Charging bulls injure 10 in Spanish fiesta

By Virginie Grognou | AFP News – 13 hours ago

Half-tonne fighting bulls trampled, dragged and knocked over runners on a breakneck bull-run in Spain's San Fermin festival Sunday, injuring at least 10 people, officials said.
Thousands of thrill-seekers packed around six bulls and six steers racing and often skidding through the winding, cobbled streets of the northern Spanish city Pamplona.
Revellers packed overhanging balconies as the beasts bolted 846.6 metres from a holding pen to the city's bull-fighting ring in a very quick two minutes 29 seconds.
One runner wearing traditional white, with red handkerchief, sprinted ahead of a pack of three bulls but could not outrun them.
Knocked over, trapped between two of the beasts, and then kicked by other passing bulls, he was dragged about the length of four bulls and left sprawling in the street.
Another bull skidded on the cobbles and was hit by another beast tearing around the corner.
A middle-aged man could be seen cowering on the pavement and squeezed against a wall to avoid the tips of a passing bull's horns. Another fell before the pack and curled up to shield himself from the hooves.
In all, the Red Cross reported at least 10 injuries including bruises, dislocated joints and head injuries but no gorings in the fourth of eight bull runs that mark this alcohol-fuelled festival that runs to July 14.
The Sunday bull run at the San Fermin festival draws the largest crowds and organisers blamed the high number of participants, estimated by some media at more than 3,000, for the slips and falls.
In the most serious injury so far, a 25-year-old Australian man was gored in his right thigh during Friday's bull run after he taunted one of the bulls. The Red Cross said Sunday he was improving.
A 23-year-old French man was also gored, less seriously, on Saturday.
Every year between 200 and 300 participants in the run are injured. Most are hurt after falling but some are trampled or gored by the bulls despite increased safety measures.
The most recent death occurred two years ago when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of hordes of tourists.
The city of some 200,000 residents expects the festival, which runs until Thursday, will lure at least as many tourists as last year when 1.5 million people turned out and hotels reported a 95-percent occupancy rate.
The action is also followed by millions more on television.

5yr sentence for stealing 35-cent sarong

 

By Indra Harsaputra in Pamekasan/The Jakarta Post | ANN – Thu, Jul 7, 2011

Pamekasan (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - The law in Indonesia does not apply to "little people." Just for stealing a used sarong (traditional outfit) worth 3,000 rupiah (about 35 US cents), Amirah, 30, a woman working as a domestic maid from Sokon, Temberu village in Pamekasan, Madura, East Java, is at risk of being sentenced to five years in jail.
Amirah has been held at the Pamekasan prison since March 26.
Prison spokesman Rendra Yozar said the case was small compared to corruption cases but the court could not reject case files. The defendant is charged with violating Article 362 of the Criminal Code on common theft.
"We will resolve the case immediately keeping in mind the defendant has a responsibility to work to support her family," Rendra told The Jakarta Post.
Rendra said Amirah had admitted taking the sarong from her employer Mariyem, 41, and selling it to meet the needs of her family. She also admitted to stealing rice to feed her 10-year-old son.
When met at the prison, Amirah requested that she be forgiven for her wrongdoing and not be imprisoned, bearing in mind she must take care of her son who dropped out of school after she was fired from her job and detained in prison.
"If I am imprisoned, my son will be alone at home and will not be able to eat because his father left us when he was three," Amirah told the Post.
Petty crimes, heavy sentences
Rasminah
Rasminah binti Rawan, 60, was detained at Tangerang Penitentiary in Banten for allegedly stealing six plates from her employer's house in Ciputat, South Tangerang, in October 2010. Rasminah was facing a maximum of five years' imprisonment for her crime. The Tangerang District Court acquitted Rasminah of all charges against her, which included stealing valuables from her employer.
Basar and Kholil
The Kediri District Court in East Java handed down 15-day suspended sentences to two men for stealing a watermelon worth 30,000 rupiah (US$3) in December 2009. Basar and Kholil were taken to the Mojoroto Police station and named suspects without being questioned.
Minah
An elderly woman in Banyumas, Central Java, faced the law for stealing three cacao pods worth only 1,500 rupiah (15 US cents) from a plantation. The court handed down a suspended sentence of 45 days in prison in September 2009.
Deli Suhandi
A 14-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly stealing a cell phone credit voucher worth 10,000 rupiah (US$1.15). He was released from the Pondok Bambu detention center in East Jakarta in April 2011.

.............................Some interesting comments from Yahoo!...........................

CubanCat3 hours ago Report Abuse

Bambang, please introduce new petty crime code, and not detain these petty criminals more than 48 jours. Dont jail people and keep them in for months for petty crimes less worth than a cats meal and incurr more cost for feeding them in jail. Introduce death sentences for corrupt officials taking millions from the country's resource instead...

Thomas2 hours ago Report Abuse

You just need to be rich and the law will be with you in Indonesia, for the case of this woman is because she is too poor.

Imiar2 hours ago Report Abuse

Justice is blind, deaf and DUMB.

Not surprised in a country where Gayus Tambunan a convicted corruptor can walk out of prison and watch a tennis tournament in Bali WHILE serving his prison sentence.

June Wee 1 hour ago Report Abuse

This is atrocious. The gap between the rich and the poor is so great in Indonesia. I saw it with own eyes. I pity the poor. I saw a show how the poor people dug from the waste hill which a Singapore photographer went to film. I can never imagine how people are treated there.

Ryan Star36 minutes ago Report Abuse

This is like using a sledge hammer to kill an ant.

Her employer also does'nt have a heart. I believe they could have helped if she wanted to.

Sentencing a fellow countrymen to 5 years jail for 40 cents !

Who will take care of her children then ???

lyden3 hours ago Report Abuse

the judge after study so hard ,with all the education to became a judge but became stupid and silly..

maybe , the judge is an idiot

31 dead, 100 injured as train derails in India

Jul 10, 2011

INDIA - RESCUERS searched through the wreckage of a packed express train for people trapped inside after it derailed in northern India on Sunday, killing at least 31 and injuring more than 100 others, officials said.
The Kalka Mail train was on its way to Kalka, in the foothills of the Himalayas, from Howrah, a station near Kolkata in eastern India, when 12 coaches and the engine jumped the tracks near the town of Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh state, senior railway official A K Jain said.
The cause of the derailment was not immediately clear but it appeared that the driver applied the emergency brakes, Mr Jain said.
At least 31 people were killed and rescue workers pulled at least 100 injured passengers out of the wreckage, said Brij Lal, a state police official.
The accident site was a pile of twisted metal. At least one coach flew above the roof of another ahead of it and was dangling precariously, television footage showed. Another coach was thrown away from the rest of the train.
The toll was likely to rise as rescuers made their way through the coaches and used gas cutters to cut through the mangled metal, Mr Lal said. -- AP

No kids kidnapped at theme park: HK

Jul 10, 2011

IN THE ST NEWSPAPER TODAY         

HK Disneyland, police and tourism board quash online talk of missing children, including Singaporeans

By Ng Kai Ling

-- PHOTO: HONG KONG DISNEYLAND RESORT

If you have heard scary tales of missing children at Hong Kong Disneyland, they are just wild talk. The theme park, the Hong Kong police and Hong Kong Tourism Board told The Sunday Times that since it opened in September 2005, there have been no reported cases of missing children.
There are at least two online versions of these untrue tales with a Singapore angle. In one version, a Singaporean man had taken his two children to the theme park. When one child went missing, he embarked on a frantic search. A kindly old couple then offered to look after his other child while he continued his search. It ended with him losing both children - as the couple and his child had disappeared.

80 youth questioned in loan-sharking investigation

 

By ewenboey | SingaporeScene – Sat, Jul 9, 2011

80 youths were brought in by the police for questioning in relation to loan-sharking activities (AFP file phot …

80 youngsters were arrested on Thursday following a two-day anti-loan sharking operation by the Singapore Police Force.
Parents of the children waited anxiously at the Bedok Police Division after investigators questioned the youths late into the night.
Parents told The Straits Times that some of the kids were even handcuffed and taken to the station in police cars, while others were told to report to the station on their own.
The police said that the youths have since been released on bail and are assisting with the investigations.
Aged between 12 and 21, the youths were allegedly part of a loan-sharking syndicate and helped out by distributing name cards and pamphlets advertising illegal moneylending activities.
"It was basic chaos," said a 45-year-old father at the station, which was packed with worried parents when he arrived at 10pm. The manager, who declined to be named, said his 13-year-old son was picked up by the police for questioning.
"Imagine waiting at a police station as your children are being questioned by the police."
He added that his son, a Secondary One student, was only trying to make some extra pocket money during the June holidays, and was duped into helping loan sharks.
The boy had responded to an online advertisement on classifieds website Gumtree seeking students to give out fliers, he said.
However, he did not realise his son would end up working for a loan-sharking syndicate.
"He thought it was so harmless, he didn't even inform me," said the father, who only found out about the incident when his son had to go down to the police station for questioning.
The youngsters who contacted the person who posted the online ad were told to meet him in person thereafter.
They went to an office in Ang Mo Kio and were asked to fill in personal details. After which, they were briefed on what they were supposed to do -- give out fliers, name cards and pamphlets for three days to get paid.
They would also have to meet their "employer" daily at pre-arranged locations to collect a fresh stack of name cards and pamphlets.
They were paid S$14 for every 1,000 fliers distributed, and S$16 for giving out the same number of name cards.
The anxious father said that his son stopped after the first day -- and has not been paid -- as the job was tiring and boring,
Leaving the police station with his son at midnight, the father said, "The bottom line is that these kids are innocent. At their age, how would they know they were working for loan sharks?"