Friends for life

Two peas from the same pod:

With more voting, comes more debates. Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama announced today that they have accepted invitations to two debates ahead of the next round of primaries.

Airplane crash survivors in Indonesia

It’s quite remarkable – the story of the crash:

Like many others on her flight, Nuniek Sufithri had thanked God she was alive after the Boeing 737-400 made a terrifying descent and lurched off the runway, bouncing several times before plowing through a fence.

Then the jetliner burst into flames, sending panic through the rows of seats.

"People started yelling 'Fire! Fire!"' said Sufithri, who is 10 weeks pregnant. "I tried to get out, but was trampled. ... Someone pulled me up, carried me to the back door and threw me out."

At least 21 people were killed in the burning wreckage of the Garuda Airlines plane after it crash-landed Wednesday at Yogyakarta airport on Java island, the latest in a string of recent plane crashes that has cast doubt on the safety of Indonesia's airline industry.

About 115 others escaped through emergency exits as black smoke billowed behind them, and two passengers were missing, officials said. Most survivors escaped without major injuries, although several suffered burns and broken bones.

What I can’t believe is this, a cameraman escaped and filmed the carnage:

Wayan Sukarda, an Indonesian cameraman for Australia's Seven Network, managed to scramble off the plane, then shot dramatic video of dazed passengers fleeing as black smoke and orange flames poured from the fuselage behind them.

An explosion and fireball then ripped through the air, apparently as the fire reached a fuel tank, the footage showed.

Sukarda had called the network as the plane was crashing, a colleague told The West Australian newspaper. "He was screaming, 'The plane's crashing.' I thought he must have seen another plane crash. I didn't know it was the one he was on. You could hear all the alarms and sirens going off, people screaming," said Channel Seven's Danny Sim.

I’ve got to ask, why didn’t Sukarda help?  Why rush out and film escaping passengers?

 

House Church Prayer Meeting Raided in Jiangsu Province

China Aid Association was informed that Chinese police raided a House Church Christian prayermeeting in Jiangsu province.
It happened at 10:40am February 7, 2007, when the local police from Shanghuang Township, Suyang City, Jiangsu Province, along with officials from Suyang Religious Bureau and National Security Protection Squad under Suyang Police Bureau, raided a Christian prayer meeting of over twenty believers held in the home of Tan Jianwei, No.15, Gangxi Village, Shanghuang Town. While the Christians were praying, the police interrupted the meeting without showing ID. 

The police took individual pictures of these Christians and asked them to write their names for identification purposes. The Christians who refused to write their names were subsequently beaten. Without a search warrant, the police searched the house of Tan Jianwei, singling out and confiscating his Christian books without leaving a record of the books confiscated. 

Tan Jianwei (male, 36 years old), his wife Qin Qing and another lady named Yin Yanling (42 years old) were taken to Shanghuang Town Police Station for interrogation without a summons. The police forced Tan Jianwei, his wife and Yin Yanling to write a promise to cease holding religious activities in Tan Jianwei's house on threat of criminal detention and severe beatings. Five people directed this raid: Peng Luzhong, head of the National Security Protection Squad under Suyang police bureauï Œpoliceman Zhang Weifeng, policemen from Shanghuang police station, Zhong Linjun (ID 059442), Bi Qingxi (ID 058869), and Lu from Suyang religion Bureau.