Woman held for trying to smuggle heroin via DHL
Fri May 18, 8:26 AM ET
Tajik police have arrested a woman for trying to smuggle heroin in a refrigerator through express delivery firm DHL, the interior ministry said Friday.
The DHL office in the Tajik capital Dushanbe grew suspicious after noticing that its transportation cost to Moscow exceeded the actual cost of the fridge by several times. It then called the police, said the interior ministry.
"We have arrested a 26-year-old woman who tried to send via DHL a refrigerator with a total of 17.4 kg of heroin hidden in its inner cover plate," said Interior Ministry spokesman Khudoinazar Asozoda.
DHL in Dushanbe said it could not comment on the matter.
Tajikistan, an impoverished ex-Soviet state, lies on a main drugs trafficking route out of neighboring Afghanistan, the world's top producer of opium and its refined form, heroin.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
My God man could you imagine if the Sioux had YouTube at Little Big Horn!
Defense Department blocks some Web sites
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press WriterMon May 14, 4:32 AM ET
Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.
The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.
The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.
"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.
The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.
Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall. The Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis.
But the new rules mean many military personnel won't be able to watch those achievements — at least not on military computers.
If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine.
"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."
The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.
Several companies have instituted similar bans, saying recreational sites drain productivity.
___
Army memo:
http://tinyurl.com/2x2qka
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press WriterMon May 14, 4:32 AM ET
Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.
The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.
The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.
"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.
The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.
Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall. The Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis.
But the new rules mean many military personnel won't be able to watch those achievements — at least not on military computers.
If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine.
"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."
The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.
Several companies have instituted similar bans, saying recreational sites drain productivity.
___
Army memo:
http://tinyurl.com/2x2qka
Friday, May 11, 2007
So let me get this straight if I work out everyday I'll be healthier? NO! You lie!
DIET: Thin people may be fat inside
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical WriterThu May 10, 7:28 PM ET
If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.
"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.
According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.
Without a clear warning signal — like a rounder middle — doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy.
"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell's research.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.
Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
Relating the news to what Bell calls "TOFIs" — people who are "thin outside, fat inside" — is rarely uneventful. "The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise," he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods — and exercise too little to work it off — but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.
"BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body's communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.
Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.
For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. "Even if you don't see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat," said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen's University in Canada.
Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it's difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat — though it certainly doesn't help.
"Obesity is a risk factor, but it's lower down on the totem pole of risk factors," he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.
When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. "If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical WriterThu May 10, 7:28 PM ET
If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.
"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.
According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.
Without a clear warning signal — like a rounder middle — doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy.
"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell's research.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.
Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
Relating the news to what Bell calls "TOFIs" — people who are "thin outside, fat inside" — is rarely uneventful. "The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise," he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods — and exercise too little to work it off — but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.
"BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body's communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.
Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.
For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. "Even if you don't see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat," said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen's University in Canada.
Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it's difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat — though it certainly doesn't help.
"Obesity is a risk factor, but it's lower down on the totem pole of risk factors," he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.
When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. "If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."
Yeah.. I really want to deal with Indian Tech Support but now I have to worry about my local crooked politicians being covered by his cousin?!
Calif. Web site outsources reporting
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press WriterFri May 11, 12:08 AM ET
The job posting was a head-scratcher: "We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA."
A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade?
Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.
James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.
But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India's lower labor costs.
"I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications," said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. "Whether you're at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you're still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview."
The first articles, some of which will carry bylines, are slated to appear Friday.
The plan has its doubters.
"Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances," said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. "This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become."
It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth.
This is not the first time media jobs have been shipped to India.
The British news agency Reuters runs an operation in the technology capital of Bangalore that churns out Wall Street stories based on news releases.
Macpherson appears to be the first to outsource community journalism — work that by definition has been done by reporters who walk the streets they cover.
Macphersons said his Web site, which he runs out of his house, gets about 45,000 unique readers per month but is not yet profitable. Up until now, his main help has consisted of his wife and an intern.
Macpherson posted the help-wanted ad Monday on the Indian edition of craigslist.org. Within days, he said, he had hired two Indian reporters, one a graduate of the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley.
He wants them to broaden pasadenanow.com's content from news releases and event listings to analyses of issues before the council, and perhaps eventually to investigative reports.
Projected annual cost: $20,800 for the pair. Not bad wages for an Indian journalist and cheap by U.S. standards, especially if each one produces the expected 15 weekly articles.
Pasadena city spokeswoman Ann Erdman said coverage from afar shouldn't pose problems if the articles are well-edited. In any case, she said, "Local government is certainly not in the practice of dictating to local business who they can hire and where those employees should live."
___
Associated Press Writer Matthew Rosenberg in New Delhi, India, contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
The news site: http://www.pasadenanow.com
The ad: http://bangalore.craigslist.org/wri/325542906.html
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press WriterFri May 11, 12:08 AM ET
The job posting was a head-scratcher: "We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA."
A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade?
Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.
James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.
But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India's lower labor costs.
"I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications," said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. "Whether you're at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you're still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview."
The first articles, some of which will carry bylines, are slated to appear Friday.
The plan has its doubters.
"Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances," said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. "This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become."
It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth.
This is not the first time media jobs have been shipped to India.
The British news agency Reuters runs an operation in the technology capital of Bangalore that churns out Wall Street stories based on news releases.
Macpherson appears to be the first to outsource community journalism — work that by definition has been done by reporters who walk the streets they cover.
Macphersons said his Web site, which he runs out of his house, gets about 45,000 unique readers per month but is not yet profitable. Up until now, his main help has consisted of his wife and an intern.
Macpherson posted the help-wanted ad Monday on the Indian edition of craigslist.org. Within days, he said, he had hired two Indian reporters, one a graduate of the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley.
He wants them to broaden pasadenanow.com's content from news releases and event listings to analyses of issues before the council, and perhaps eventually to investigative reports.
Projected annual cost: $20,800 for the pair. Not bad wages for an Indian journalist and cheap by U.S. standards, especially if each one produces the expected 15 weekly articles.
Pasadena city spokeswoman Ann Erdman said coverage from afar shouldn't pose problems if the articles are well-edited. In any case, she said, "Local government is certainly not in the practice of dictating to local business who they can hire and where those employees should live."
___
Associated Press Writer Matthew Rosenberg in New Delhi, India, contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
The news site: http://www.pasadenanow.com
The ad: http://bangalore.craigslist.org/wri/325542906.html
Ah yes can't have .xxx but .asia or .travel is ok. That makes sense for little johnny looking at www.asiawhores.asia or www.asiasextrips.travel
New domain names could come in mid-2008
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer2 hours, 35 minutes ago
New Internet addresses for general use could start appearing in the summer of 2008 under a timeline the Internet's key oversight agency announced Thursday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers invited public comment on procedures for creating new names, the first expansion for general use since 2000. Names added since then have been limited to specific regions or industries.
"This is all about choice," ICANN Chief Executive Paul Twomey said in a statement. "We want the diversity of the world's people, geography and business to be able to be represented in the domain name system."
Domain names are key for helping computers find Web sites and route e-mail. There are currently about 250 domain name suffixes, most of them for specific countries such as ".fr" for France. General-use names include ".com" and ".net."
In 2000, two years after its designation by the U.S. government as the authority for overseeing Internet naming policies, ICANN approved seven new names, but only ".info" and ".biz" were truly for general use.
ICANN solicited additional applications in 2004 and has approved six regional or industry-specific names, such as ".travel" and ".asia," while rejecting ".xxx" for the adult entertainment industry.
Also added were .jobs, .mobi, .cat, and .tel.
Some ICANN critics have complained that the agency has been slow to approve new names and that the procedures have sometimes been arbitrary. Businesses and trademark owners, meanwhile, worry that more names will lead to more cybersquatting, the practice of grabbing names before companies can in hopes of selling them at a premium.
ICANN did not specify how individuals and groups would be able to seek new names, but the group indicated that the procedures would be streamlined to permit "a much wider variety of them to be added in a timely, predictable and efficient manner."
An ICANN committee, the Generic Names Supporting Organization, still is reviewing the procedures. Once it sends a recommendation to the ICANN board, procedures could be adopted by year's end and applications for new names could be accepted early next year.
Twomey said new names could be reviewed and added into the system in the June-August 2008 timeframe.
The new addresses are likely to be in English.
ICANN could wrap up the technical work on non-Latin scripts by year's end, but it still must resolve policy questions such as who should decide what countries get what suffixes and how to make sure a domain in one language isn't inadvertently offensive in another.
___
On the Net:
ICANN information on new names:
http://www.icann.org/topics/new-gtld-strategy-faq.htm
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer2 hours, 35 minutes ago
New Internet addresses for general use could start appearing in the summer of 2008 under a timeline the Internet's key oversight agency announced Thursday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers invited public comment on procedures for creating new names, the first expansion for general use since 2000. Names added since then have been limited to specific regions or industries.
"This is all about choice," ICANN Chief Executive Paul Twomey said in a statement. "We want the diversity of the world's people, geography and business to be able to be represented in the domain name system."
Domain names are key for helping computers find Web sites and route e-mail. There are currently about 250 domain name suffixes, most of them for specific countries such as ".fr" for France. General-use names include ".com" and ".net."
In 2000, two years after its designation by the U.S. government as the authority for overseeing Internet naming policies, ICANN approved seven new names, but only ".info" and ".biz" were truly for general use.
ICANN solicited additional applications in 2004 and has approved six regional or industry-specific names, such as ".travel" and ".asia," while rejecting ".xxx" for the adult entertainment industry.
Also added were .jobs, .mobi, .cat, and .tel.
Some ICANN critics have complained that the agency has been slow to approve new names and that the procedures have sometimes been arbitrary. Businesses and trademark owners, meanwhile, worry that more names will lead to more cybersquatting, the practice of grabbing names before companies can in hopes of selling them at a premium.
ICANN did not specify how individuals and groups would be able to seek new names, but the group indicated that the procedures would be streamlined to permit "a much wider variety of them to be added in a timely, predictable and efficient manner."
An ICANN committee, the Generic Names Supporting Organization, still is reviewing the procedures. Once it sends a recommendation to the ICANN board, procedures could be adopted by year's end and applications for new names could be accepted early next year.
Twomey said new names could be reviewed and added into the system in the June-August 2008 timeframe.
The new addresses are likely to be in English.
ICANN could wrap up the technical work on non-Latin scripts by year's end, but it still must resolve policy questions such as who should decide what countries get what suffixes and how to make sure a domain in one language isn't inadvertently offensive in another.
___
On the Net:
ICANN information on new names:
http://www.icann.org/topics/new-gtld-strategy-faq.htm
Legalized Gambling or otherwise known as insurance
I will only insure you if you have a lot of money, no risk and a low iq. It also helps if you don't live in California
Allstate to stop insuring Calif. homes
Fri May 11, 6:37 AM ET
Allstate Corp. will stop writing new homeowners policies in California beginning in July, the company said Thursday.
An Allstate spokesman said the move was to help control its catastrophe exposure in the state, which is prone to wildfires and earthquakes.
The move will not affect current customers, nor will it affect auto insurance. Allstate agents in the state will continue to work with customers, but will offer new homeowners customers insurance through partner Pacific Specialty Insurance Co.
Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate and other homeowners insurers have had a contentious relationship with insurance regulators in the state over homeowners insurance prices.
Though several large insurers cut prices in the state lately, Allstate in September asked for an average 12 percent increase. The request is still pending.
The spokesman said the move to stop writing new policies in California was not driven by insurance rates, but was purely a move to limit its exposure to catastrophe.
Allstate has already tightened its standards for writing coverage in the state, one of its largest in terms of customers, and has already stopped offering earthquake insurance.
In the first quarter of 2007, Allstate said it wrote 11,000 new homeowners policies in California, a drop from the 16,000 it wrote in the first quarter of 2006, the spokesman said.
Allstate has also trimmed coastal exposure in other states that are prone to natural catastrophes. Allstate has also stopped writing new homeowners policies in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and New Jersey as well as in eight coastal New York counties.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
One Must Love Freedom of Speech in Foreign Countries
Gosh I hope that one day I can be asked to speak to a large number of people on the joys of freedom and choice in this country!
Riot police show strength to warn troublemakers
By James KilnerFri May 11, 8:40 AM ET
Techno and rock music blared away as the bare-chested Russian policeman lay on his back on a pile of broken glass and nails. A colleague dropped three daggers, point down, on his stomach and trampled on his chest.
Russia's special police, the OMON, were showing what they are made of.
Kremlin critics and Western governments accused them of using excessive force to break up opposition protests last month.
But the message they were sending on Thursday was they were ready to take on any troublemakers in a year when more protests are likely as Russia prepares to elect a new president.
"This is a warning," said an OMON colonel who called himself Vladimir Antonovich as he watched three policemen smash flaming bricks with their bare fists.
"We want to show off what we can do."
Last month foreign embassies and the EU said the OMON was too heavy-handed when it used batons to break up anti-Kremlin protests, called "March of the Dissenters," in Moscow and St Petersburg, and detained journalists.
"The police were provoked in St Petersburg," Antonovich, the colonel, said, dressed in the OMON's urban camouflage uniform. "What does the March of the Dissenters need? It needs media coverage and they provoked the police into a reaction."
Crowd control is not the OMON's only role. Equipped with machine guns and armored vehicles, they patrol Russia's volatile Chechnya region and are trained to rescue hostages.
At a media event to which foreign journalists had been invited for the first time, the OMON showed off textbook crowd control techniques.
Wearing crash helmets and body armor and carrying shields the police swung their batons in unison and marched forward one step at a time.
"KNOW NO MERCY"
Opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who say he has trampled on democracy, have organized several protests.
The authorities have mainly banned these marches or allowed watered-down versions and several times in the last few months protesters and police have clashed. An investigation has yet to judge if the police used excessive force.
In the sprawling, wooded base, a 1-1/2 hour drive from central Moscow the police reveled in showing their muscle.
Unarmed police karate-kicked and punched "criminals" armed with knives, pistols and machineguns.
They broke planks of wood over each others' backs, smashed glass jars filled with water with their bare hands, fired magazines of ammunition into the air and demonstrated various ways to break an aggressor's legs, arms and neck.
Other displays showed off the latest patrol techniques in Chechnya, hostage rescue and the OMON's weapons from sniper rifles to pistols.
Later, in a newly redecorated gymnasium, Russia's Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky expounded the importance of the OMON to ensure peace and stability in Russia.
He said there are 20,000 OMON police across the country and that last year 38 died on active service.
Behind him hung the Moscow OMON division's badge -- bearing the powerful bull-like bison -- and its motto: "Special forces know no mercy and never ask for it. That is how it was, how it is and how it will be."
Riot police show strength to warn troublemakers
By James KilnerFri May 11, 8:40 AM ET
Techno and rock music blared away as the bare-chested Russian policeman lay on his back on a pile of broken glass and nails. A colleague dropped three daggers, point down, on his stomach and trampled on his chest.
Russia's special police, the OMON, were showing what they are made of.
Kremlin critics and Western governments accused them of using excessive force to break up opposition protests last month.
But the message they were sending on Thursday was they were ready to take on any troublemakers in a year when more protests are likely as Russia prepares to elect a new president.
"This is a warning," said an OMON colonel who called himself Vladimir Antonovich as he watched three policemen smash flaming bricks with their bare fists.
"We want to show off what we can do."
Last month foreign embassies and the EU said the OMON was too heavy-handed when it used batons to break up anti-Kremlin protests, called "March of the Dissenters," in Moscow and St Petersburg, and detained journalists.
"The police were provoked in St Petersburg," Antonovich, the colonel, said, dressed in the OMON's urban camouflage uniform. "What does the March of the Dissenters need? It needs media coverage and they provoked the police into a reaction."
Crowd control is not the OMON's only role. Equipped with machine guns and armored vehicles, they patrol Russia's volatile Chechnya region and are trained to rescue hostages.
At a media event to which foreign journalists had been invited for the first time, the OMON showed off textbook crowd control techniques.
Wearing crash helmets and body armor and carrying shields the police swung their batons in unison and marched forward one step at a time.
"KNOW NO MERCY"
Opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who say he has trampled on democracy, have organized several protests.
The authorities have mainly banned these marches or allowed watered-down versions and several times in the last few months protesters and police have clashed. An investigation has yet to judge if the police used excessive force.
In the sprawling, wooded base, a 1-1/2 hour drive from central Moscow the police reveled in showing their muscle.
Unarmed police karate-kicked and punched "criminals" armed with knives, pistols and machineguns.
They broke planks of wood over each others' backs, smashed glass jars filled with water with their bare hands, fired magazines of ammunition into the air and demonstrated various ways to break an aggressor's legs, arms and neck.
Other displays showed off the latest patrol techniques in Chechnya, hostage rescue and the OMON's weapons from sniper rifles to pistols.
Later, in a newly redecorated gymnasium, Russia's Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky expounded the importance of the OMON to ensure peace and stability in Russia.
He said there are 20,000 OMON police across the country and that last year 38 died on active service.
Behind him hung the Moscow OMON division's badge -- bearing the powerful bull-like bison -- and its motto: "Special forces know no mercy and never ask for it. That is how it was, how it is and how it will be."
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