CELEBRATION, Fla. (AP) - Authorities were investigating another death Friday in the town Disney built just days after reporting its first homicide in its 14-year existence. This time it was a man who apparently killed himself after shooting at deputies.
Craig Foushee, 52, barricaded himself in a home Thursday for more than 14 hours, according to an Osceola County Sheriff's Office report. He shot at deputies several times, but deputies never returned fire because they were unable to acquire a target and no deputies were injured, authorities said.
Deputies entered the home early Friday and found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said there was no connection between Foushee and Matteo Patrick Giovanditto, who was found slain in a condominium Tuesday. That homicide was the first for Disney's master-planned, picture-perfect central Florida community with 11,000 residents.
Giovanditto lived alone with his Chihuahua and had been slain over the long Thanksgiving weekend, authorities said. Neighbors hadn't seen him for days, so they filed a missing person's report, then went into his condo a day later and found him.
Giovanditto's death was an isolated incident, Lizasuain said.
December 3, 2010. My Way News.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Mexico Nabs 14-Year-Old Cartel Hitman
(AFP) - Mexican authorities have arrested a 14-year-old boy accused of serving as a drug cartel hitman and beheading the victims, the army said Friday.
The youth, identified as Edgar Jimenez and nicknamed "El Ponchis," had been wanted since October, and was arrested at an airport in central Morelos state as he attempted to board a plane to Tijuana, a city at Mexico's border with the United States.
"He was arrested around midnight" late Thursday, an official of military zone 24 located in the city of Cuernavaca near where the arrest occurred, told AFP.
He had earlier been arrested along with six suspected hitmen for the South Pacific Cartel.
The suspects, including Jimenez, allegedly confessed in videos posted on the Internet that they had killed several men found hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mexico City.
They said the boy was in charge of cutting the victims' heads and genitalia, local media said.
According to the videos broadcast on Mexican media, the boy acted in complicity with his sisters, who sometimes served as decoys to lure victims.
Cuernavaca, where many wealthy families from the capital keep a secondary residence, is also the site of a fierce battle between rival drug traffickers fighting for control of the Arturo Beltran Leyva cartel after its leader of the same name was killed by military forces last December.
Published: Friday, 03 Dec 2010. Copyright 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
The youth, identified as Edgar Jimenez and nicknamed "El Ponchis," had been wanted since October, and was arrested at an airport in central Morelos state as he attempted to board a plane to Tijuana, a city at Mexico's border with the United States.
"He was arrested around midnight" late Thursday, an official of military zone 24 located in the city of Cuernavaca near where the arrest occurred, told AFP.
He had earlier been arrested along with six suspected hitmen for the South Pacific Cartel.
The suspects, including Jimenez, allegedly confessed in videos posted on the Internet that they had killed several men found hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca, less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mexico City.
They said the boy was in charge of cutting the victims' heads and genitalia, local media said.
According to the videos broadcast on Mexican media, the boy acted in complicity with his sisters, who sometimes served as decoys to lure victims.
Cuernavaca, where many wealthy families from the capital keep a secondary residence, is also the site of a fierce battle between rival drug traffickers fighting for control of the Arturo Beltran Leyva cartel after its leader of the same name was killed by military forces last December.
Published: Friday, 03 Dec 2010. Copyright 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
'Boy, 6, Misses Bus, Takes Mom's Car Instead'
10-Mile Trip to Va. School Ends With Crash but Without Injury
The word "miracle" can be overused. But when a 6-year-old boy drives a Ford Taurus for more than 10 miles, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, slams into a utility pole and no one gets hurt, well, maybe miracle is appropriate.
That's what happened on Virginia's Northern Neck on Monday morning, when the first-grader missed his school bus and decided to drive his mom's car to elementary school so he wouldn't miss breakfast and PE, authorities said yesterday.
The boy's parents were arrested and charged with felony child endangerment.
Sgt. Thomas A. Cunningham Jr. of the Virginia State Police said the boy is not particularly tall for his age and was "possibly standing" while driving the Taurus. Wilkins said the child had an idea about how to start, propel and steer the car from playing video games.
Once he got going, the boy navigated his way along Route 200 (Dupont Highway), across a bridge spanning the Great Wicomico River and then turned west on Northumberland Highway, which is about 140 miles from Washington. He made it through two intersections, Wilkins said, and then was "doing a pretty great rate of speed" as he passed cars on the two-lane road while not wearing a seat belt.
The boy had gone 10.4 miles, the sheriff said, and was about a mile and a half from his school in Heathsville when he decided to cross the double line and pass again. But this time, he saw a tractor-trailer coming toward him in the other lane.
He quickly whipped the car back into his lane, but, unlike in video games, the car swerved out of control, skidded into an embankment and then struck a utility pole on the rear passenger side.
Briney said he unzipped the boy's coat to check for injuries, found none and zipped it back up -- and the boy turned and walked away. "I said, 'Where are you going?' " Briney said. "He said: 'My school's right over there. I'm late.'
"He was just bound and determined," Wilkins said, "he did not want to miss breakfast and PE." The sheriff said the boy told him that he had trained on video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam.
By Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer, January 7, 2009
The word "miracle" can be overused. But when a 6-year-old boy drives a Ford Taurus for more than 10 miles, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, slams into a utility pole and no one gets hurt, well, maybe miracle is appropriate.
That's what happened on Virginia's Northern Neck on Monday morning, when the first-grader missed his school bus and decided to drive his mom's car to elementary school so he wouldn't miss breakfast and PE, authorities said yesterday.
The boy's parents were arrested and charged with felony child endangerment.
Sgt. Thomas A. Cunningham Jr. of the Virginia State Police said the boy is not particularly tall for his age and was "possibly standing" while driving the Taurus. Wilkins said the child had an idea about how to start, propel and steer the car from playing video games.
Once he got going, the boy navigated his way along Route 200 (Dupont Highway), across a bridge spanning the Great Wicomico River and then turned west on Northumberland Highway, which is about 140 miles from Washington. He made it through two intersections, Wilkins said, and then was "doing a pretty great rate of speed" as he passed cars on the two-lane road while not wearing a seat belt.
The boy had gone 10.4 miles, the sheriff said, and was about a mile and a half from his school in Heathsville when he decided to cross the double line and pass again. But this time, he saw a tractor-trailer coming toward him in the other lane.
He quickly whipped the car back into his lane, but, unlike in video games, the car swerved out of control, skidded into an embankment and then struck a utility pole on the rear passenger side.
Briney said he unzipped the boy's coat to check for injuries, found none and zipped it back up -- and the boy turned and walked away. "I said, 'Where are you going?' " Briney said. "He said: 'My school's right over there. I'm late.'
"He was just bound and determined," Wilkins said, "he did not want to miss breakfast and PE." The sheriff said the boy told him that he had trained on video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam.
By Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer, January 7, 2009
Friday, December 07, 2007
Hooked on classics
Every Saturday afternoon, a dozen students meet at the canteen of Renmin University of China in Beijing. They do not come for food or tea as others do. Instead, they gather for a Chinese classic, called The Book of Odes. Undistracted by noise and the smell of food, they spend four hours reading, debating and sharing views on the ancient poetry, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). The students are pursuing their major, Chinese Classics, a two-year labor of love.Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University, says the rediscovery of Chinese Classics has become "necessary to restoring China's cultural confidence".
The school set up a four-year bachelor's degree and two-year master's degree in 2005, and has enrolled around 130 undergraduates and 30 graduates to date.
"As opposed to Chinese language learning, the Chinese Classics is a combination of Chinese literature, history and philosophy as an integrated whole,"says Chen Junchan, a senior student at the school.
When she was young, Liu Fang's parents asked her to recite Chinese classical poems. By primary school, she had already read A Dream of the Red Chamber, the most popular Chinese classic novel, almost 20 times. At secondary school, Liu started to compose her own poems.
Like Liu, many of the students in the school were nurtured on Chinese literature or traditional art.
One of the features of the course is a series of reading courses analyzing about 20 traditional classics, including Lao-Ztu, Chuang-Ztu, Mencius, The Odes of Chu, Yimutology, The History of the Han Dynasty and poetry of different dynasties, all of which were written by China's most distinguished writers, philosophers or historians. In the past, they were the required reading for Chinese scholars.
"The students must be patient and know the original readings by heart," says Deputy Dean Sun Jiazhou.
However, it is not easy to either teach or learn these works. Liang Tao, an associate professor of the history of ideology, considers it a long-term mission. "Every classic book deserves lifelong digestion and can be increasingly internalized into one's personal wisdom."
The students also come up with different methods to digest the classics. Wu Qinli, a senior, for instance, joined Yi Dan Xue Tang, a Beijing-based organization dedicated to the sharing and spreading of traditional Chinese culture. One of its modes is reading classics aloud in the morning. "Breathing fresh air and learning through reading is a wonderful experience," says Wu.
The school emphasizes self-study. For the History of China's Historiography, the class divides into groups, and each is asked to prepare a group presentation.
Chen Junchan's group was responsible for introducing three types of historical works. For a whole week, they spent hours each night reading the materials sentence by sentence and discussing every detail. "We seemed to act like the ancient scholars, the only difference was that we did not put on long gowns," she says.
The students also leave the classroom to walk. This year the school initiated a program called "learning by traveling", as there is a Chinese saying, "Knowledge comes from thousands of books and ten thousands of miles".
In June and July, the senior students visited the provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang, Hunan and Jiangxi, traditional places of culture where scholars studied or lived, like Qufu, the home of Confucius.
Students regard it as an effective combination of knowledge and practice. "I couldn't help pondering philosophical questions in places where ancient scholars had stood. It was fantastic," says 21-year-old Chen Chanzhi.
They also composed a host of poems and essays based on their reflections during the journey.
No matter what they do after graduation, the lessons of Chinese Classics have already influenced on their personal development. As Yuan Lei, a senior student, says: "What we actually harvest is sincerity, goodness and tolerance."
Source: People's Daily Online, December 04, 2007.
Anthology of Chinese Literature: Volume I: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century (Anthology of Chinese Literature)
Legendary prophetess never afraid of death
One winter night a knight in shining armor appeared in a village. He entered a house and uttered:
Just like this Vanga started making predictions.
Vanga was known in Bulgaria and abroad, she helped many people from different countries. Her house in Rupite at the joint border of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece is believed to be a source of incredible cosmic energy. This energy must have fed the human phenomenon of Vanga.
Her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died when Vanga was quite young. The family was living a hard life after the war. Her father had an animal farm, and Vanga had to drive the milk-can.
A terrible storm occurred one day. The sky was dark and strong wind blew. Lumps of mud, leaves and branches created an enormous vortex. The storm lifted 12-year-old Vanga up and threw her in the field. She was found after a long search. Her eyes were covered with sand. Afterwards, she began to lose sight. No healing gave results. Vanga prayed to God. Soon she became blind but acquired another vision.
Vanga started making predictions when she was 16. She helped her father to find a sheep stolen from his flock. She provided a detailed description of a yard where the animal was being hidden by the thieves.
Vanga had dreamed about some distressing events even before the knight appeared. All these events unfortunately came true.
During World War II Vanga attracted more believers — a number of people visiting her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives are alive, or seeking for the place where they died. She advised people how to protect themselves on the battlefields, how to cure themselves with herbs, clay and beeswax, where to find lost things.
Long before world-wide fame Vanga was put in prison because she predicted Stalin’s death. But in a year set at liberty – Stalin died. Though, she entrusted such important data as leaders’ obits and global disasters only to a limited group of people. She did not want to scare anyone.
When her brother Vasil joined a partisan party, Vanga cried and begged him not to go, telling him that he would be cruelly killed at the age of 23. But Vasil did not believe her. In October of the same year he surrendered. He was terribly tortured and then shot down. It was very difficult for her to know the destiny and have no means to resist it.
Vanga was not afraid of death. She said that there is no death:
© 2007 «PRAVDA.Ru», translated by Ksenia Sedyakina.
Predicting the Future
“The world is on the threshold of disaster. Millions of people will die. And you will stand here and prophesy. Do not be afraid! I’ll tell you what you should say.”This phantom visited 30-year-old Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova in January, 1941.
Just like this Vanga started making predictions.
Vanga was known in Bulgaria and abroad, she helped many people from different countries. Her house in Rupite at the joint border of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece is believed to be a source of incredible cosmic energy. This energy must have fed the human phenomenon of Vanga.
Her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died when Vanga was quite young. The family was living a hard life after the war. Her father had an animal farm, and Vanga had to drive the milk-can.
A terrible storm occurred one day. The sky was dark and strong wind blew. Lumps of mud, leaves and branches created an enormous vortex. The storm lifted 12-year-old Vanga up and threw her in the field. She was found after a long search. Her eyes were covered with sand. Afterwards, she began to lose sight. No healing gave results. Vanga prayed to God. Soon she became blind but acquired another vision.
Vanga started making predictions when she was 16. She helped her father to find a sheep stolen from his flock. She provided a detailed description of a yard where the animal was being hidden by the thieves.
Vanga had dreamed about some distressing events even before the knight appeared. All these events unfortunately came true.
During World War II Vanga attracted more believers — a number of people visiting her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives are alive, or seeking for the place where they died. She advised people how to protect themselves on the battlefields, how to cure themselves with herbs, clay and beeswax, where to find lost things.
Long before world-wide fame Vanga was put in prison because she predicted Stalin’s death. But in a year set at liberty – Stalin died. Though, she entrusted such important data as leaders’ obits and global disasters only to a limited group of people. She did not want to scare anyone.
When her brother Vasil joined a partisan party, Vanga cried and begged him not to go, telling him that he would be cruelly killed at the age of 23. But Vasil did not believe her. In October of the same year he surrendered. He was terribly tortured and then shot down. It was very difficult for her to know the destiny and have no means to resist it.
Vanga was not afraid of death. She said that there is no death:
"I have told you that after death the body decomposes like anything living, but a part of the body – the soul, or something I don’t know how to call, does not decompose. But what remains from a man is his soul. It does not decompose and continues to develop to reach higher states. This is the eternity of soul.”Vanga believed that people are born for good works. Bad works never escape punishment. She always tried to do good for people.
© 2007 «PRAVDA.Ru», translated by Ksenia Sedyakina.
Predicting the Future
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