second emergency team from Britain arrived Sunday in Islamabad, the Foreign Office said, bringing fire brigades and search dogs.
European Union Commissioner Louis Michel said he was sending $4.4 million in emergency relief aid to the stricken region.
The United Nations has been coordinating relief efforts from the international airport in Islamabad, said Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs.
A U.N. team arrived there at dawn Sunday, he said, and the operation was "growing by the hour."
But the need is staggering, Egeland added, with the number of homeless rivaling those left without shelter after last year's tsunami in South Asia.
"There will be need for hundreds of thousands of tents and emergency shelter for all the people who have lost everything," he said.
Still a military zone
From Indian-controlled Kashmir, Time South Asia Bureau Chief Alex Perry said despite the widespread damage and pressing humanitarian needs, security concerns remained paramount, he said.
"There's no doubt at all that it's still a military zone," he said, adding that checkpoints were holding up the passage of aid to the region.
"There is an immediate fear that this might be an opportunity for militants to start pouring over the border from Pakistan into Kashmir," he said.
But political tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region appeared to take a back seat as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Musharraf and offered help.
"We have offered all possible assistance for rescue and relief measures," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told CNN from New Delhi.
"We see this as a major humanitarian disaster for the people of this region."
Musharraf said he thanked the Indian leader for the offer. "Whatever we need, we will certainly ask," he said, though he noted that there is "a little bit of sensitivity there."
The two nations have fought three wars -- two of them over Kashmir -- since independence from British rule in 1947.
-- Senior international correspondents Satinder Bindra and Matthew Chance, correspondent Ram Ramgopal, producers Syed Mohsin Naqvi and John Raedler and journalists Mukhtar Ahmed in Srinagar and Tom Coghlan in Kabul contributed to this report.
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but last night, i watched conceptual artist damali ayo on CSPAN talking about her book How to Rent -A-Negro . i first came across this a couple of years ago when BlacVoices was still Africana.com...interesting stuff....
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