Magic Statistics

Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube (at right) says he is ready to join public demonstrations against the regime of Robert Mugabe even if police open fire.

Pius Ncube, archbishop of the southern Bulawayo diocese, told a news conference Zimbabweans must take to the streets over rights abuses by Mugabe's government, facing international criticism over a crackdown on the opposition.

"The biggest problem with Zimbabweans is they are cowards, myself included, but as for me I am ready to stand in front, even of blazing guns," he said.

"If only Zimbabweans are prepared to stand, so am I prepared to stand … we are not going to be bullied," Ncube said.

The conference was arranged by Christian Alliance, made up of church leaders who also belong to the Save Our Zimbabwe campaign, the group that organised the prayer meeting brutally attacked by police forces two weeks ago.

It was also reported today that the Australian consul in Harare defied the Mugabe government by assisting injured activist Sekai Holland to leave the country for medical care.

Australia's consul in Harare, Mark Lynch, last night escorted Mrs Holland and her Australian husband to Harare airport. From there they were flown by air ambulance to Johannesburg for urgent medical treatment.

Mrs Holland had been held under armed guard in a Harare hospital since being severely bashed at an opposition rally almost two weeks ago.

Another injured opposition official, Grace Kwinje, also escaped with the Hollands.

Mrs Holland feared her life was at risk if she did not receive specialist treatment.

The two women were injured when police attacked members of the Movement for Democratic Change as they peacefully walked to the 11 March prayer meeting.

h/t: Catholic News

Previous related posts:

• Zimbabwean opposition MP attacked at airport
• Archbishop Pius Ncube: Mugabe’s most defiant opponent
• Mugabe approves vicious police beatings

Global warming has hit Alaska’s largest city hard.  The winter of 2006-2007 has brought such deep and prolonged cold snaps that the ground is frozen to a depth of nine feet.  Water pipes buried at 10 feet have frozen, bursting apart two fire hydrants.

A cold spell last November, plus a too-cold March, drove frost deeper than usual in Anchorage this winter, down to about nine feet, which is just one foot above the official burial depth of city water pipes.

Pipes buried 10 feet underground are freezing all around the city, according to the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility.

The main lines are flowing fine, said Brett Jokela, assistant general manager of AWWU.

But even as spring slunk into town, fire hydrants popped out of the ground Monday and Tuesday nights and sent water flowing into buildings. And the spurs that lead to houses — which property owners are responsible for — are freezing around the city.

A local thawing service owner told a reporter that he’s been working 12 or more hours every day for several weeks.  His minimum charge is $110 per hour.

Previous related post: Global warming hits Anchorage

Last year, a Welsh inventor began selling a device that drives away loitering teenagers by emitting an unpleasant audio signal.  The apparatus, dubbed the Mosquito (photo at right), sends out an irritating but harmless noise at a frequency so high that it can only be heard only by those under 25.  The contraption has proved immensely successful.  Over 3300 have been sold at £495 a pop to local governments, shops, police, and private home-owners.

Inventor Howard Stapleton says he has now begun work on a more powerful Mosquito that will have a range of 50 metres for use in cemeteries and building sites.

Inevitably, a misguided human rights group claims the device infringes the civil liberties of teenagers.

[W]hile some local authorities and police forces are highly enthusiastic about the Mosquito, campaigners Liberty are raising concerns about both the machine's legality and its effectiveness in addressing antisocial behaviour..
. . .
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti said: "At worst, the Mosquito is a low-level sonic weapon; at best, a dog-whistle for kids. Either way it has no place in a civilised society that values its children and young people and seeks to imbue them with values of dignity and respect.

I agree that it’s a weapon, although one that causes no lasting harm.  In fact, I have no problem calling it a dog-whistle for delinquents kids.  The real problem in view here, of course, is young louts loitering outside stores, drinking and taking drugs in public car parks, and vandalising property of law-abiding citizens.  If those adolescents had any “dignity and respect”, they wouldn’t behave like oafs.

Alex Gask, one of the campaign group's lawyers, said: "Our objection is that this device is clearly designed as a way of getting rid of young people as a problem and about seeing them as a problem rather than identifying specific behaviour they are engaged in and getting rid of that."

That’s a job for parents, not shopkeepers and police.  (Police in the UK  used to “identify” unlawful behaviour and “get rid of that”, but those days are long gone.)

Speaking of parents, where are they?

Although Liberty wants to haul Mr Stapleton into court, that’s not possible until and unless some overly sensitive yob lays a complaint.  One hopes they’re all too anti-social to do that.

h/t: Overlawyered

Previous related post: Sounds good to me

More information has been reported about the Christian teacher who was beaten to death by Muslim students at a high school in north-eastern Nigeria.  The original report said the students alleged she had desecrated a Qur’an while invigilating an examination.

Oluwatoyin Olushekan was attacked and killed by the students in Gandu Secondary School in Tudun Wada district of northern Gombe State.

Her attackers accused her of tearing a portion of the Qur'an she seized from a female student during an examination.

Bashir Dikko, Gombe State police spokesperson told reporters: "There was an incident today at Gandu Secondary School in the metropolis in which a teacher was lynched by some students who also burnt her car and set three blocks of classrooms ablaze".

The police have arrested eight people in connection with the cold-blooded murder and, in hopes of preventing further violence, have ordered all secondary schools in the city closed.

A neighbour of Olushekan, a nursing mother, described what happened.

"From what we learnt from the staff in the school, she was invigilating an examination on Islamic studies when she caught a female student engaged in a malpractice and seized the paper she was copying from and tore it", Badamasi Aliyu said on the telephone from Gombe.

"A student who was standing by the window shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great), telling other students that she had desecrated the Qur'an and this led to the attack that caused her death.”

This horrifying episode started when a student was caught cheating.  You don’t suppose those high-school vigilantes had a hidden agenda?

In fact, whaddya bet the ringleaders were notorious miscreants and academic underachievers?

h/t: Big News Network.com - Breaking Religious News

Previous related posts:

• Muslim pupils kill Christian teacher in Nigeria
• Nigerian Christian children kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam
• Islamists in arson attack on Nigerian school chapel