Philippines hostage coffin 'mix-up'

First, the Philippines police made grave blunders in rescue attempt during the recent Manila bus hijacking. Now, there is the victim coffins mixed up. Philippines, get your act right.

The Philippines says it will investigate claims that coffins of three of Hong Kong's eight victims of a bus hijacking were wrongly labelled.

The pledge comes after Hong Kong's officials said the mix-up was discovered at a morgue after the coffins had been flown from Manila.

Their coach was hijacked by a disgraced ex-policeman, Rolando Mendoza. He was killed as police attempted to rescue the hostages on 23 August.

Mendoza, 55, seized the bus with an assault rifle in an attempt to get back the job he lost in 2009 for extortion and threat-making.

The pledge by the Philippine government comes after Hong Kong's Security Bureau revealed on Thursday that the bodies of three of the eight victims had been mislabelled.

It said that the mistake was discovered when the families of the victims opened the coffins at the morgue in Hong Kong eight days ago.

The bureau added that it was possible that the blunder was made at a Manila funeral parlour because the victims' families had identified the bodies before the coffins were flown to Hong Kong.

However, the officials did no reveal which victims were mixed up.

"If there was a mix-up of those names, we apologise," Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"It was really the desire to facilitate and bring the bodies to Hong Kong as quickly as possible, because that will ease the pain of the families," she added.

In all, 22 Hong Kong tourists were taken hostage along with three Filipinos - a driver, a guide and a photographer.

Nine people were released in early negotiations, but 15 were kept aboard the curtained bus for hours as the hostage drama was played out before live television cameras and broadcast around the world.

Police in the Philippines said on Sunday that the hostages were killed by Mendoza's gun and not police weapons during their rescue operation.

As the talks failed and Mendoza became increasingly agitated, police made several unsuccessful attempts to board the coach. Shots could be heard fired from inside the curtained bus and no-one knew how many hostages were still alive.

Survivors and experts have criticised the Manila police for being indecisive and slow in their handling of the crisis.

Recommended reading:
* 21 dead in Maguindanao massacre

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How to hack Android apps licensing

Someone cracked the Android apps licensing security and happy that he is getting Android apps for free. It’s been reported that someone has figured out, and published, a way to hack some Android apps to bypass the new Android Market licensing server. Android-Developers is however, aware of this hack news.

Android-Developers has posted a short article in response to the news of possible hacking of their licensing server.

Hacking of licensing server is nothing new and this is due to the rampant piracy. People who want to use stuff but not eager to pay for it are the one that support the piracy effort.

Recommended reading:
* Spider Labs released tool to hack Android smartphones
* Your Android based devices are totally under Google's control

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The Most Expensive Hair Insurance

Troy Polamalu, an NFL superstar has had his hair insured for $1 million. Although Polamula is a football player, his hair insurance probably rivals the insurance that actors and actresses have! So, how did this Steeler player get $1 million in hair insurance?

Apparently, Troy Polamula is branching out and his hair caught the attention of Head and Shoulders, the famous shampoo for the control of dandruff.

With hair that could span at least 1,100 football fields end-to-end, it's safe to say Polamula has quite a bit of hair for Head and Shoulder's needs.

Here's what the NFL superstar said about his flowing locks:

"Head & Shoulders has gone above and beyond by insuring my Samoan locks for a cool $1 million dollars...This reinforces that my full and thick hair is unstoppable."

And unstoppable is his hair! However, opposing players have tackled his locks in field before. In 2006, Larry Johnson took hold of Palamula's hair and tackled him after Polamalu picked up a turnover! One has to wonder if Palamula even felt Johnson tugging his hair since it's so thick!

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GMail mind-reading with your inbox

Google's new Priority Inbox feature not only sorts your inbox, but it also figures out what's important based on what messages you reply to and read.

Gmail has one of the best spam filters around, but your email isn't made up of only good and bad email. After the spam is filtered out, you end up with mail you want or need to respond to, in varying degrees, as well as bacn—the email in between spam and a real message, such as advertisements and newsletters you've signed up for. You've told us how you handle bacn, but now Gmail can take care of it for you. Priority Inbox not only prioritizes your bacn, but just about everything in your inbox.

Priority Inbox is in beta and should be rolling out over the next week or so. When you see New! Priority Inbox in the top right corner of your inbox you'll be able to try it out.



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Mexico overhauled its police force

Mexico has cracked down on alleged corruption and incompetence in its federal police on Monday, firing 3200 officers, about 10 per cent of the force. NOTE: The Philippine should take this as a hint and clean up their SWAT team after ex-cop Rolando Mendoza killed at least 8 hostages in a bus hijack in Manila, weeks ago. Yes, the Philippine SWAT team botched the hostages rescue effort.

Back to Mexico drastic police department clean up, top police commissioner Facundo Rosas told a news conference the officers had failed to pass "confidence tests", including 465 denounced for suspected crimes.

Another 1485 officers from the force of 34,500 would be laid off in a second phase, Rosas said, adding that investigations continue.

The massive purge is only the latest in a series of efforts to clean up Mexico's notoriously corrupt police, in a campaign which has become increasingly urgent as drug violence escalates across the country.

More than 28,000 people have died in suspected drug attacks since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown, involving about 50,000 troops, on organised crime in 2006.

North-eastern areas have seen a surge in brutality in recent days, including the discovery of 72 massacred migrants, the murder of a mayor and five apparent bomb blasts.

The military has assumed anti-drug patrols in some spots because local police are considered unreliable.

Recommended reading:
* Gulf of Mexico Big Slick
* Canadian Police is watching your Internet activities
* Queensland Police Fighting WiFi Robbery

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