This is truly tragic:
"Train hits summer solstice revelers; 13 dead, 14 hurt in Spanish resort" by Joseph Wilson and Daniel Woolls, Associated Press | June 25, 2010
CASTELLDEFELS, Spain — The last thing they heard was the piercing whistle of an oncoming train.
Moments later, dozens of mostly Latin American immigrants who crossed the tracks instead of using an underground passageway to reach a beach party in this seaside resort were dead or injured.
The express train that barreled through the station in northeastern Spain plowed into a group of young men and women that included Ecuadoreans, Chileans, Colombians, and Bolivians — leaving 13 people dead, injuring 14, and turning a night of summer solstice celebration into carnage.
Spain’s deadliest train accident since 2003 took place during a nationwide ritual on the longest day of the year called Noche de San Juan, or the night of St. John, when the blazing Spanish sun sets at 9:30 p.m.
The crowd got off a commuter train in the beach resort of Castelldefels, a 20-minute ride from Barcelona, shortly before midnight Wednesday. Many jammed an underpass leading to the beach, but about 30 others climbed down from the platform and tried to scurry across the tracks, witnesses said.
Never a good idea!
Seconds later, a long-distance train that does not stop at the station struck the group at high speed as its drivers sounded the whistle.
Most of the victims were Latin American immigrants, said Andres Cuantero, head of a team of psychologists sent to counsel grieving relatives. Ecuador’s consul for Barcelona, Freddy Arellano Ruiz, told reporters there were victims from his country, and from Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia.
As the investigation got underway, the chairman of the state railway company RENFE, Teofilo Serrano, said he was “almost certain’’ the long-distance train was not exceeding the speed limit as it traveled through the station. He said he did not know how fast it was going.
The Spanish news agency Europa Press quoted unnamed RENFE officials as saying the train was doing 87 miles per hour and the driver tested negative for alcohol and was in shock.
He saw it unfold in front of him and couldn't stop.
Railway officials refused to confirm or deny the report.
The Noche de San Juan celebration takes place across Spain but with particular zeal in the Catalonia region, where Barcelona is the regional capital. People light bonfires in town squares and on beaches, dance around them, drink beer, barbecue food, and set off fireworks.
This sucks because now the party has been spoiled.
Mayor Joan Sau blamed recklessness for the deaths.
“If the underpass had been used, we would probably not be talking about this tragedy right now,’’ the mayor said.
Could say that about a lot of things. I don't even want to blame anyone here.
Tragic accident and mistake, that's all.
--more--"
So is this, even though no one died:
"Spain’s Senate votes to ban burqa" by The International Herald Tribune | June 24, 2010
The vote is a setback for Prime Minister Jose Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, whose government had sought limited restrictions. (Manu Fernandez/ Associated Press)
MADRID — In a significant escalation of Spain’s debate over how to handle radical Islam, the Senate yesterday narrowly and unexpectedly approved a motion to ban Muslim women from wearing in public the burqa or other garments that cover the whole body.
Yeah, that's the root source of all western problems, isn't it?
The lady in the cloth suit.
I must be an old softy because I just think they look pretty (if it is okay to think that; I wouldn't want to offend).
The vote, 131 to 129, was another setback for the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which had favored more-limited restrictions on Islamic clothing and has instead been pushing to curtail religious fundamentalism through better education.
The ADL will be out front hollering racism and discrimination, right?
The vote comes amid several national initiatives across Europe to restrict the spread of radical Islam and defend liberal values.
I was just wondering how DROPPING BOMBS and MISSILES on their heads and KILLING FAMILY MEMBERS over LIES was "defending liberal values."
Otherwise, I get kind of sick of the code-word hatred of the agenda-pushing Zionist MSM after a while.
What about RADICAL ZIONISM, you know, the KIND RUNNING ISRAEL right now?
They can't even call it what it is, which tells you a whole lot right there!
In Belgium, the lower house of Parliament has already approved a measure that, if unamended by the upper house, would make it a crime to wear in public “clothing that hides the face.’’
But war criminals can hide behind law and UN vetoes.
Related: Bedlam in Belgium
Yeah, the whole country will collapse if you see some of them walking around.
Probably got a bomb under the burqa, right, sigh.
France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, has also been inching toward such a ban on the burqa. The measure has the backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently condemned the garment as “a sign of subservience’’ rather than one of religion.
How many butchers, 'er, troops you still have in Afghanistan, Nic?
Related: No Free Speech in France
It is at this point that I tear up a little because even though I in no way call for women to be in burqas the choice should be left with them.
This smacks of persecution just to please some buttheads from across the sea.
In Switzerland last year, a referendum banned the construction of minarets....
Why? The call to prayers and other things too soothing for you?
Related: French Dating Game
I wouldn't mind playing.
Maybe I will watch a bit of the soccer match during lunch.
