As Mingled Clearness and Obscurity….
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) — San Diego State University has suspended six fraternities after a sweeping drug investigation that landed members of three fraternities in jail on suspicion of openly dealing drugs on campus.
The probe — prompted by the cocaine overdose death last year of a freshman sorority member — led to the arrests of 96 people, 75 of them San Diego State students. A second drug death occurred during the investigation.
Twenty-nine people were arrested early Tuesday in raids at nine locations including the Theta Chi fraternity, where agents found cocaine, Ecstasy and three guns. Eighteen of those arrested were wanted on warrants for selling to undercover agents.
Theta Chi and five other fraternities have been suspended pending a hearing on evidence gathered during the investigation, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall. Watch police escort handcuffed students
Authorities said some fraternity members openly dealt drugs, and that one sent a mass text message advertising special prices on cocaine. Two kilograms of cocaine were seized in all, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hashish oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.
Profits may have been used to finance fraternity operations, according to an affidavit.
A member of Theta Chi sent out a mass text message to his faithful customers stating that he and his associates would be unable to sell cocaine while they were in Las Vegas for a fraternity formal, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The text promoted a cocaine sale and listed the reduced prices on bulk quantities.
Attn faithful customers both myself and my associates will be in Vegas this coming weekend, the 19-year-old student wrote in the text message, according to the DEA. So stock up, we will be back Sunday night.
Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master’s degree in homeland security.
The Greek system at San Diego State has about 3,000 students, but Fraternity Row plays an outsized role in campus life. It sits a block from Cox Arena, home to many college sporting events.
Dale Taylor, national executive director of Theta Chi, said he was obviously shocked and saddened by the allegations. Theta Chi prohibited the San Diego chapter from group activities such as parties or sports activities and will investigate additional disciplinary measures, up to expulsion of members or the entire chapter.
The San Diego chapter, founded 61 years ago, was the first national fraternity on campus and has 65 members.
The chapter declined comment. It occupies two low-slung homes a block off Fraternity Row, with large red and white Greek symbols propped on the roof.
Theta Chi has 131 chapters in the U.S. and Canada and more than 161,000 initiates. It was founded in 1856.
Besides Theta Chi, the other suspended fraternities are Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu.
University police launched their investigation into drug sales on campus after Shirley Poliakoff, 19, died from a cocaine overdose in May 2007. Investigators discovered many students in fraternities were aware of organized drug dealing within their houses.
The Transpersonal Language : Spirit Art and Collective Healing
lunaya shekinah these symbols are an expression of the what i call the transpersonal language, which in humble terms could be described as the language which anyone can twig. the way that these symbols work as language, is by literally containing the essence of a particular state of transpersonal awareness, thus having the ability to spark or facilitate that extremely state in whoever looks at them.
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YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) — Hungry crowds of survivors have stormed reopened shops in Myanmar’s devastated Irrawaddy delta, the U.N says, as aid groups and governments grow frustrated by their lack of access to the country.
Little aid has reached the area since a weekend cyclone killed more than 22,000 people and left 41,000 homeless.
Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the country’s military junta.
Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out, according to meeting minutes of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Thailand on Wednesday, obtained by AP.
The minutes said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will contact Myanmar Wednesday to arrange a meeting with high-ranking officials on the issue.
Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Bangkok (WFP), Thailand, told AP that aid workers had reported fist fights are breaking out after a few shops had reopened.
Survivors were also trying to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, according to witness accounts, AP reported.
The International Rescue Committee is also struggling to gain access.
We can’t delay on this — this is a huge disaster and the longer (Myanmar) waits the worse it’s going to become, spokesman Gregory Beck said.
The delta, Myanmar’s rice-growing heartland, has been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, threatening long-term food shortages for survivors, experts said.
The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that five states hit hardest by Saturday’s cyclone produce 65 percent of the country’s rice, AP reported.
There is likely going to be incredible shortages in the next 18 to 24 months, Sean Turnell, an economist specializing in Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University told AP. Things will be tough.
The WFP, which has started feeding the estimated one million homeless, said there were immediate concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta. Watch Rivers’ report from Bogalay
The cyclone battered the country with winds of 240kph (150mph) and 3.5 meter (11.48 feet) storm water surges.
Damage was also extensive in the country’s largest city, Yangon. Much of the former capital is without power and littered with debris and fallen trees.
Harrowing details have started to emerge, with one woman describing to the Democratic Voice of Burma — a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates — a wall of water jumping from the Gulf of Mottama into the delta areas.
CNN obtained the video in which the survivor said she walked a trail dotted by dead bodies to get to safety, passing a group of about 1,000 homeless people who slept on the street. See photos of the destruction
Yes, there is tide coming along. Trees fall over people, the survivor said. There are many dead bodies lying under trees. Yes, all people I saw are crying too much and searching for bodies of loved ones. There is bad smell from dead bodies on the way we came from.
The woman said she lived in the village of Dadaye near the gulf in southern Myanmar, which was in the path of the storm. She said that as she fled, she passed a village where only six people survived.
We found about 40 dead bodies on this way, the woman said. Everywhere … in the bushes like this, and in the streams like this. Everywhere.
CNN’s Dan Rivers, the first Western journalist into the devastated town of Bogalay, reported seeing bodies being thrown into rivers by survivors in desperate need of help. An iReporter documents the destruction
Rivers said Wednesday that it was difficult to find the words to describe the level of destruction.
Ninety percent of the houses have been flattened… the help that these people are getting seems to be pretty much nonexistent from what we’ve seen.
He saw members of Myanmar’s army clearing roads, but handing out little food or medicine.
There has been scant help, really. I think we saw one or two Red Cross vehicles in the entire time we were driving, Rivers said of his travels over a 12-hour period.
The U.N. said Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had authorized it to send an airplane laden with aid supplies, but permission was still pending for a coordination team to accompany the flight.
However, international efforts were being frustrated by Myanmar’s delay in processing visas for aid workers.
We’ve got stuff on standby and we expect in the next day or two to be given the go-ahead, James East of World Vision told CNN from Bangkok, a staging area for many groups. Learn more about Myanmar
Hundreds of World Vision staff were already in Myanmar with limited supplies, according to East, distributing food and water, and making assessments.
He said it wanted to bring in additional employees and supplies as soon as possible.
Even when aid comes in, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare to get it out to the remote delta region, East said.
Andrew Kirkwood, head of the Save the Children aid group in Yangon, said people were getting sick.
The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can’t use tablets to purify salt water, he told AP.
The Myanmar Red Cross has been handing out relief supplies, such as clean drinking water, plastic sheeting, clothing, insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent malaria, and kitchen items, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. Watch the cyclone’s destruction
The U.S. has pledged $3.25 million and offered to send U.S. Navy ships to the region to help relief efforts — if Myanmar’s government agrees.
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) — The U.N. says hungry crowds of survivors have stormed shops that reopened Wednesday in Myanmar’s devastated Irrawaddy delta, with little aid reaching the area since a weekend cyclone killed more than 22,000 people.
Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Bangkok (WFP), Thailand, told The Associated Press that aid workers had reported fist fights are breaking out after a few shops had reopened.
The delta, Myanmar’s rice-growing heartland, has been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, threatening long-term food shortages for survivors, experts said.
The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that five states hit hardest by Saturday’s cyclone produce 65 percent of the country’s rice, AP reported.
The region was also home to 80 percent of its aqua culture, 50 percent of its poultry and 40 percent of its pig production, the FAO said.
Rice is the most important staple in the impoverished country, which has produced enough to feed itself and, more recently, stave off rising prices.
There is likely going to be incredible shortages in the next 18 to 24 months, Sean Turnell, an economist specializing in Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University told AP. Things will be tough.
WFP, which has started feeding the estimated one million homeless, said there were immediate concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta, known as the country’s rice bowl. Watch Rivers’ report from Bogalay
The cyclone, which battered the country last weekend with winds of 240 km/hr(150 mph) and 3.5 meter (11.48 feet) storm water surges, killed more than 22,000. Another 41,000 people are still missing, according to state-run media outlets in Myanmar, and the U.N. estimates one million could be homeless.
Damage was also extensive in the country’s largest city, Yangon. Much of the former capital is without power and littered with debris and fallen trees.
Harrowing details have started to emerge, with one woman describing to the Democratic Voice of Burma — a broadcast media group run by opposition expatriates — a wall of water jumping from the Gulf of Mottama into the delta areas.
CNN obtained the video in which the survivor said she walked a trail dotted by dead bodies to get to safety, passing a group of about 1,000 homeless people who slept on the street. See photos of the destruction
Yes, there is tide coming along. Trees fall over people, the survivor said. There are many dead bodies lying under trees. Yes, all people I saw are crying too much and searching for bodies of loved ones. There is bad smell from dead bodies on the way we came from.
The woman said she lived in the village of Dadaye near the gulf in southern Myanmar, which was in the path of the storm. She said that as she fled, she passed a village where only six people survived.
We found about 40 dead bodies on this way, the woman said. Everywhere … in the bushes like this, and in the streams like this. Everywhere.
CNN’s Dan Rivers, the first Western journalist into the devastated town of Bogalay, reported seeing bodies being thrown into rivers by survivors in desperate need of help. An iReporter documents the destruction
Rivers said Wednesday that it was difficult to find the words to describe the level of destruction.
Ninety percent of the houses have been flattened… the help that these people are getting seems to be pretty much nonexistent from what we’ve seen.
Rivers said he saw members of Myanmar’s army clearing roads, but handing out little food or medicine.
There has been scant help really. I think we saw one or two Red Cross vehicles in the entire time we were driving, he said of his travels over a 12-hour period.
The aftermath has pushed Myanmar’s normally secretive ruling military junta to ask for aid and release details of the devastation.
WFP said it had begun distributing food in areas of Yangon and was preparing to send emergency supplies from across Asia.
However, international efforts to provide assistance were being frustrated by Myanmar’s delay in processing visas for aid workers.
We’ve got stuff on standby and we expect in the next day or two to be given the go-ahead, James East of World Vision told CNN from Bangkok, a staging area for many groups.
Hundreds of World Vision staff were already in Myanmar with limited supplies, according to East, distributing food and water, and making assessments.
He said it wanted to bring in additional employees and supplies as soon as possible.
East said the big challenge was getting the aid to the people who needed it.
Even when aid comes in, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare to get it out to the remote delta region, he said.
Andrew Kirkwood, head of the Save the Children aid group in Yangon, said people were getting sick.
The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can’t use tablets to purify salt water, he told AP.
The Myanmar Red Cross has been handing out relief supplies, such as clean drinking water, plastic sheeting, clothing, insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent malaria, and kitchen items, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
President Bush called on the military junta Tuesday to allow the U.S. to help with disaster assistance. Watch the cyclone’s destruction
The U.S. has pledged $3.25 million and offered to send U.S. Navy ships to the region to help relief efforts — if Myanmar’s government agrees.
Several other countries and world bodies, including Japan and the European Union, have pitched in. Most recently, Australia’s government pledged $2.8 million for aid.
Based on a satellite map made available by the U.N., the storm’s damage was concentrated over about a 30,000-square-kilometer area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines, home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s 57 million people. Watch as some aid arrives in Myanmar
The country’s state radio said Saturday’s vote on a military-backed draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Yangon area and seven in the Irrawaddy delta, AP reported.
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Hello. My name is Izabel, and you are reading my Fair Proxy blog, where I post the lastest CNN news on world events. |
My name is Izabel Potrito. You are reading my Fair Proxy blog where I'll share latest news in USA and world. My thoughts to make this country a better place.
