AnalogKid

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital By Joe Bavier Tue Apr 22, 1:24 PM ET KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur. Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings. Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure. "You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday. Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released. "I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said. "But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said. Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members. "It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080422/od_uk_nm/ouk oe_uk_congo_democratic_witchcraft;_ylt=Agm3loftp5m BG12RNKxvX4ms0NUE

Fun for when you're bored. I'm stuck on level 10. http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq?82db=2788

W is still planning on attending the opening ceremonies. As far as a boycott, it's difficult to hold the high morality position when you are indebted to a foreign entity to the tune of over $350 billion dollars. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17424874

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22315962/?gt1=10645

Answer the questions and the calculator shows you the candidate that closest matches your views. My top match at 82% was former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel. http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

The illiteracy continues. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

The guy is nuts, but he's got a lot of balls. I'd like to see Bush try to do the same thing in Iran. He doesn't even take questions from Americans who disagree with him.

Considering the fact that Hersh was the one who originally broke the story about the abuses at Abu Ghraib, I'll also side with him. Not to mention that virtually everything he has ever written has been right on the mark.

I said NO ANCHOVIES!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuN7hmlQrkw

1. Go to Google.com. 2. Click on Maps. 3. Click on Get Directions. 4. From: New York, New York. 5. To: Paris, France. 6. Then, read line #23 7. Laugh.

They let her out on bond? How can you seriously say that an astronaut is not a flight risk?

Way to go, old dude. Okay, I can' t resist. Are they going to drape a white flag on the coffin? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/ap_on_...bit_wwi_veteran

Well, if the pages to my Playboy are stuck together before I get a chance to read it, I'll know who to blame! On a more serious note, I have never seen an individual who posesses such high level contempt for the rules of law. However, Congress has the authority to pass bills deeming Bush's signing statements illegal. Of course, Chimpy McFlightsuit will veto it and if it happens to secure a 2/3 vote in Congress, he will ultimately challenge all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

I think "flightulence" would have been more accurate. Flatulence Forces Plane to Land By Associated Press December 6, 2006, 7:46 AM EST NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said. The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning sulfur from the matches, said Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority. All 99 passengers and five crew members were taken off and screened while the plane was searched and luggage was screened. The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a "body odor," Lowrance said. She had an unspecified medical condition, authorities said. "It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well," she said. "It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up." The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane. The woman, who was not identified, was not charged in the incident.

that George Bush has finally decided that it was safe for him to go to Vietnam?