By Mail Foreign Service

Philippine police have relieved a number of officers from duty after a television station aired footage allegedly showing police torturing a naked detainee.

The detained man is believed to be a suspected thief caught in Manila’s Tondo slum district, according to ABS-CBN TV, which said it obtained the cell phone footage from an unidentified informer.

The man’s fate and when the video was taken were unclear. 

The footage shows him screaming on the floor in a foetal position with his genitals bound and a man pulling the rope and whipping him.

‘Snatching is not allowed here,’ the man beating the detainee can be heard saying, while a uniformed officer stands by and watches.

Metropolitan Manila police chief Leocadio Santiago relieved the 11-member police station Wednesday and ordered its commander, Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug, investigated for criminal acts.

The maximum penalty under an anti-torture law passed last year is 40 years in prison if the victim dies.

‘We are holding Binayug responsible. We will be filing charges for dereliction of duty but we want something heavier,’ Santiago told reporters.

Binayug could not be reached for comment as the precinct does not have a working phone and the chief did not provide his phone number.

It is not clear if the 10 others will also face charges, but that will be part of the investigation, police said.

New officers were assigned to the precinct under investigation.

President Benigno Aquino III said torture is not a government policy. Asked about the incident at a news conference, Aquino said ‘the police also are entitled to their day in court and to due process.’

Coco Quisumbing, an official of the Commission on Human Rights, which said it would separately investigate the torture allegations, said she was aghast after seeing police officers in the video seemingly showing indifference.

Amnesty International researcher Hazel Galang said the incident can serve as a test case for the country’s anti-torture law and the Aquino government’s determination to implement it.

‘Tomorrow is the 50th day of the Aquino presidency and in the first 50 days we’ve already seen torture cases, we’ve seen extra-judicial killings,’ she said. ‘We will keep on watching.’

It was not the first time that video footage allegedly of police torture has surfaced in the country.

Early this year, a police colonel was seen punching a suspect whose face was covered with a plastic bag, and recently, another video showed three handcuffed teenage boys, two of them forced to kiss each other.

The colonel in the video was relieved and placed under investigation while the probe into the other case was incomplete because there were no witnesses and the boys did not file a complaint, police said.

By Claire Ellicott

The sister of a war hero who died in Afghanistan pawned his uniform and medals to an eBay trader to fund a luxury cruise for herself.

Corporal Rob Deering left his elder sister everything in his will, including a full set of war medals, his uniform and an engraved memorial shell casing from his funeral.

But single mother Elaine Deering sold it all for a paltry £1,100 and put the money towards an exclusive trip round the Mediterranean.

Hero for sale: Corporal Rob Deering, above, and his former fiancée Gemma Polino who was given back his medals by an eBay buyer after he discovered their story 

In an attempt to justify her actions, the 37-year-old unemployed mother-of-one said: ‘I’m on income support and I’m very hard-up, so I did what I thought was best.’

Now, in a welcome turn of events, the man who bought the mementos, which include medals from Cpl Deering’s service in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a special UN gong, has returned them to the hero’s beloved fiancée Gemma Polino.

He did so because he was so appalled and ‘felt sick’ after learning of Miss Deering’s actions.

Cpl Deering, a Royal Marine with the Commando Logistic regiment, was killed in December 2008 as he raced to the aid of injured comrades whose armoured Viking personnel carrier was blown up by insurgents.

Tragically, the 33-year-old was killed in a second explosion as he approached the vehicle in Afghanistan’s notorious Helmand province.

He left everything to his sister, who also claims she was forced to sell the mementos to look after her son.

Defending her actions, Miss Deering, of Sheldon, Birmingham, insisted that her brother would have wanted her to sell the medals to support herself and her 14-month-old son she named after him.

‘When you’re on your own, have a child and are offered £1,100, it’s a very tough thing to turn down,’ she said.

‘I used some of the money to go on a cruise to the Mediterranean because I was depressed about everything that had happened. I just wanted to get away from it all – I needed a break.’

But she added: ‘I really regret the fact that I lost the medals and I would love to get them back one day. I loved my brother to bits and miss him every day, but I wanted to give my son the best.’

In April this year, Miss Deering put a number of stuffed birds up for sale on online auction website eBay.

She was contacted by trader John Langley who travelled down from his home in Cheshire to buy them.

Then Miss Deering, in the presence of her mother Karen Waspe, offered him her brother’s medals, uniform and the shell casing, which has particular significance as it was one of three fired over his coffin at a memorial service held in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

Mr Langley, 67, said: ‘At first Elaine offered me Rob’s uniforms but then she offered me his medals and the engraved shell casing.

‘As an ex-serviceman myself. I couldn’t believe the family of a fallen soldier who died in a war that was still going on would offer me his medals.

‘But I admit as a collector it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal and I knew I’d get a big price for them from other collectors.

‘It’s unheard of to have a full set of medals and uniforms from a soldier who has only just died.’

He added: ‘Elaine and her mother showed no emotion when they offered them to me. Her mum even said to Elaine: ‘There you go, you can use that for your holiday now.’

‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but went through with the deal and Elaine seemed very pleased.’

Mr Langley was immediately offered £4,000 for the collection by another trader, but turned it down after becoming increasingly uneasy about the sale.

He researched Cpl Deering and, when he discovered the circumstances of the serviceman’s death, said he ‘felt sick’.

He then tracked down the soldier’s fiancée and gave her the mementos for free.

‘I still can’t believe that a mother and daughter could part so easily with the medals of their dead son and brother,’ he added.  

‘The bodies of these young lads are being flown home weekly in body bags, yet this woman sold her own brother’s medals for a cruise in the Med.’

Defending his family’s actions, Peter Waspe, Miss Deering’s stepfather, said: ‘It was a spur of the moment decision and one Elaine very much regrets.

‘When this man (Mr Langley) got in touch, she was at her lowest point. When he asked if she had any military medals, he made her an offer she thought she could not refuse.’

Miss Polino was unavailable for comment today.

LA Times

William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely self-inflicted, authorities said.

“He had been quite despondent about the oil crisis,” said Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores.

Kruse, who lived with his family in nearby Foley, Ala., reported to work Wednesday morning as usual at the Gulf Shores Marina on Fort Morgan Road in Gulf Shores, Vinson said. He met up with his two deckhands at his boat, The Rookie. One of the deckhands later told Vinson that Kruse seemed his usual self, sending them to fetch ice while he pulled the boat around to the gas pumps.

As the deckhands walked off to get ice, they heard what sounded like a firecracker, Vinson said. They turned around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. So they proceeded to gather the ice and wait for Kruse at the pumps. “He never showed,” Vinson said.

After waiting a while, the deckhands returned to the boat, which was moored where they had left it, Vinson said. They went aboard and found Kruse at the captain’s bridge above the wheelhouse, Vinson said. He had been shot in the head. A Glock handgun was later recovered from the scene, and investigators do not suspect foul play, Vinson said.

Vinson said Kruse was in good health, did not suffer from any mental illness and was not taking psychotropic medications.

But he said it’s not surprising the oil spill had weighed heavily on his mind, as it has on many local fishermen no longer able to support themselves with deep-sea sport fishing trips for marlin and the like, Vinson said.

“All the waters are closed. There’s no charter business anymore. You go out on some of the beaches now, with the oil, you can’t even get in the water,” Vinson said. “It’s really crippled the tourism and fishing industry here.”

Vinson’s office was to perform an autopsy Wednesday, and the Gulf Shores Police Department is still investigating. Det. Justin Clopton did not return calls.

Kruse’s family was notified by Wednesday afternoon, Vinson said, and his deckhands were sent home for the day.

Vick and one of his victims. Nuff said.

Dave Gibson

This week, Hampton University will be holding a youth football camp, with convicted felon Michael Vick serving as the camp’s host.

At an April press conference announcing the camp, Vick talked about being seen as a role model for kids. Vick said: “Time spent with kids – just talking with an NFL player for 15 seconds – can spark a dream. That’s the purpose of this camp.”

The camp is open to kids between the ages of 8-17.

Vick, who was convicted of federal dog fighting charges, has been trying to mend his public image since his release from prison.

In October 2009, Vick told the Los Angeles Times: “I just want people to really get to know me as an individual. What I want to do is change the perception of me. I am a human being. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, and I wish it had never happened. But it’s not about how you fall, but about how you pick yourself up.”

What Vick calls “mistakes” were actually felonies which could have sent him to prison for much longer than the 18 months he spent incarcerated. The fact is, he spent years torturing and killing defenseless animals.

When police raided Vick’s house in Surry County in 2007, they found 65 dogs (nearly all pit bulls), a dog-fighting pit, blood-stained carpets, and various equipment commonly used in dog fighting.

One of the items found on Vick’s property was a ‘rape stand’ which is a device in which female dogs are strapped into and restrained, to allow a male dog to breed with her.

According to the federal indictment, when dogs at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels lost a fight, or failed to perform well in ‘test matches,’ they were routinely killed by methods including electrocution, hanging, drowning, and in at least one case by “slamming” the dog’s body onto the concrete floor. In one session in April 2007, at least eight dogs were killed through these methods.

Vick took part in these executions along with his partners Purnell Peace, and Quanis Phillips. The indictment detailed a March 2003 incident, in which a female pit bull who had just lost a match was killed. Vick and Peace decided to kill her by “wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting her.”

Is this someone that Hampton University should be promoting as a role model to young boys?

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Contact Keith Goganious at (757) 728-6963 to voice your disapproval of Vick hosting the youth camp.

According to The Daily Mail this was filmed at the little cacaroach’s home. Check out the wall of booze in the back ground.  At least the parents have their priorities straight: booze and baby dancing on the table.

By Richard Read– The Oregonian

Port of Portland managers want to lease Terminal 6, Oregon’s only container-shipping yard, to a company from the Philippines that manages numerous terminals abroad.

International Container Terminal Services Inc., based in Manila, can do a better job running the Columbia River terminal that ships and receives cargo worldwide, the managers say. Port officials confirmed the lease proposal Monday after an inquiry from The Oregonian but said they would not make the terms public until later this week.

Port commissioners will consider the proposal during a public meeting at 9 a.m. May 12 in the Port’s new headquarters at 7200 N.E. Airport Way.

The 25-year agreement would shift operating and marketing, but not security, to the independent firm, which would be required to invest in improvements. Port managers have struggled for years to attract and retain shipping lines, because of the terminal’s location about 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

The sprawling terminal, upriver from the Columbia’s confluence with the Willamette River, handled more than 87,000 40-foot containers last year. From 30 to 250 longshoremen work each day at T6, as it’s known, depending on shipping activity.

“The ability to have your terminal in the hands of someone that’s a global player really has a lot of merit,” said Sam Ruda, Port director of marine and industrial development. “Our challenge and goal at the Port was really to find the right partner.”

The Port commission’s nine members, appointed by the governor, will decide whether to place the state’s main marine hub in the hands of a foreign company that has never run a U.S. operation. Port managers will argue that a globally connected company can drum up more business, marketing the benefits of a newly deepened Columbia River shipping channel that allows passage of bigger ships.

The arrangement would fundamentally differ, officials said Monday, from the Dubai Ports World proposal in 2006 to sell management businesses in six U.S. seaports to a company based in the United Arab Emirates. That project attracted international attention and became controversial when opponents argued the sale would jeopardize U.S. national security.

The Portland deal, they said, would be a lease rather than a sale and would bring the Port in line with other West Coast ports that outsource terminal operations. The Port already leases terminals to private companies, including Japanese and Canadian firms.

Port managers began considering leasing T6 four years ago, they said. Terminals were then hot properties as the economy boomed and trading companies scrambled for West Coast shipping space.

But the Port suspended its search for operators as cargo volumes tanked during the recession. A little over a year ago, Ruda said, Port managers began confidential negotiations with International Container Terminal Services.

The Manila company runs half a dozen terminals in the Philippines, including one in Subic Bay, the famed location of a former U.S. Navy base. It also operates terminals in countries including Brazil, Poland, Indonesia, Syria, China and Ecuador.

Established in 1987, the company rapidly expanded from its start running the Manila International Container Terminal. The company, listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, declared gross revenues from port operations of $422 million last year. It has said it plans to acquire new terminal concessions in the Americas, Asia, Australia, the Asian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

“They handle U.S. military cargo today, and household goods of military personnel, by virtue of the fact that this company also has the terminal lease in Naha, Okinawa,” Ruda said. He said Port managers visited terminals operated by the company in the Philippines and operations being developed in Argentina.

Under the proposed agreement, he said, the company would lease Terminal 6 container and break-bulk operations, but not auto facilities. The company would pay an annual lease fee plus some reimbursables to the Port for services including security.

“It makes the container business look a lot more like the other arrangements that we have at the Port,” Ruda said. Other ports also lease out container yards, he said, such as the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 18.

Ruda said he didn’t expect signifi cant job losses to result at the Port, a public agency that operates largely on business revenues. The new operator would apply to replace a separate entity that runs a $20 million longshore payroll. Union officials did not return phone calls Monday. International Container Services representatives in Manila did not reply to an e-mail inquiry Monday evening.