TwistedSifter

Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.

1 and 2: A shot fired in Aspen Hill, north of Washington DC on October 2nd. James D Martin is later killed in Wheaton
3, 4, 5, 6 and 7: The following day, James “Sonny” Buchanan, Prenkumar Walekar, Sarah Ramos, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera and Pascal Charlot are all shot dead in areas to the north of the city
8: On 4 October a woman is shot at a mall in Fredericksburg, Virginia
9: On 7 October a 13-year-old schoolboy is shot at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Prince George County
10 and 11: Dean Harold Meyers is shot dead in Manassas, Virginia on 9 October. Two days later, Kenneth H Bridges is killed near Fredericksburg
12: Linda Franklin is shot dead at a shopping centre in northern Virginia on 14 October
13: A 37-year-old man is shot in Ashland, south of Washington on 19 October
14: Conrad Johnson is killed on 22 October in the Aspen Hill area

Washington Sniper is Put to Death [BBC]

- On Monday, the US Supreme Court quashed an appeal for a stay of execution. John Allen Muhammad, 48, was injected with a lethal drug for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers, one of 10 people killed during the attacks
- Muhammad’s accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a life sentence in jail. The pair killed 10 people during three weeks of attacks in Maryland, Washington and Virginia
- A skilled marksman, Muhammad picked off his targets using a sniper rifle, always with a single round and from a distance. After three weeks, he was arrested at a truck stop, along with Malvo

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died [New York Times]

- Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials
- Five Blackwater guards involved in the shooting are facing federal manslaughter charges, and their trial is scheduled to start in February in Washington. A sixth guard pleaded guilty in December. The company has never faced criminal charges in the case, although the Iraqi victims brought a civil lawsuit in federal court against Blackwater
- The company had operated in Iraq without a license largely because the Iraqi government had never enforced the rules. The State Department deal was Blackwater’s single biggest contract. From 2004 through today, the company has collected more than $1.5 billion for its work protecting American diplomats and providing air transportation for them inside Iraq

Eager Fans Greet “Call of Duty” Video Game Launch [Reuters]

- Activision Blizzard Inc’s hugely anticipated “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ video game went on sale on Tuesday, welcomed by eager fans who lined up hours in advance of the release. Activision partnered with retailers including GameStop Corp and Best Buy Co for more than 10,000 midnight store openings in North America
- Analysts’ sales estimates for the $60 game range from 11 million to 13 million units by the end of 2009. The audience for the latest Call of Duty — the sixth installment in the franchise — is primarily younger men, the gaming demographic that makes up the core of the estimated $50 billion global industry
- Call of Duty will have to turn in an impressive performance to top that of last year’s mega-hit from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, “Grand Theft Auto IV.” The title sold 3.6 million units on the first day and 6 million in its first week, for more than $500 million in sales

Korean Navies Skirmish in Disputed Waters [New York Times]

- North and South Korean naval vessels exchanged fire in disputed waters off the western coast of the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday, leaving one North Korean vessel engulfed in flames, South Korean officials said. One North Korean sailor was killed and three others injured, according to MBC, a South Korean television station
- The two Koreas accused each other of violating territorial waters, provoking the fierce two-minute skirmish. It was the first border fighting in seven years between the countries, which technically remain at war after fighting in the 1950-3 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a permanent peace treaty
- The disputed waters remain the most volatile section of the Korean border, with North Korea regularly sending military vessels into waters claimed by South Korea. This year alone, North Korean naval vessels have violated South Korean-held waters more than 20 times but had previously retreated when South Korea broadcast warnings

Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash [New York Times]

- Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas
- Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Plastic is the most common refuse in the patch because it is lightweight, durable and an omnipresent, disposable product in both advanced and developing societies
- Charles Moore found the Pacific garbage patch by accident 12 years ago, when he came upon it on his way back from a sailing race in Hawaii

Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm For $750 Million [Reuters]

- Google Inc said on Monday that it was acquiring of AdMob, one of the largest mobile advertising networks, for $750 million, widening its bet that cell phone advertising could become the Internet’s next-big money maker
- Privately-held AdMob makes technology for serving graphical, display ads on mobile phones and maintains a network that allows advertisers to place display ads on mobile Web sites and directly within specialized smartphone applications
- The deal appears to represent the third largest acquisition in Google’s history, behind the 2008 acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and the Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion. AdMob, which counts more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications in its network, is among the top two or three mobile ad networks measured by the volume of ads served

Leaders Hail Wall Fall, Vow To Topple New Barriers [Reuters]

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders from Britain, France and Russia greeted tens of thousands who braved pouring rain at the Brandenburg Gate on Monday evening to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wall’s collapse, which paved the way for German unification and the end of the Cold War
- Initially a makeshift fence of barbed wire, it was built up into an imposing 156-km (97-mile) concrete wall that encircled West Berlin and was patrolled by guards with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape. According to a study this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to flee
- Despite an estimated 1.3 trillion euros ($1.9 trillion usd) in transfers to rebuild the East, the so-called “new states” still suffer from unemployment rates twice that of the West

- A Morgan Stanley Star Falls in China [Reuters]
- El Salvador Facing Food Shortage [BBC]
- Ex-Thai PM Arrives in Cambodia [BBC]
- At Army Base, Some Violence Is Too Familiar [New York Times]
- Sony to Offer Film on Internet TV, Then DVD [New York Times]
- Conditions in Place For New Food Crisis, FAO Warns [Reuters]
- Barclays’ Remarkable Bargain [New York Times]
- Can Apple Take Microsoft’s Perch Atop Tech Pile? [Reuters]

Lest we forget, November 11th is Remembrance Day

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