News Stories

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Venezuela jail search yields arsenal

Items found in Sabaneta jail

22,767 rounds of ammunition
105 firearms
92 home-made stab weapons
75 knives
5 grenades
2 mortars
Tear gas canisters
12kg of drugs
135 mobile phones


"The sweep also uncovered tunnels of up to 15m (50ft) depth, in which more than 12kg (26lb) of marijuana and cocaine were stored."



Man! If they had all that stuff why didn't get out by force?

Why would they want or need 2 mortars in a jail?

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Why would they want or need 2 mortars in a jail?

to defend the prison form Zombie attacks


the real question is it homemade or smuggle in.

[ganbaru]

Procedural Vote Quells Fledgling Republican Revolt
http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-c...n-revolt/?_r=0

SENATE DEMS REJECT HOUSE OBAMACARE AMENDMENTS — SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
http://www.businessinsider.com/gover...-passes-2013-9

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

the real question is it homemade or smuggle in.

Wouldn't a real one be very big and heavy, making it much harder to smuggle than it would be worth ?

[AnimeFan188]

Smash 'n grab: Big looting during Kenya mall siege:

"Jewelry cases smashed and looted. Mobile phones ripped from displays. Cash
registers emptied. Alcohol stocks plundered.

For the second straight Kenyan tragedy, poorly paid security forces that moved in
control the chaos are being accused of robbing the premises. First the troops were
accused of looting during a huge fire in August at Nairobi's international airport.

Now shop owners at Westgate Mall are returning to their stores following a
devastating terrorist attack, in which at least 67 were killed, to find items ransacked
and valuables stolen.

One witness told The Associated Press that he even saw a Kenyan soldier take
cigarettes out of a dead man's pocket."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/smash-n-grab-b...181813360.html

[JokerD]

So it begins...

US begins shutdown amid budget row

[Shay]

Originally Posted by JokerD

So it begins...

US begins shutdown amid budget row

I heard this on the news this morning. My first thought was the fall of the Roman republic and the uprising of an emperor haha. But, then I read more into it and realised it is just two sides trying to score points on each other at the cost of the economy, the public sector and ultimately the average American people.

Great...

[SaintessHeart]

I can't wait to get home from work. 4 more hours till the market opens!

[sbg711]

US is just a fail country failing. Nothing to see here

[kuroishinigami]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I can't wait to get home from work. 4 more hours till the market opens!

Historically, shutdown actually makes the US stock market soars after it's over(not that there's much data to work from anyway ), but if the debt ceiling is not raised in 2 weeks, expects big drop everywhere

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by sbg711

US is just a fail country failing. Nothing to see here

If they do so will my neighbouring country across the causeway, considered how much they have invested in each other. I am not interested in seeing political and racial strife trundling down the checkpoint.

Originally Posted by kuroishinigami

Historically, shutdown actually makes the US stock market soars after it's over(not that there's much data to work from anyway ), but if the debt ceiling is not raised in 2 weeks, expects big drop everywhere

It is the gap from the previous day. That is the one that actually makes money.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Shay

I heard this on the news this morning. My first thought was the fall of the Roman republic and the uprising of an emperor haha. But, then I read more into it and realised it is just two sides trying to score points on each other at the cost of the economy, the public sector and ultimately the average American people.

Great...

It's also the second time it's shut down in 20 years. It's not literally "shutting down".

[SaintessHeart]

Obamacare launch poised to reach millions despite shutdown drama

(Reuters) - Millions of Americans will learn on Tuesday what President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law actually means for them, as the administration opens new insurance marketplaces in 50 states despite a government shutdown.

The launch marks a milestone for Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, which aims to provide subsidized healthcare to millions of the uninsured, the most ambitious U.S. social program since Medicare was introduced in the 1960s.

Obama is scheduled to meet and pose for pictures in the Oval Office with a group of Americans who stand to benefit from the program, while Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama will also promote the law via media channels.

The first day of online enrollment in the health insurance plans was going ahead despite a partial shutdown of the U.S. government after the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass spending bills to fund government operations in the fiscal year that begins on Tuesday.

The marketplaces, or exchanges, require health plans to provide a broad range of essential benefits that were not necessarily part of individual policies in the past, including mental health services, birth control and preventive care. The coverage is linked to other insurance market reforms and new consumer safeguards, including a ban on discrimination based on gender and health history.

The healthcare law also mandates that Americans obtain insurance or pay a fine.

"For years, the financial, physical or mental health of millions of Americans suffered because they couldn't afford the care they or their family needed," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement on Tuesday. "But thanks to the health care law, all of that is changing. Today's launch begins a new day when health care coverage will be more accessible and affordable than ever before."

Republicans have fought for months to delay or stop Obamacare, most recently triggering a shutdown of the federal government on Monday night by insisting that a routine funding measure include a delay in Obamacare, which the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected.

"The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place. You can't shut it down," Obama told his Republican opponents in a televised statement at the White House on Monday.

Officials running the new exchanges braced for computer problems that could hamper the enrollment effort. The federal government opened websites for 36 states through its www.healthcare.gov site at 8 a.m. EDT.

But early checks on 18 of these state sites for some users called up error messages such as: "We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page." Others who were able to begin to set up an account were halted at a page for security questions.

To participate in a survey about your experience signing onto an exchange, please click on: here

As many as 7 million Americans are expected to sign up for insurance in 2014 through the exchanges, which will accept applications through March 31. An additional 8 million people are expected to receive health benefits through an expansion of the government's Medicaid program for the poor.

Republicans have blamed Obamacare's requirements for pushing up the cost of health insurance for business and individuals, a charge the Democrats deny.

"What I want is to keep the government running and at the same time to deal with the harms, the millions of Americans who are ... at risk of losing their healthcare, are facing skyrocketing insurance premiums," Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has been leading the charge among Republicans in Congress to defund the law, said in an interview with CNN.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been the object of intensive Republican attack since it was signed into law in 2010. Its foes tried and failed to use the U.S. Supreme Court and a presidential election to get it overturned in 2012.

SLOW START

In the early planning, the administration aimed to create new healthcare markets that would make shopping for insurance as simple as buying an airline ticket online. But repeated delays and technical difficulties mean the new sites in many states will not have all of their functions ready in the first weeks, or perhaps longer.

Minnesota officials said on Monday that they were not yet sure what time their state's exchange would launch, and that the timing would only be determined after further testing on Tuesday morning to see if the system connected properly with federal government's network for determining subsidies.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which will operate federal marketplaces in 36 states that are not running their own, has also said that technical glitches are likely.

"We will fix them and move on. Is it a sign that the law is flawed and failed? I don't think so. I think it's a sign that we're building a piece of complicated technology," Sebelius said.

Senior administration officials and organizers working to help reach the uninsured with news of the law's benefits believe enrollment will get off to a quiet start on Tuesday and build slowly through the next six months.

The first enrollees are likely to be people with pre-existing health conditions and older people who have had a hard time obtaining coverage. But the law's success will depend on young healthy adults, whose lower risk profile is needed to compensate for higher cost beneficiaries.

The law remains unpopular, however, with 46 percent of the public. Anti-Obamacare forces have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in television advertising, outspending Obamacare supporters by more than four-to-one. Meanwhile, millions of potential beneficiaries do not know the law exists.

Officials said Tuesday would also see a ramp-up in the administration's multimillion-dollar media campaign to reach prospective beneficiaries through television, Twitter, Facebook and social organizations including churches.

In particular, they are targeting young and healthy Americans. The advertising campaign is targeting black and Hispanic men between the ages of 18 and 35 in large cities in Florida, Texas, Illinois and California.

A stock exchange for insurance? Wow. That is one hell of an idea, Wall Street.

[ganbaru]

Government powers down; Obama to address country
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-01-10-25-50

Americans anxious, irritated as gov't shuts down
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-01-10-43-15

[SeijiSensei]

China Is Said to Be Holding Professor Over His Activities in Japan

BEIJING — A Chinese professor who specializes in Japanese affairs appears to have been detained by the Chinese government since late July and is being questioned about his activities in Japan, according to Chinese academics and Japanese news media reports.

The apparent arrest of the professor, Zhu Jianrong, possibly on espionage charges, after he returned to Shanghai from Japan comes as relations between China and Japan have hit their lowest point in decades, and has sent tremors of fear through the small community of Japan experts in China and other academics.

In his appearances on Japanese TV, Mr. Zhu was resolute in defending China’s case on the bitter dispute over tiny islands in the East China Sea, known as the Diaoyu islands in China and as the Senkaku islands in Japan.

Even advocating the Chinese position in the Japanese media doesn't mean you aren't a Japanese spy.

Do any of you living in the region think this will all end peacefully? I still think the Senkaku dispute poses a serious threat to stability in the western Pacific, and one which has the potential to drag the US into a conflict it really does not want to be involved with. There's a certain gloomy fatality about this which harkens back to Sarajevo in 1914.

[Xefi]

1 biker charged, another critical in NYC Range Rover chase:
source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...ver-chase?lite

A clash between a pack of motorcyclists and a Range Rover on a Manhattan highway — which triggered a harrowing chase caught on a viral video — has left one biker facing charges and a second in critical condition.

comments: that's some crazy chase...yikes.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/f5ftcC2I0hc

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[TooPurePureBoy]

Why do these people act like they deserve sympathy after the fact? They menace people on the road and one of their own gets run over and now they want to act like the victims? Unbelievable. If I had a wife and kids and they were in the car I would have ran over even more of them, sorry to say it, but I would have.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

China Is Said to Be Holding Professor Over His Activities in Japan



Even advocating the Chinese position in the Japanese media doesn't mean you aren't a Japanese spy.

Do any of you living in the region think this will all end peacefully? I still think the Senkaku dispute poses a serious threat to stability in the western Pacific, and one which has the potential to drag the US into a conflict it really does not want to be involved with. There's a certain gloomy fatality about this which harkens back to Sarajevo in 1914.

Actually its more like smoke granades and flash bangs... something to make the people support governments without questioning their methods. You could call it clever propaganda. The question is, can they actually keep it under control. Its always like playing with fire.

[Roger Rambo]

Also...family of potential criminals tend to be the absolute worst judges of incidents their loved ones were involved with.

Originally Posted by Xefi

1 biker charged, another critical in NYC Range Rover chase:
source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...ver-chase?lite

comments: that's some crazy chase...yikes.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/f5ftcC2I0hc

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

The critically injured guy (who apparently way trying to bash up the SUV) is apparently in serious risk of being paralyzed from the waist down, and may never walk again...I'm not feeling much sympathy. Also. Dear god. There are points in this video where I think the SUV guy could have wasted about least a dozen of these guys if he'd only just swerved or hit on the breaks. These people are fucking crazy.


Even if any mitigating details pop up...I think the extent of the reaction of the rest of the gang is going to overshadow it. Especially since this particular bike group apparently has a reputation for causing shit. It's going to be very hard for allot of people to accept that the heavily injured guy wasn't also up to no good considering how all his compatriots acted.*


*Though lets be honest. The behavior of the bikers collectively is suspect. Was there any reason for them collectively as a pack to all stop in the middle of the high way in response to one of them getting into a fender bender, thus clogging up traffic? There's literally no good reason to do this unless they plan to be intimidating/harassing the SUV driver.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by TooPurePureBoy

Why do these people act like they deserve sympathy after the fact? They menace people on the road and one of their own gets run over and now they want to act like the victims? Unbelievable. If I had a wife and kids and they were in the car I would have ran over even more of them, sorry to say it, but I would have.

Dude has a two year old kid in the car and is completely boxed in as they're surrounding him... wtf is he supposed to do? If they didn't want to get run over maybe they should've moved the hell out of the way and not attack a man with his young child...

[Urzu 7]

I have little sympathy for the guy that may be paralyzed and no sympathy for his fellow bikers. They were up to no good and boxed in that guy and like others said, he was with his wife and two year old kid. Also, I have no sympathy for the bikers because after they start the trouble and then things went south, they decide to chase down the SUV and beat the man half to death in front of his wife and child. Stupid low-lifes that have made a bunch of bad decisions in their lives and ended up becoming degenerates.