Hezbollah has taken over the western portion of Beirut the capital of Lebanon. This recent violence stems from the Western-backed (read: US-funded) government’s attempt on Monday to shut down Hezbollah’s telecoms network calling it a threat to state security.

According to eyewitnesses, the takeover occurred on Thursday at 8am with widespread Hezbollah roadblocks. Witnesses report street fighting involving machine guns, RPGs and tanks throughout the city. Civilians, apparently, have been forbidden from exiting their homes or even standing out on their balconies. Foreign nationals are desperately seeking a way out of the city.

It is feared that such violence will spiral the country back into civil war. The first Lebanese civil war occurred from 1975-90.

Meanwhile, the situation in Myanmar (Burma) continues to deteriorate. As many as 100,000 dead or missing and thousands facing homelessness and disease, yet the government remains incredibly reluctant to allow foreign aid into the country.

On Friday, the UN World Food Program suspended operations when its’ first plane was impounded by the government. Aid flights will hopefully be resumed on Saturday.

According to the US government, Myanmar will allow one aid plane to land on Monday. Read More »

Two old women from L.A. apparently had a really unusual, really twisted idea of how to fund their retirement (and, as it turns out, youth-preserving plastic surgery): Murder homeless men.

Here’s how it would go. They would befriend some poor homeless guy, put him up in an apartment, and get him to sign a life insurance policy listing them as the beneficiaries. After waiting a couple of years (as an immediate death would raise the insurance company’s suspicions), they would drug him senseless, run him over with a car that — presumably — would not be traced back to them, and claim the payouts.

Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt evidently did exactly this in 1999, and got away with it. Then they did it again in 2005 and got caught. Even weirder — both women are in their 70s! These are serial-killing grannies we’re talking about!

Serial-killing grannies with expensive habits, evidently: A letter from Helen to Olga talks about Helen’s plastic surgery (at age 72!) and how painful it was. Since this letter was written in 2002, it was probably the first man’s murder that paid for said plastic surgery. Morbid to think about it, isn’t it? Read More »