Last October Canadians were alerted and concerned about the abduction of 9 year old Cecilia Zhang of Toronto.
Stranger abductions are rare in this country, and the police launched an international search. It was first thought Cecilia had been kidnapped for ransom.
In March her body was found in a wooded area west of Toronto.

Police arrested 21 year old student Min Chen today. He has been charged with first degree murder. It is believed gambling debts incurred by the student may have been a factor.

The Peel Police chief said Chen was an “associate” of a young lady who was a boarder at the Zhang home. The woman lived at the home from September 2002 to March 2003. Chen went to the home on at least four different occasions and had met with the parents and Cecilia.

And now Canadians are waiting for news about 5 year old Tamra Keepness of Regina who went missing July 5th. A massive search was called off after a week.
Police were exceptionally careful in their public statements about Tamra and her family at the time, even as the family were publically critical of law enforcement methods.
Five of her siblings were removed from the Keepness home yesterday, with no explanation given by Saskachewan’s Child Protection Branch.
The day before police released the description of two vehicles they were looking for.
Tamra’s stepfather, 29 year old Dean McArthur was arrested earlier this week and charged with assault in regards to an incident the night the child disappeared.

Aboringinal groups have vowed to keep up the search for Tamra.

Turkey
A high speed train service in Turkey that has been in place for a month and was sharply criticised has led to disaster.
The train derailed today between Istanbul and the capital city of Ankara.
The train was carrying about 230 people.
What is not known is how many are dead, reports range from 40 to 128.
This is a bad crash, because reports of the injured are fairly consistant. 57 people have been taken to hospitals.
Turkey has a population of 71 million.

Doonesbury
A poll conducted by a comic strip consortium has resulted in controversy.
The survey was done to drop Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau.
The head of the group, Van Wilkerson doesn’t think it’s a big deal, even though it’s 22 other comic strips weren’t polled.

Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop “Doonesbury,” 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. “I wouldn’t call the vote [to drop 'Doonesbury'] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion,” Wilkerson said.

Blue Jay booed
Since when is “God Bless America” the USA national anthem?
And since when is there a law in New York that requires people stand for this?
I can understand respect for a countries flag and respect for a countries anthem. Canadian hockey fans need to learn to exercise that when the US national anthem is played before a game.
But “God Bless America?” I think I can understand on some level this is a sensitive issue for fans. But I also think there is a rather dangerous mindset at work.

Fervently anti-war, Carlos Delgado quietly carried out his personal protest this season, refusing to stand when “God Bless America” was played at ballparks across the majors.

Most fans never saw him disappearing up the dugout tunnel or staying on the bench. And even teammates who disagreed with the Toronto slugger’s political stance accepted his right to call the United States’ invasion of Iraq “the stupidest war ever.”

This week, though, a lot more people noticed.

The Blue Jays played at Yankee Stadium for the first time this year on Wednesday night. It’s the only park in the majors where “God Bless America” has been played every game since the Sept. 11 attacks, a place where active military members are still admitted free.

This article doesn’t say that Delgado has ever been disrespectful to the US flag or the Canadian flag, or during our anthems.

A bit of fun
Spirograph via Ian’s Messy Desk