Columbian rebels free captive soldier

A young soldier after being held captive for a year in the jungles of Colombia stepped off of a helicopter Sunday and embraced family members. The soldier was released by leftist rebels.
Pvt. Josue Daniel Calvo was suffering from an unknown ailment and couldn’t walk, but he descended from the aircraft on his own to give his Father and Sister a bearhug. Then he walked into the hanger without making any statements, he saluted the media by placing his hand over his heart.
Piedad Cordoba who lead the rescue mission said that Calvo was emotional and felt dizzy during the flight. Calvo is the first FARC captive to be released since early 2009, which was when guerillas handed over two politicians, three police officers, and a soldier who had spent more than six years with the rebels.
There is word that another soldier will be released early next week, Sgt. Palbo Emilo Moncayo age 32 who has been in captive for 12 years, whose father became famous by walking halfway across Columbia to press for his son’s release.
Brazalian rescue choppers which has the red cross emblazed on them will fly first thing on Monday to the city of Florencia to prepare for the next handover, which is expected to happen on Tuesday.
The media coverage for this release is important due to that most of us are not in Columbia, so we would not know that this happened if the media was not involved. Also, we would not know that there are still people their being held captive. If we were not informed by the media we would never know that another release is scheduled for Tuesday. The media plays an important role for everyone to stay informed about situations such as this story that I just discussed with everyone. If it weren’t for the media unless you knew the people involved one would not know that anyone was being held captive in Columbia.
I applaud the latest released father for walking across Columbia to try to get his son released, I would say it worked. It may have taken some time between the two events but at least his son is back home where he belongs. No more worrying for this family, which is always good news for a family whose loved one is being held captive—no more worries about safety of their loved one. They can finally hold their loved one again.

Olympian Scotty Lago Heads Home

Scotty Lago, after winning a bronze medal for men's halfpipe snowboarding event on Wednesday voluntarily went home. This all happened after a photo of a woman biting his medal leaked out through the media. The media account of the photo was that the medal was strapped around his waist which made the medal hang over is groin. This was happening in a public street in Vancouver. Another picture shows him holding the medal by his team USA logo while the woman was biting the medal. He has apologized to the US Olympic board and to the ski and snowboard association who requires that the athletes attend a special ambassador program prior to the games to avoid embarrassment situations such as what has just happened to Lago. He is a great athlete which comes with great responsibilities, he was representing our nation and he let a nightmare for the nation happen after he had won his medal. These athletes must remember that they are representing their nation. What happened is just not acceptable said Bill Marolt, Association President and CEO. So far there has not been any action taken against him.

2 Dead in explosion

The general manager of the power plant did confirm to the news media that was interviewing him that there are two fatalities, but he could not confirm how many injuries there are. The explosion was caused by a fire which in turn caused the gas explosion. The Middletown police told reporters that the explosion was huge. Some residence thought that it was a earthquake, the explosion shook their homes as if it was a earthquake. How the fire happened is they were firing up the engines Sunday and something went wrong. The plant is currently under construction.

Hati Rescue

On Saturday in Haiti rescuers found a man alive in the ruble, this came about with the urging from his brothers. He was found in a tunnel, which the rescuers had women go through since they were the only ones that were small enough to fit through the tunnel. The rescued man was found in the grocery store in which he worked as a clerk. Since the 7.0 earthquake happened he had been under the table in which he went under when the quake the only position he could be in since the quake hit was on his back. He told the associated press that he was hungry so he ate and drank whatever he could get his hands on. He also said that he did not know whether it was night or day most of the time. When the rescuers found him they gave him water to drink while they worked on getting him out of the tunnel he was in. He was buried in 16 to 20 feet of ruble mostly of wood and concrete. A Greek woman who was a member of the rescue team found him wedged between shelving, another woman started to saw the shelving to get him freed. When he emerged from where he was trapped he was smiling, just happy about getting out of where he was trapped. It is not sure if anyone else was trapped in the building with him, rescuers are using radar to look for signs of life. The rescuers speculate the reason for his survival was due to that the building he was trapped in was mostly made of wood, which made it so that there were air pockets for him to be able to breathe. His rescue is being viewed as a miracle by the rescuers.

When the 7.0 quake leveled the city rescues have been rare. It killed an estimated 200,000 people when it hit. Including the latest rescue 133,000 people have been pulled from buildings in the area.

Earlier on Saturday the rescue efforts had been called off, this was before anyone heard the rescued man calling out for help. Even though the Haitian Government has called an end to the rescue efforts dozens of international rescuers are still poking through the rubble looking for survivors of the January 12 quake that had devastated the area.

Experts say that finding anyone alive after 72 hours becomes slim, especially after more and more time passes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100123/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_rescue