Over 1,000 hostages in the school in Russia

[nodehopper]

:(

Nothing on it in English language press yet, it just broke over Russian newsire, the link is below, but in Russian.

http://lenta.ru/terror/2004/09/03/more/

[edbermac]

1. The terrorists are torturing them by reading My Pet Goat repeatedly...

What savages!

:silly:

[nodehopper]

3. yes, that is hilarious. I am sure the families of the schoolchildren

and their parents are laughing with you.

[Ripley]

2. ????? That is unreal!

How many hostage holders are there??? How do they keep them from running away? I mean I know they are parents with their children, but you'd think some could be sneaking out the side door or something...

That is awful.

[nodehopper]

4. they herded them together

in the gym. They let 31 people go, which was mothers with children under 2 years old. everyone else is concentrated in a large area and they are guarding them with machine guns. They can't sneak out. There is just the one door.

[Ripley]

6. Yikes!

This is really sick. If it were 1000 adults they would surely rush them or something, but since their kids are there they want to protect them.

The world is not safer, it's getting sicker.

[Aidoneus]

5. held by 17 people?

no wonder they're letting them go left & right..

The 'real number' was 800 earlier. Those kids should be checked for evolutionary advances, being able to reproduce so quickly..

[nodehopper]

11. 30 people. With machine guns, explosives and suicide belts on.

[nodehopper]

13. wtf is your problem? The numbers were wrong before, the PR

tried to downplay how many people there were. Once people from inside the school talked to the journalists the real numbers came out.

[PartyPooper]

7. Earlier today I heard they were running short of food and water.

And, the terrorists wouldn't let them bring in supplies!

:-(

[nodehopper]

12. That;s true. Leonid Roshal (the world Children's Doctor) said so far they

are not in danger. He is negotiating with them...he is the one who negotiated during the theater hostage crisis. He is such an amazing man. If anyone can make a difference in this situation it's him...hopefully.

[HuckleB]

8. Putin's biggest crisis

Putin's biggest crisis

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1296204,00.html

"It is etched on every face in the small town of Beslan. That helpless, gut-churning, flash of panic that seizes every parent when they turn around and suddenly their child is not there. Why here? Why now? Why my child? They cannot feed their children. They cannot water them. They can only endure the agony of waiting another day. To any Russian, already inured to a culture of catastrophe, the protracted scene of anguish outside Middle School 1 is horribly familiar. It has been the story of the last decade of no-holds barred conflict in Chechnya. The same hostage drama has been enacted inside a hospital in southern Russia, a theatre in Moscow and an entire village in Dagestan. Each time, a mass hostage-taking has only had one of two outcomes. National humiliation as the Chechen hostage-takers are set free to strike again another day. Or national trauma as Russia's crack Alpha special forces blow their way inside. Every Russian who has been held captive knows that to be liberated by Moscow's special forces can be as fatal as to be blown up by their captors. Vladimir Putin, a man who has built his reputation on being the hard man of the Kremlin, can afford neither outcome.'"/i]

[librechik]

9. oh my god

no wonder the fundies think this is the end times

[not systems]

10. This is the result of their war on Chechnya.

I sure don't look forward to our own chicken coming home to roost.

If you want to see the future of crusading for oil look at Russia.

[Aidoneus]

14. except..

informed reports say it's mostly Ingush & Ossets holding the noisy objects that spit fire. Similar results from a similar campaign (minus the scorched earth business...for now), but the fact represents that there is far more than just the one matter at work..