From the Times of India…

The shootout on Wednesday found around 100 cops of the Railway Police Force (RPF) as well as Government Railway Police (GRP) ill-equipped to tackle two AK-47-wielding terrorists. Only six of those cops were armed with either Self-Loading Rifles (SLRs) or automatic weapons. The rest had lathis.

J N Lal, divisional railway manager of Central Railway, said no one imagined such fidayeen attacks at CST. “We were buying gadgets to tackle bomb blasts. Now we will surely think of modern weapons for our security personnel,” said Lal.

Click here to read what a Lathis is. Basically, it is not much more than a stick.

Kim is widely thought to have be incapacitated by a stroke. The question is, what does this mean for the future of North Korea? One possiblity is a Chinese invasion of North Korea. From Spiegel…..

It is quite possible that this regime will collapse without Kim. To prevent a wave of starving refugees from crossing into China, Beijing has increased its troop levels along the border with North Korea. One of the scenarios now being discussed in Tokyo, Seoul and Washington is an invasion by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. If North Korea were to descend into anarchy, China, as a “stabilizing force,” could attempt to gain control over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons. Russia is believed to have approved of this plan.

My question is why wait for the regime to collapse? North Korea has got to be one of few places on earth where having Chinese overlords would be an improvement for just about everyone except for a privileged few.

From Alice the (British) Architect…..

These days, thanks to a draconian law brought about by people with beards wearing tweeds and sandals, lobbying the government on a day the government just wanted something to do, disturbing a single bat is a crime worthy of hanging. Well, not quite that bad, you understand, but a severe fine and a criminal record is more than enough to make someone think twice about waking the little critters from their daily slumber.

I notified English Nature, as the law dictates, and they sent a ‘bat worker’ round to spend the evening monitoring. The builders continued to work elsewhere, away from the roof, as quietly as possible (digging a foundation, if you must know). Despite charming assurances from the Bat People on the telephone, I received a horrible letter saying that all work must cease at once, and could not start again until the bat season was over, and how dare we even consider repairing the roof when the bats needed it. (There was no mention of the people who also happened to live there, and for whom the building was actually constructed).

From later on in the post….

We got off lightly. There are some kinds of bats that are so rare, that some buildings are simply not allowed to be worked on at all (according to a colleague who this happened to) even if it is listed and in danger of falling down. There are some people with colonies of 300 bats in their roof, all peeing and pooing into the insulation. Despite what the nicey nicey literature on English Nature’s website says about bat poo being ambrosia from heaven, it actually stinks. Many churches have bats, and whilst in some parts of the building they do not cause much of a problem (the belfry!) bat droppings all over the ancient furnishings are not particularly desirable. English Nature’s advice? Put cloths over everything.

Unlike most people, I like bats. I never had the problems with them that most people seem to have. There is something cool about seeing bats flying around and I always figured that anything eating bugs was a friend of mine. But if they had laws like this in America I would be killing every bat I could find. There are ways of killing the buggers without being caught.

But it is no surprise that England has laws like this on the book. If they let pirates go because they are afraid of violating their human rights, they ought to treat the bats at least as well.

From the New York Times…

Michael Rubenstein, a photographer working with The New York Times reports from outside the Taj hotel in Mumbai that the top floor of the hotel is still on fire and that hotel guests are banging on the windows begging to be rescued.

I hope they don’t have to face the choice of jumping or burning alive.

From Rod Dreher….

Breaking now: mass terror attacks underway in Mumbai, at hotels and other locations. Government says 78 people dead now, hundreds injured. The attacks are apparently coordinated, and taking place simultaneously all over the city. One Indian terrorism analyst on CNN now saying: “The whole city is being held hostage.”

It does not seem be over yet. The death toll now stands at 80 dead with 900 injured. Updates here.

Edit: Watch this Clip for a good overview.