Paul E. Ester's Flogger

A high-ranking Chinese diplomat has been shot dead in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. … Rest of Article

Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s office have launched an astonishing attack on America’s handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’eda fugitives.

They have told The Telegraph that troops carrying out house-to-house searches in the remote tribal areas of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border were “blundering” with a “march-in-shooting” approach.

The US action was “backfiring”, increasing support for terrorism and making it harder for bin Laden and his henchmen to be caught.

“The Americans think they and the Pakistanis can just march in shooting”, said an official closely involved in the direction of the war.

“They don’t understand the sensitivities. We have years of experience in the tribal areas and we know using force will just backfire and increase sympathy for al-Qa’eda.”
… Rest of Article

Pathetic Brits.

In a bizarre series of incidents, two farmers in different parts of the country were hospitalized after being attacked by cows. Elsewhere, four men narrowly missed having their car crushed by a crash-landing cow.
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MindArk’s Project-Entropia: Is someone afraid of this game? On June 26 MindArk AB, the Sweden-based developer behind the upcoming free online role-playing game, Project Entropia, issued a press release detailing a raid by 70 Swedish Court officials for alleged software infringement on behalf of four companies including Microsoft. MindArk strongly denied the allegations and stated that the possible motivation behind this raid was Microsoft’s fear of its online game because it will eventually go head-to-head with one of Microsoft’s games, Asheron’s Call II…. Rest of Article

even conservative homo Andrew Sullivan, who’d been hectoring us to grow up and settle down, got caught posting ads on a barebacking Web site. … Rest of Article

Authorities investigating the theft of high-speed Internet cable service yesterday seized modems and other computer equipment from homes in Toledo and surrounding suburbs.
Members of the Toledo police computer crimes task force and FBI agents served search warrants at 13 residences, including an apartment, a condominium, and single-family houses. Investigators believe cable modems that connect Buckeye Express customers to the Internet were altered, allowing computer users unauthorized access to excessive amounts of bandwidth…. Rest of Article

Wish they could define excessive…

Four women have contacted police after being persuaded to stand topless in their windows or balconies so that a satellite could give them a mammogram.

The women, aged between 19 and 45, living in the Algarve, southern Portugal, were all contacted by telephone by a woman claiming to be a doctor.

She told them that a revolutionary method had been developed of conducting breast examinations by satellite.
… Rest of Article

Police say a man who escaped from police custody lost his arm while trying to remove his handcuffs on a passing train. Albuquerque police say they think the man was trying to use the train to cut the cuffs. The man escaped last night. He was found a short while later. His arm was found in a nearby parking lot. … Rest of Article

A man who tried to rob a Greenfield gun shop at knifepoint Thursday afternoon was shot in the chest by the shop owner, police said.
… Rest of Article