World News joined 2

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's awful...:sad:

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

This was a terrible thing that happened... I really hope people can help them get over it quickly.

[JohnCenaFan28]

LOL, this is funny. Wonder if they stopped the bid?

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[OMEN]

Robbers shot dead nine employees of a Philippine bank south of Manila and emptied its vault, and police said they suspected two security guards who were missing.

Ricardo Padilla, police chief of the Calabarzon region, said the bodies of eight employees of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation were found on the floor of the bank today, with bullet wounds to the head.

One of the bank's three guards died on way to hospital and the bank's operations manager was fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Padilla said. He said the chief suspects were the two guards who were missing.

"They were murdered in gangland-style, each one shot in the head," he said.

"We're still investigating and we have no idea how much money was taken from the bank. We suspect a possible inside job because those behind this heinous crime killed all possible witnesses who could identify them."

Police found the bank's vault open and empty.

Padilla said the police were alerted when the bank did not open on time on Friday as dozens of customers waited outside.

Reuters

[OMEN]

SCHOOL TRAGEDY: School bags are seen among the rubble of a collapsed primary school at the township of Wufu.
Nearly every building in the tiny rural town of Wufu withstood the forceful earthquake that shook China on Monday. One major structure – the New No 2 Primary School – collapsed, killing some 300 children.

Now grieving parents, many of whom dug through rubble with their hands in a frantic effort to save their children, are venting their anger at local officials who they claim knew the building was substandard.

Jumbled mounds of concrete and brick are all that remain of the three-storey schoolhouse that caved in just moments before afternoon classes were to begin. Notebooks, backpacks, clothes and a tin lunch box litter the picked-over rubble.

The scene is repeated in towns and cities across the quake-damaged section of Sichuan, where more than 50,000 people may have died, including hundreds of students crushed when their schools collapsed.

Bi Kaiwei's 13-year-old daughter, Yuexing, was in her second storey sixth-grade classroom when the walls and ceiling crashed down in the quake.

"Our child wasn't killed by the earthquake. She and the others were killed by a derelict building," he said. "The officials knew it was unsafe."

"Look at that one there," Bi said, pointing diagonally across from where the school used to stand to a yellowish corner building spared of damaged. "We live there. It was built in 1982. It's still standing."

Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this week stood symbolically on the rubble of another collapsed school in Sichuan and told students trapped below that they would be saved.

But that was little consolation in Wufu, where residents say the local government hasn't even announced the number of children killed in the school.

The loss of so many children is particularly poignant in China, where the government's family planning policies, aimed at curbing population growth, mean that most have only one child.

When the New No 2 Primary School fell, parents, relatives and friends of pupils rushed to the site.

Sang Jun, a short, lively man, arrived about 20 minutes after the earthquake to look for his son. "There were already five people digging," said Sang. He jumped in to help.

His arms and legs, like Bi's and other parents here, are now scarred with scrapes and bruises from the frantic efforts to pull apart the rubble and get to their kids below.

Holding a pair of dirty blue jeans and a blue work shirt stained with blood, Sang said: "I was wearing these. I pulled out more than 20 children. . . Only five were alive."

Zhang Chao was recovering from surgery in a hospital nearby. When he heard the school was demolished, he got up and went to help, pulling several bodies from the wreckage.

Down the road, a hefty farmer with a buzz cut named Zuo Jun hobbles with a crutch along a dirt path beside a golden field of wheat. Zuo injured his left foot prying through the rubble in search of his 11-year-old son, Zuo Hao, who appears pudgy with a crew cut and a jovial smile in family photos.

At the end of the raised path in the corner of the field is a mound of fresh dirt where Hao is buried.

"If the teachers had been there, he would be alive," said Zuo with a pained look. "During the lunch break, the teachers put two classes together, locked them in and then went to play mahjong. This is what students said."

Nearby fields are dotted with similar small graves. At one site, where three pupils were buried, relatives burn a pile of their child's clothes along with incense, hay and fake money.

Further along another farm path is the home of Yan Qiuyi, a classmate and close friend of Bi Yuexing's who survived. Her arm is in a sling because her shoulder was broken, her face is puffy and scarred, and she walks with a limp.

When her friend's parents approach, carrying a photo of their daughter striking a playful pose, tears flow from Yan's red, tired eyes. Speechless, Yan holds the picture to her face and cries.

Bi Yuexing's new grave is a mound of dirt ringed with small rocks in the shade of a bamboo stand and next to her great grandparents' remains. "The government told us to bury our children. There were too many to cremate," Bi said.

The parents of the victims are planning to meet on Monday morning at the school site to work out a plan to seek retribution, perhaps by suing the local education department.

"At night there is no rest," said Bi. "They must have been so scared. In bed I keep having the image of those children in my head, not knowing what was happening. If there were a teacher there to guide them out, or if they had their parents there, they might not have been so scared."

Reuters

[OMEN]

Counter-terrorism police raided two Sydney homes, seizing documents and computer equipment this morning.

Police said the coordinated raids took place in Glebe and Riverwood, in the city's inner west and south-west respectively.

No-one was arrested but documents and computer hard-drives were seized for examination, police said.

The raids were part of a joint operation between NSW police and the Australian Federal Police.

The nature of the investigation was not revealed, but a NSW police spokesman said inquiries were continuing.

AAP