First the good news - the National Hockey League is back. A collective bargaining agreement has finally been signed, after a season's lockout, and the NHL players will go to the Olympics at least until 2010 - all the silly contract mumbo jumbo I'm not interested in, but there are a couple of rule changes that are interesting. Two line passes will be allowed, and there aren't going to be any ties anymore, hockey will go down soccer's route and have a penalty shootout after one period of extra time. The managers apparently didn't want Olympic participation, especially after the year long lock out, but the players did, and it is nice easy public relations for hockey.
Now the bad. A man was shot by police at point blank range at Stockwell tube station in south London. He had refused to stop when asked to by police, ran into the tube station, jumped the ticket barriers and ran onto the platform. Wearing a bulky jacket, he tripped as he got onto a Northern line train - the police ran into the train, machine guns at the ready, kept the guy on the floor, and one of them shot him, five times, in the head. In front of all the passengers in the carriage.
Panic ensued, as the passengers either ducked for cover because of the shooting, or ran for fear of a bomb going off. One of the few good things about it was that it did not happen in the middle of rush hour, instead at the relatively quieter time of 10am.
The man had come from a house under surveillance related to Thursday's attempted bombings, but was not one of the alleged bombers (I say alleged, because we do still have innocent before proven guilty don't we?), whose CCTV pictures were released later on Friday, UK time. Reading far and wide on the newspaper websites, no I haven't gone to blogs to pick any of this up, it appears he was either a relative or a friend of someone under suspicion in the house under surveillance who the police may have tried to 'turn'. He got nervous and ran.
Apparently the new police rules (since February) allow them to shoot if they believe an imminent threat is in hand - and, with instruction from Israeli police, have been informed that if a suicide bomber is still conscious of making decisions or pushing a trigger with their hands, then they are a threat at all times, even if they have surrendered. There are queries in the British press about whether this means a shoot to kill policy. And how many people AREN'T nervous when police are questioning them?
More so than the actual bombings, which apart from the suicide angle have occurred in Britain before, this shooting may be the UK's real initiation into the war on terror. Police haven't shot people from point blank range in front of civilians before, or so I have read. The Prime Minister advised on Thursday to go on with lives as per normal, but when the Metropolitan Police have cancelled all leave, have got their officers on twelve hour shifts, and a possible shoot to kill policy, how normal can anything be?
'Has London become Belfast or Tel Aviv?'
More bombings on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, after last October's attacks on Israeli targets there. At least seventy five dead. Also bombings in Lebanon, riots in Yemen, the daily carnage in Iraq. I could go on, for instance the possible famine in Niger, but will stop there for now, was draining reading as much as I could about what is happening in London lately.
Later peeps - at least the hockey is back...
Pauly
Now the bad. A man was shot by police at point blank range at Stockwell tube station in south London. He had refused to stop when asked to by police, ran into the tube station, jumped the ticket barriers and ran onto the platform. Wearing a bulky jacket, he tripped as he got onto a Northern line train - the police ran into the train, machine guns at the ready, kept the guy on the floor, and one of them shot him, five times, in the head. In front of all the passengers in the carriage.
Panic ensued, as the passengers either ducked for cover because of the shooting, or ran for fear of a bomb going off. One of the few good things about it was that it did not happen in the middle of rush hour, instead at the relatively quieter time of 10am.
The man had come from a house under surveillance related to Thursday's attempted bombings, but was not one of the alleged bombers (I say alleged, because we do still have innocent before proven guilty don't we?), whose CCTV pictures were released later on Friday, UK time. Reading far and wide on the newspaper websites, no I haven't gone to blogs to pick any of this up, it appears he was either a relative or a friend of someone under suspicion in the house under surveillance who the police may have tried to 'turn'. He got nervous and ran.
Apparently the new police rules (since February) allow them to shoot if they believe an imminent threat is in hand - and, with instruction from Israeli police, have been informed that if a suicide bomber is still conscious of making decisions or pushing a trigger with their hands, then they are a threat at all times, even if they have surrendered. There are queries in the British press about whether this means a shoot to kill policy. And how many people AREN'T nervous when police are questioning them?
More so than the actual bombings, which apart from the suicide angle have occurred in Britain before, this shooting may be the UK's real initiation into the war on terror. Police haven't shot people from point blank range in front of civilians before, or so I have read. The Prime Minister advised on Thursday to go on with lives as per normal, but when the Metropolitan Police have cancelled all leave, have got their officers on twelve hour shifts, and a possible shoot to kill policy, how normal can anything be?
'Has London become Belfast or Tel Aviv?'
More bombings on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, after last October's attacks on Israeli targets there. At least seventy five dead. Also bombings in Lebanon, riots in Yemen, the daily carnage in Iraq. I could go on, for instance the possible famine in Niger, but will stop there for now, was draining reading as much as I could about what is happening in London lately.
Later peeps - at least the hockey is back...
Pauly
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