Shitty war getting shittier

Nerve-gas fears after 45 fall sick
MARGARET NEIGHBOUR

AT LEAST 45 people, most of them children, have been hospitalised in the Russian region of Chechnya with an illness that doctors say might be nerve-gas poisoning.

Pupils, teachers and workers began reporting breathing trouble and headaches on Friday at a school in the town of Starogladovskaya, emergency workers said.

As of yesterday, 38 children and seven teachers had been hospitalised, said Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for emergency situations ministry. Preliminary investigation points to an unspecified kind of nerve gas, said emergency workers and Chechen government officials.

Separatist rebels, who have been fighting Russian forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade, have committed a series of terrorist attacks in Chechnya and other parts of Russia, including the seizure of hostages in a school in Beslan in 2004.

The Chechen prosecutor general, Valery Kuznetsov, was reported yesterday as saying that "to speak about a terrorist act is premature" but "all possibilities are being considered".

• Residents of a far eastern Russian city stocked up on water yesterday before the arrival of a toxic chemical slick that might force authorities to shut off water and central heating, despite subzero temperatures.

The chemicals that spilled last month from a factory explosion upriver in China were expected to reach Khabarovsk by today. Hot water supplies might have to be suspended for up to seven days and cold water for three days.

"We hope we can deal with the situation but we have to prepare ourselves for a cutoff of water supplies," said the regional governor, Viktor Ishaev.

news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2439242005

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It'll probably turn out to be Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

The one thing that I admire about the Russians is that they typically have a brutal response to these incidents. The Russkies haven't been taking a whole lot of crap off of these Chechens, and they shouldn't either. I was impressed with the cavalier rescues of the Moscow theater and elementry school hostage incidents, and I was pleased that they weren't taking prisoners.

The Russkies'll deal with this the right way.

Quoted: The one thing that I admire about the Russians is that they typically have a brutal response to these incidents. The Russkies haven't been taking a whole lot of crap off of these Chechens, and they shouldn't either. I was impressed with the cavalier rescues of the Moscow theater and elementry school hostage incidents, and I was pleased that they weren't taking prisoners. The Russkies'll deal with this the right way.

When they walked for unconscious bitch to unconscious bitch, calmly putting a bullet into their brains, I squealed with delight.

But the deaths of so many innocents took the edge off the assault.

At least they did something.

Quoted: Quoted: The one thing that I admire about the Russians is that they typically have a brutal response to these incidents. The Russkies haven't been taking a whole lot of crap off of these Chechens, and they shouldn't either. I was impressed with the cavalier rescues of the Moscow theater and elementry school hostage incidents, and I was pleased that they weren't taking prisoners. The Russkies'll deal with this the right way. When they walked for unconscious bitch to unconscious bitch, calmly putting a bullet into their brains, I squealed with delight. But the deaths of so many innocents took the edge off the assault. At least they did something.

I don't relish the deaths of innocents, but I think that in both cases the Russians saved innocent lives by going in. These Chechens would have killed everyone in that theater and in that school.

'Psychology' clue to Chechen ill

A mystery mass illness in Russia's conflict-torn republic of Chechnya could have been caused by psychological factors, officials have said.

More than 70 people - most of them girls - have now suffered breathing problems, headaches, irrational fear and panic attacks.

Earlier this week, officials said they suspected nerve gas poisoning.

But Chechen Prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov now says it could be a response to years of trauma suffered by residents.

"There is no toxic poisoning. The air and water are clean," he said.

"Causes linked to psychogenic factors are coming to the fore.

"It is women and girls who are more vulnerable to emotional effects," he added.

Chechen chief toxicologist Musa Dalsayev also said he believed the illness was caused by psychogenic factors.

Blood samples have been sent to a laboratory to help determine the exact causes of the illness.

Separatist fighters have waged a bitter war against Russian federal forces for a decade, with attacks taking place both inside the republic and elsewhere in Russia.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4552408.stm

Oh geez, leave it to women to be emotionally weak and lame. No wonder men have to do all the fighting and dieing.

If it wasn't a group panic attack, it could just as well have been a leak from a Russian factory.  Anyone remember the anthrax outbreak in the Soviet Union, when some maintenance workers forgot to reinstall air filters in their air vents to the outside world?  Somewhere around 80 people in a village downwind died, IIRC.