Daily Rotten Archives January 25, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 100 massacred in the Congo BBC | Submitted by: Jim "Some 100 passengers on board a boat are reported to have been massacred by a group of ethnic-militiamen last week in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo. The alleged incident happened last Friday in Ituri Province, on the shores of Lake Albert, near the border with Uganda... Three survivors, some of them wounded by bullets, told the investigating team that once the boat had docked, the militiamen had executed more than 100 men who were onboard. According to the witnesses, some of whom gave detailed accounts on the UN radio in the Congo, many of the women and children who were on the boat have been abducted and used by the militiamen to transport goods looted from the traders." Read article... Body Worlds artist caught with executed prisoners Guardian | Submitted by: wingnut "The controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens last night agreed to return seven corpses to China after admitting that the bodies used in his exhibitions might have come from executed prisoners... at least two corpses out of some 647 stored by the anatomist at his centre in China had bullet holes in their skulls... He said he only discovered last week that seven corpses in his collection had head injuries. The fedora-wearing scientist now lives in the Chinese city of Dalian and employs 200 people to dissect and preserve corpses at a centre. The centre is close to three prison camps, which are home to political detainees and members of the banned Falun Gong movement." Read article... Lawsuit pending over sale of dad's corpse Guardian | Submitted by: wingnut "The daughter of a Siberian hospital patient - who says her father's corpse was sold for use in an art exhibition - plans legal action to reclaim it. Svetlana Krechetova believes that the body went to the the German artist and anatomist Dr Gunther von Hagens, who has stirred controversy for strengthening corpses with plastic, skinning them and putting them on show with the internal organs exposed, in a 'celebration' of art and science... Police in Siberia arrested Vladimir Novosyolov, head of criminal pathology in Novosibirsk, in October 2002, alleging he had misled relatives by saying their loved ones' corpses had been cremated. Fifty-six bodies had allegedly been sold through a Russian medical institute to von Hagens's Institute of Plastination in Heidelberg." Read article... New York airport security misses knife, stun gun Denver Post | Submitted by: blumpkin "A Denver-bound woman managed to pass through security screening at LaGuardia Airport in New York with a stun gun and knife in her purse Saturday... most of the way to Denver, she reached into her purse and realized she had brought weapons on board. 'She immediately went, "Oh, my God, I'm not supposed to have these here," and called the flight attendant over,' Bennett said... Transportation Security Administration officials had no comment on how she was able to get past LaGuardia security. Darrin Kayser, a TSA official, said the agency will look into the incident." Read article... Judas Priest drummer convicted of tardboy rape Chart Attack | Submitted by: optional "The ex-drummer for heavy metal band Judas Priest reportedly wept in court today as a guilty verdict was read out, convicting him of the attempted rape of a special needs teen. David Holland, 55, had been giving the 17-year-old boy drumming lessons between June and December of 2002 at his home in England when the incidents occurred... A member of one of the most influential U.K. heavy-metal bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Holland played with Judas Priest from 1979 to 1989 when the band put out such anthems as 'Screaming For Vengeance,' 'Living After Midnight' and 'Hell Bent For Leather.'" Read article... Abstinence programs really just a ruse BBC | Submitted by: Graehme de Parke "The abstinence movement is flourishing in America... it is clear that the conservative Christian morality of President Bush is finding its way into legislation that promotes abstinence. The Bush administration gave $120m to abstinence organisations last year... in a moment of quietness, Denny confides that he believes that the end of the world is nigh and that Christ will return within a generation. And so where does abstinence fit into that vision? Well, abstinence, he says, is a tool to reach young people for God, safeguarding them for the Second Coming." [Which means taxpayer money is being spent to convert kids to Christianity. How very unconstitutional.] Read article... Neo-Nazi finds an audience among Muslims Orange County Weekly | Submitted by: juanholmes "Bill Baker has resurfaced as a frequent guest speaker at Muslim functions across North America despite articles in OC Weekly in 2002 that outed the Laguna Hills resident as the former head of the neo-Nazi Populist Party and led to his ouster as a close associate to the Reverend Robert Schuller of Garden Grove's Crystal Cathedral... In 1984, Baker was national chairman of Costa Mesa-based Holocaust denier Willis Carto's Populist Party, whose platform called for the repeal of U.S. civil rights laws. Baker now states that, although he planned his party's national convention, he had no knowledge of its platform or ideology." Read article... Proud moments in newspaper journalism Orange County Weekly | Submitted by: juanholmes "Venezuela dominated the front pages of American newspapers on April 12, 2002, with the story that President Hugo Chávez had resigned and that the military had installed a civilian businessman as the country's new leader... These same American papers published a vastly different perspective two days later, however, when Chávez and his supporters retook control of Venezuela. What the papers had written in their original stories as a Chávez 'resignation' was now being reported as a 'coup.' Major metropolitan dailies even apologized for the shoddy coverage in their original dispatches, openly admitting their mistakes in not considering Chávez's disposal a coup despite the overwhelming evidence supporting such a conclusion... In the first batch of stories to come out of Venezuela, the word coup was mentioned only when noting that Chávez had led a 1992 coup, that Chávez's allies called his removal from office a coup, or that coup leaders denied orchestrating a coup. Indeed, every American paper save for the Miami Herald followed the lead of the Venezuelan press and reported to readers that Chávez resigned under his own will." Read article... $120 debt triggers house foreclosure Sacramento Bee | Submitted by: Liddell "A retired couple's dispute with their homeowners association has spiraled out of control in this Calaveras County community - and now they have lost their home less than a year after failing to pay $120 in annual dues... Throughout 2003, the association and its collection firm, Coast Assessment Service Co. of Garden Grove, said they made nearly a dozen attempts to collect the amount due, which has increased to $1,952 with late charges and collections fees. The Radcliffs said they received few of these notices and didn't know their home had been auctioned off until they received a notice to vacate the property on Jan. 7." [The real question is: who scooped up their $258,000 home at auction for only $70,000?] Read article...