Posts

Showing posts from June 6, 2014

Seattle Pacific University shooting: One dead and three injured after gunman goes on rampage on campus

Image
A lone gunman armed with a shotgun and knife opened fire in a building at a small Seattle university, killing one person and injuring three others before being disarmed by a student, police said. Police said a student building monitor at Seattle Pacific University overpowered the gunman after he entered the foyer at Otto Miller Hall. When he began reloading his gun, the student subdued him with pepper spray, Capt. Chris Fowler of the Seattle Police Department said. Several other students then jumped on top of the gunman and pinned him down until police officers arrived. Police said the monitor's actions and the actions of others prevented the tragedy from becoming even more serious. SPU President Daniel Martin told the  Seattle Times  the students who stopped the gunman "acted without regard to their own safety on behalf of others". A 19-year-old man was pronounced dead at the Harborview Medical Centre, where a critically injured 20-year-old woman was taken

Harvard scientists confirm Arsène Houssaye book is bound in human skin

Image
Arsène Houssaye’s 'Des destinées de l’ame' is believed to have been bound in the skin of a female mental patient who died of a stroke Harvard scientists have confirmed a volume in one of its libraries is “without a doubt” bound in human skin after a series of tests conducted on the binding confirmed the origin of the material. Scientists and conservators used several different methods to test the binding and are now “99.9 per cent” sure the material covering the book, Arsène Houssaye’s  Des destinées de l’ame , is of human origin. A team used a process known as peptide mass fingerprinting to examine microscopic samples of the covering and eliminate the chance that the 19th century book was made out of other binding materials such as sheep or goat skin. The binding was then analysed further to determine the order of amino acids, the building blocks of each peptide, which are different in each species. Bill Lane, the director of

Canada shooting: Man suspected of killing three Mounties arrested after manhunt

Image
Justin Borque had been spotted wearing military fatigues in the town of Moncton, New Brunswick Justin Bourque, the man suspected of killing three Mounties and wounding two others in New Brunswick, Canada, has been arrested, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said today. RCMP spokesman Paul Greene said Bourque was held at about 12.30am local time. Bourque, 24, was wanted after the Wednesday's shooting in the east coast city of Moncton. Terrified residents locked themselves indoors during the ensuing manhunt. Police, including tactical officers, began their search for the shooter after responding to a call about a man walking along a road with a gun. After the call, shots were fired and officers called for back-up. A motive for the shootings was not known and Bourque's neighbours described him as a withdrawn man who collected guns and an avid hunter of birds, deer and moose. Michelle Thibodeau said she saw the Moncton ma

Pope Francis sacks entire board of Vatican's financial watchdog

Image
Experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace all-Italian group Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican's financial watchdog on Thursday - all Italians - in the latest move to break with an old guard associated with a murky past under his predecessor. The Vatican said the pope named four experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace them on the board of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the Holy See's internal regulatory office. The new board includes a woman for the first time. All five outgoing members were Italians who had been expected to serve five-year terms ending in 2016 and were laymen associated with the Vatican's discredited financial old guard. Reformers inside the Vatican had been pushing for the pope, who already has taken a series of steps to clean up Vatican finances, to appoint professionals with an international background to work with Rene Bruelhart