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in the eye of the sandstorm

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:18:48 GMT

BAGHDAD, Iraq — I knew something was strange as soon as I woke up. An eerie yellow haze at the window instead of the morning sun. I climbed up to the roof and looked out over Baghdad toward the blue Bunyah mosque. It had disappeared behind a thick curtain of microscopic dust.

We were about to leave to shoot a report on an Iraqi paralympic competition. “They can’t go ahead with it!” I thought.

When we called, however, they said it was still on. So we piled into our car and set off for the running track.

At the running track the athletes were arriving, some missing legs, or arms. Many are victims of the war. In the distance, a loud explosion roared. The athletes and their friends muttered but quickly returned to more important things. Bombs, sandstorms - it’s a nuisance but nothing that will stop them from competing.

But the storm, the worst in years, did shut down Baghdad Airport. The helicopters that roar every few minutes through the skies of the capital were grounded.

migrant clung to corpse to survive

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:08:23 GMT

clipped by: silvanaraihane

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- The moonlight illuminated her fellow passengers, scattered through the chilly ocean 15 miles from the nearest land. Some of them screamed for help. Others bobbed silently, face-down in the water.

As the voices grew quiet one by one, the student clung to the only life preserver she could find: the lifeless body of a Haitian who had shared her American dream.

Nine hours later, day broke and rescuers finally arrived. Two dozen people were dead. Three were alive, including Fileresaint.

She was still clinging to the corpse.

This group of migrants took a common route, boarding a smuggler's boat to the Bahamas, two survivors said late Wednesday from hospital beds. Bahamian police grabbed several of the migrants as they reached land, and those who escaped made it to a safehouse, where they spent two weeks waiting to move on.

Fileresaint said she counted 27 people aboard the speedboat. Survivor Johnny Boucher, 26, said they were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder.

the pig that raped his daughter!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:02:00 GMT

clipped by: silvanaraihane

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN that the 73-year-old man, known as Mr. F., admitted holding his daughter, Elisabeth F., 42, hostage in the windowless cell and fathering seven children by her.

"The mother had memories [of the outside world] and got used to the situation," Polzer told a press conference Monday afternoon. "The others knew nothing else."

Elisabeth F. told police that she and her three children Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5, did not see the light of day during their entire time in captivity underneath the building in Amstetten, a rural town about 150 km (93 miles) west of Vienna.

The entrance was via a small door, hidden behind cupboards in the basement, controlled by an electronic keyless-entry system. Polzer said that the prison was hard to find, even if someone was looking for it, and had been soundproofed.