From CNN – March 3, 2009

Former England batsman Chris Broad has emerged as a hero after the armed ambush in Pakistan that killed eight people and wounded eight Sri Lankan Test cricketers.

International Cricket Council match referee Broad, whose son Stuart is currently touring the West Indies with England, was among officials travelling in a minibus immediately behind the Sri Lankan squad in Lahore. As their vehicle also came under attack, the 51-year Broad used his body as a shield to protect fourth umpire Ehsan Raza who had been shot and is now reportedly in a critical condition in hospital.

A dozen masked gunmen attacked the convoy close to the Gaddafi Stadium where day three of the second Test against Pakistan was due to take place.

“My dad saw things that he never expected to see and he never wants to see again,” Broad junior told PA Sport en route with the England team to Trinidad from Barbados.

“It was dreadful. I spoke to him in the early hours of this morning and he was obviously very shook up by it all. It has obviously been really heart-breaking for him.”

The 22-year-old Broad added: “He is safe and well and looking forward to getting back to the UK. “Not just for my old man, but for the whole of the Sri Lankan side, it is a dreadful thing to have happened.

“Luckily none of them got seriously injured and they’ve escaped okay. It is just an horrific incident and we all feel for them because we can sort of relate to the situation. “Obviously our condolences go out to the families and loved ones who lost people in the incident.”

Broad senior, who played for England in Lahore back in 1987, became an ICC Test officials six years ago.

Former Middlesex and Kent wicketkeeper Paul Farbrace, now assistant coach of Sri Lanka, was among those hurt by shrapnel as they lay on the floor of the team coach.

“I exchanged text messages this morning with him,” the England and Wales Cricket Board’s Hugh Morris told media. “Thankfully he is okay.

“Paul used to work for the ECB for 10 years or so, so we’re very close to people involved and our players obviously play against the Sri Lankan players on a regular basis.

“Our thoughts go out to everybody that was caught up in the attack, particularly those who were injured, and the families of those that were killed.

“It was just a shocking day for everybody, particularly those that are involved in cricket.”

The attack has sent shock waves around the sporting world and raised fears about the future of international cricket matches, including the 2011 World Cup, in Pakistan.

Pakistan, which is battling Islamist and Taliban insurgents in its North West Frontier Province, has struggled to attract visiting cricket teams in recent years because of security concerns.

The current Test series with Sri Lanka is the Pakistani team’s first since touring India in 2007.

Pakistan captain Younus Khan believes his team had a lucky escape telling PA Sport: “We normally leave together, but today we were delayed and the Sri Lankan team went ahead of us. It would have been catastrophic had both buses gone together.”

Younus spoke to a number of the Sri Lankan players after the incident. “They were courteous and took the incident in their stride. They merely termed it ‘a bad experience’ and they have no ill feeling towards this country,” said the 31-year-old.

“This is a deplorable act and it’s completely unacceptable.”

A SCHOOLBOY has been hailed a hero after he saved his mum from drowning in a bath. Amanda Smith had fainted in the tub and slipped under the water. When her 10-year-old son Aidan Turner found her, he sprang into action. Aidan pulled the plug out of the bath, grabbed his mum by the hair, dragged her out of the water and put her in the recovery position. He then phoned his gran Sheila MacDonald, who works as a domestic worker at Borders General Hospital, to ask for help. An ambulance was called to take Amanda to the hospital, where she spent three days recovering. The mum-of-four said yesterday: “If it hadn’t been for Aidan, I would have died. I am so proud of him. “I was completely submerged, I don’t know for how long. I can only go on what Aidan and his grandmother have told me. “He lifted my head out of the water but said it was really hard because it was so wet. “His younger sisters were crying and he was trying to keep them calm, saying, ‘Mummy’s going to be OK’. “He covered me with a towel and was keeping my head up and talking to me. He was so brave. “Water was coming out of my mouth and I was coughing, so he was patting me on the back to get the water out. “I had to receive oxygen in the ambulance on the way to hospital.” Amanda, who is separated from her husband, suffers from low blood pressure and doctors believe the hot water may have caused her to faint. She said she has tried to bring up Aidan and his sisters Kirsten, 12, Madison, seven and two-year-old Lily-Ruth to be safety-conscious. Amanda, of Galashiels, Selkirkshire, added: “What I’m trying to do with my children is certainly working. I am just so proud of them. “I didn’t even know Aidan knew the recovery position.” Amanda is now trying to fix up a treat for rugby-daft Aidan to reward him for his heroics. She plans to arrange for him to meet Scotland rugby star Chris Paterson. Amanda added: “Aidan is a big, big rugby fan. He plays for the Mini Maroons in Gala. “He loves Chris Paterson. I would love for Aidan to meet him. If I had a medal to give to my son, I would.”

From the NYTimes.com – February 25, 2009

Seated in Michelle Obama’s box on Tuesday night were living symbols of the ideas in President Obama’s first speech to a joint session of Congress, including a bank executive, Leonard Abess, who shared a vast fortune with his employees, and an eighth-grade student from South Carolina, Ty’Sheoma Bethea, who in a letter had urged Congress not to neglect education financing.

Mr. Obama used a line in Ty’Sheoma’s letter, “We are not quitters,” as one of his closing themes.

Mr. Abess split $60 million among several hundred current and former workers at his bank.

Other guests sitting with Mrs. Obama included Lilly M. Ledbetter, whose Supreme Court case resulted in Congressional action to prevent wage discrimination, and Jonathon N. James, an Army veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan.

Bob Dixson, the mayor of Greensburg, Kan., which was destroyed by a tornado in May 2008, was also invited. Mr. Obama praised the spirit of that community, which is being redeveloped as an energy-efficient “green town.”

Two other guests were sophomores at Washington high schools, Akrem Muzemil and Francisco Rodriguez. Both plan on attending college and are interested in studying engineering.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who safely landed a jetliner in the Hudson River last month, saving 150 passengers and four other crew members. Mr. Sullenberger’s first officer and a flight attendant also sat in the speaker’s box.

Ms. Pelosi also chose to give two of the prime seats to labor leaders, John J. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

One of two borough residents who rescued a resident from a fire last month was honored at a council meeting earlier this month.

Francisco Garcia, of Dalbert Street, was given a certificate by Mayor Daniel Reiman at the end of the meeting for helping to pull an unconscious victim from a blaze inside their home on Jan. 17.

The other hero, David Zullo, who works as a mechanic at the municipal garage on Roosevelt Ave., was not present at the meeting.

“If I hadn’t noticed (the fire), who knows what would have happened (to the victim),” said Garcia, a six-year resident of Carteret. “Once I went to the window and heard a tweak inside, I thought to myself, hey, that’s a life in there. I have to do something.”

According to Fire Chief Brian O’Connor, fire officials received a report of a mobile home fire at 26 Dalbert St. around 6:50 p.m. on Jan. 17. When Engine 3 arrived, firefighters found a working fire with heavy smoke coming from the trailer.

Before the arrival of the fire engine, Garcia, 27, was walking down the street when he saw smoke coming from the trailer. He ran up to the structure and peeked inside a window to see a fire inside, O’Connor said.

“I was going to see a friend of mine, and going by, I happened to see the flames and the door and I told my neighbor to call the cops,” said Garcia. “I went in, and she stayed outside on her cell phone.”

Garcia took a shovel and forcefully removed the front screen door of the trailer. He then entered the trailer and removed a recliner chair that was on fire, O’Connor said.

At this time, Zullo arrived at the scene and attempted to enter the trailer but was unable to because of the heat and flames, O’Connor said. Zullo — who declined comment for this story — then yelled into the trailer and heard moaning from inside.

“(Zullo) came, and when I saw him, I ran to the back door because I told him there was a back door on the opposite side (of the trailer),” said Zullo. “I went back there, and like a sardine can, I ripped open the door so that (Zullo) could help.”

O’Connor said Zullo and Garcia went around to the back of the trailer and tried to open a rear door. Because the door was locked, the two men used their hands to partially pry open the bottom of the door, bending it about 18 inches — just enough for Zullo to crawl in while Garcia held the door open.

Zullo had crawled in about 2 to 3 feet when he thought he bumped into a blanket on the floor — when the heavy smoke cleared just for a second, he saw that it was actually the head of the victim, O’Connor said.

Zullo dragged the victim to the rear door, which was being held partially open by Garcia. Both rescuers then pulled the victim out and carried him to the front of the trailer, where firefighters took over and began first aid.

O’Connor was taken to Saint Barnabas Burn Center in Livingston to receive treatment for respiratory problems, staying in that hospital for a week before checking into a rehab center. The victim is expected to make a full recovery from the injuries sustained from the fire, O’Connor said.

“If not for the actions of both these two heroes, I’m almost certain that the victim would have died,” said O’Connor. “These men are heroes.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said O’Connor.

From Courier-Journal.com: February 19, 2009

Michael Dickerson was remembered as a man of “awesome, awesome love” as more than 300 mourners turned out yesterday for his funeral at St. Stephen Church in Louisville.

Dickerson, 27, died in a fire Friday in Jeffersonville after first saving his infant son and his fiancée’s 2-year-old son by tossing them to safety from a second-floor window of their townhouse. Dickerson and a friend first tried to extinguish the fire that began shortly before 8 a.m. in the first-floor living room of the apartment at 1901 Barbara Court.

When they couldn’t put out the flames Dickerson went back upstairs to get the children. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend,” said the Rev. Billy Hollins. “If you knew (Dickerson) that sounds just like him.”

Dickerson managed to throw 2-year-old Jayden Crawford and 3½-month-old Canaan Dickerson out the bedroom window to the friend waiting below before he succumbed to smoke and could not get out.

The children Dickerson saved were regulars in the St. Stephen day-care program, and he was usually the one to bring them, day-care director Sharnett Wilkins recalled. “Michael’s one of my top five No. 1 dads that I’ve seen” in 15 years of child-care work, Wilkins said. “He has left us with an example of love, and let’s hold on to that.” DeVone Holt, a cousin of Dickerson, said we live in a society “infatuated with heroes” of the super variety provided by Hollywood.

“But this past Friday we learned that not all heroes have super powers — that some of them earn their titles by getting up every day in a down economy and trying to find a job … (and) rejecting the notion of a thug lifestyle,” Holt said.

Dickerson had been laid off from his job as a countertop finisher seven months ago, but continued to do what he could to help fiancée Tanaya Crawford and the children, ending with the last act of his life. “Although he proved that you don’t have to have super powers to be a hero, he did show us that you have to have super compassion,” Holt said.

Holt recalled the fruitless efforts of neighbors who yelled to Dickerson to jump from the window after he had rescued the children. “When so many were screaming for him to come down he didn’t because he had a destiny to go up,” Holt said. BaRhonda Dickerson, Michael Dickerson’s sister, said her brother “was my best, best friend.” All of their recent conversations “were about him being a father. … He was so excited,” she said.

A GRANDMOTHER was hailed as a hero last night after a ruthless gang was stopped in its tracks during a so-called tiger raid.

Businessman Julien Flynn was with his wife Emma and four children — all aged under seven — at their home at the rear of the Flynn Group’s hardware, supermarket and timber supply business in Lackagh, about 10 miles from Galway city when the drama began at around 9pm on Sunday.

Emma Flynn was speaking by phone to her mother, Colette Whelan when she heard a commotion in the rear rooms of her home. She dropped the phone and went to investigate.

She and her husband were confronted by five armed and masked men who had broken into their home. The couple were pushed onto the floor and bound with cable ties.

The gang — believed to be from Tallaght in Dublin and suspected of involvement in a number of other robberies around the country — were armed with a shotgun, a hatchet and other weapons.

Gang members then went upstairs to the children’s bedrooms and brought them to join their parents. The three older children were also tied up, while the Flynns’ six-month-old baby was left untouched.

Emma’s mother, meanwhile, had become concerned as a result of the commotion and her daughter’s unexplained dropping of the phone. She phoned Julien’s sister, Nicoletta, who lives next door and asked her to check on them.

Nicoletta and her sister-in-law, Mary Flynn, walked to the house. But when they rang the doorbell they were pulled inside by the raiders, forced onto the floor and also tied up.

But by now, Emma’s mother, Colette, was becoming increasingly concerned at her home in Galway city. She and her husband Paddy decided to phone the gardai and asked them to go to the house in Lackagh.

An unarmed male and female garda went to the Flynn home and when they approached the front door, they too were bundled inside. But a scuffle ensued, during which the male garda was struck with the hatchet.

By now, with the situation becoming unmanageable for the gang, they decided to flee. They made their way towards the rear window which they had used to gain access to the house initially. But one of them was overpowered by the gardai.

Getaway
The other four made good their escape and headed towards the nearby Woodlands estate, where they had left two BMW cars for their getaway.

Garda reinforcements, however, were on the scene within minutes and one of the raiders was arrested close to the Flynn home. A second man was found with a serious leg injury and offered no resistance when approached by gardai.

The two remaining raiders managed to get away in a dark-coloured BMW X5 which gardai believe had a 2005 registration number. They had taken a small sum of money which they found at the Flynn house.

By now, gardai had managed to reach the distraught family and free them. Nobody had been injured, but all were severely traumatised.

Checkpoints were immediately established on all approach roads to and from the immediate area. The Garda Air Support Unit joined the search early yesterday morning.

Gardai recovered the second BMW car, which had been abandoned at the Woodlands estate in Lackagh.

Forensic experts were yesterday examining it for clues and were also trawling through the various locations at the Flynn home as the family opted to stay with relatives.

“Obviously, it has been quite a traumatic night and I’d really like if you would respect our privacy a bit. We’re all fine, thank God, everybody’s fine,” said Mr Flynn.

“The guards were wonderful, they really were super and thank God we were very well looked after last night. Somebody in heaven thankfully was looking down on us.”

Gardai at Mill St station in Galway yesterday said that two of the men detained in Lackagh had been arrested and were being questioned. The third man yesterday underwent surgery at University Hospital Galway and was under 24-hour watch by gardai.

From KCTV.com – February 5, 2009

When shots rang out at a basketball game at a local community center Friday, one of the players risked injury to save a 6-year-old boy.

Sean Merritt said he was at the game at the Tony Aguirre Community Center with his 6-year-old son, Desean, to watch the game between DeLaSalle High School and the Southeast Community Center team.The boy stepped away from his father just as gunfire started in the fourth quarter, Merritt said.Sean Merritt said 19-year-old Jullaion Jones stepped off the court and saved Desean’s life. Jones put the 6-year-old on the ground and covered him until the gunfire stopped, holding him tight even after a bullet grazed Jones in the leg.

“Jullaion moved me and hided me in the corner, and covered his body over mine,” said Desean Merritt.

It was a potentially lifesaving act of kindness that the Merritts said they will ever forget.”I almost get teary-eyed just thinking about it. It could have been worse than it was, God was really good that nothing happened to anyone. I’m glad he put Jullaion there to do what he did,” said Sean Merritt.None of the injuries was life-threatening. No suspects are in custody.

From MotherJones – May/June 2006

In the midst of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, when machete-wielding Hutu extremists murdered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days, Paul Rusesabagina turned the hotel he managed in Kigali, the country’s capital, into an oasis of safety. His actions, which saved the lives of 1,268 refugees, inspired the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, in which he was memorably portrayed by Oscar nominee Don Cheadle. But in his recently released memoir, An Ordinary Man, Rusesabagina rebuffs suggestions that he was a hero, saying he was just doing his job. Now a critic of Rwanda’s Tutsi-led regime, which he says has turned a blind eye to revenge killings of Hutus, Rusesabagina (pronounced roo-seh-sah-bah-GHEE-nah) lives in exile in Brussels. He recently set up a foundation to help Rwandan women and orphans, and he has been speaking to audiences across the United States about his efforts to prevent future genocides. At a recent appearance in Philadelphia, where he received the first Rev. Leon H. Sullivan Humanitarian Award, the predominantly African American crowd treated him like a rock star, lining up for autographs and photographs. Sitting down after his talk, the 51-year-old Rusesabagina was affable to a fault, displaying a beguiling mix of self-confidence and modesty, boasting of his accent-free French and still insisting he’s nothing more than a hotelier.

Mother Jones: Your book’s title is interesting, because I’ve talked to Holocaust rescuers, and this is a familiar theme: “We weren’t heroes, we were just ordinary people.”

Paul Rusesabagina: Which is true. Who is a hero, actually?

MJ: If anybody’s a hero, isn’t it somebody who stands up to overwhelming force?

PR: That was nothing special. I was a hotel manager. I just kept on being a hotel manager. If to be a hero is to remain who you are, everyone would be a hero.

MJ: You’ve often been compared to Oskar Schindler because, like him, you were able to deal with the devil. People who were responsible for genocide sat down with you, and you were able to negotiate with them.

PR: I believe in one thing: Each and every heart, even the hardest, has always got a very soft, small part of it with which you can always play around and come up with a positive conclusion.

MJ: In Hotel Rwanda, your character goes from being concerned primarily with his family to embracing all his fellow Rwandans. That’s a standard movie convention; did it reflect real growth on your part?

PR: Actually, that is what happened. Initially, I was not concerned by what was going on. There was a government, there was a war, the United Nations was there. But when I saw the government completely dismantled, I had to take responsibilities. The very first day, I had 26 neighbors in my house. When I had to leave my house, I was not going to leave those people behind. So it became a very big extended family, from 6 to 32, and then 400 and something. That is how it happened—people kept on coming to the hotel. And toward the end, I had 1,268 people. It would have been easier to care for six people—my wife and four children and myself—than caring for a thousand. But if you turn your back, leave a thousand people, that’s on your hands. That is cowardice.

MJ: Do you think that the film captured the essence of your story?

PR: Definitely. My main concern was that Paul remain the hotel manager—not be transformed and manipulated in that Hollywood way of doing things.

MJ: I would think that every hotel in the entire universe would want you as their manager now.

PR: Everybody was willing to give me a job. But I wanted to do something different. I saw myself as an independent person, self-employed. So I started driving a taxi in Brussels. After one year, I bought a second one. After three years, I opened a trucking company. And I’m a father and a husband. I’m now very busy. But I remain a hotelier. I won’t be anything else in my life.

MJ: You left Rwanda as an exile. Why?

PR: I got threats from the Rwandan government. I do not know why, but since the movie came out, the president takes me as a threat, I think.

MJ: You describe today’s Rwanda as a place of “cosmetic democracy with a shallow system of justice.” What do you mean?

PR: Rwanda has got 50,000 [accused murderers] in prison. The first priority is for justice to be done, but up to now, only a few thousand people have been convicted in Rwanda. At that speed, how many years will it take to try and convict 50,000 people? And justice is now a one-way street, only judging, trying, and convicting Hutus and ignoring that Tutsis also killed so many.

MJ: And who’s to tell the innocent from the guilty?

PR: Oh, that is the biggest problem. Almost everybody is guilty.

MJ: Except for you.

PR: Even me, I might be. [Laughs.]

MJ: In your talk, you said that history teaches us no lessons. I was surprised to hear that, because your book is very optimistic.

PR: Yeah, history never seems to teach us any lessons. But that is no reason to give up. Hotel Rwanda should be a lesson to show us what was going on in Rwanda in 1994 and remind us that it never ended. It is still happening in many different parts of Africa. Nobody talks about the Congo. And I traveled to Darfur myself, to see what was going on with my own eyes. What happened in Rwanda—it is exactly the same there.

MJ: Why did you create the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation?

PR: [Shortly after the genocide] I drove with my wife and a friend to see my wife’s sister and her husband. When we arrived, the husband had been killed, and one of their daughters was killed, along with my mother-in-law. My sister-in-law remained with eight children. One of them was a young boy. She had kept him in a bag, so she could go out and people would think that she was going to buy things. Whenever she was at home, she was hiding him under the bed because the killers were hunting for boys. I took her and her children to my house. About two weeks later, her younger sister came from the Congo with her three sons. I had to create jobs for my sisters-in-law and also pay for the education of their 11 children. Today, most of them are in university. When Hotel Rwanda came out, it was then or never to create a foundation to help educate those kids and many others. The genocide left us with half a million orphans, and on top of that, AIDS keeps adding more and more. And all those kids need education. They need medical care and psychological solace. Someone, somewhere, has got to care for them.

MJ: You seem to radiate a quality of joy. If I knew nothing about you and saw you sitting across from me, I would say, “That’s a happy man.”

PR: Well, that is true. I think I’m a happy man, and I’m a blessed man. I have been able to adjust to any situation, whatever it was, in my life.