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America stabbed to death today in Beijing
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by Robert Scales | August 9, 2008 at 07:25 am
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An American was killed and another injured in a stabbing attack in Beijing today, officials said, raising security fears as the Games got into full swing.
A Chinese man stabbed the pair and their Chinese tourist guide as they were visiting the historic Drum Tower monument, a popular tourist site in the center of the city.
The killer, a 47-year-old man from eastern China, then jumped off the second floor of the monument and killed himself, without giving details as to why he carried out the attack.
The USOC said the victims were family members of a coach for the United States Olympic men's volleyball team. Beijing police said the person killed was a man and the two injured were women.
"The United States Olympic Committee has learned of an incident that occurred earlier today involving two family members of a coach for the United States Olympic Men's Indoor Volleyball Team," the USOC said in a statement.
"Two family members were stabbed during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant. One of the family members was killed and the other seriously injured."
The attack occurred despite China deploying massive security in Beijing for the Olympics, with more than 150,000 police and other personnel on patrol across the city.
An estimated 450,000 foreigners are expected to come to Beijing for the Olympics, which opened on Friday night and will finish on August 24.
Police identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, from the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (22)
at 07:32 on August 9th, 2008
see also this post on the subject
at 08:02 on August 9th, 2008
Do you need some help with the highlight tool?
at 11:09 on August 9th, 2008
He's a Super Editor, Vinny, so it's surprising if he doesn't understand the Highlight tool.
Robert Scales, in the Newsroom Forums, both Zichi and I have posted very simple ways to use the Highlight Tool by adding your own coding if you don't like the "point and click" tool. Would that work for you?
at 12:50 on August 9th, 2008
I can see why there is some confusion here.
Robert Scales is not a staff member and he is not getting paid for his work on NowPublic. He is reporting for us, and other outlets, from Beijing and Shanghai for the games. The reason he has the super editor crown is because he often works by himself, so if he needs to make any changes to his posts or access certain parts of the website, we have allowed him to do that.
Sorry for the confusion.
at 12:54 on August 9th, 2008
Thanks for the explanation Amy, Guest Editors were told in the past the gold crowns were to show members who is staff confusing isn't it!
at 13:39 on August 9th, 2008
Thanks for clarifying that, Amy. We're very well-trained to see "gold crown" and identify people as Super Editors/staff members and to watch what their leadership models for us.
But I'm puzzled. Many of us work by ourselves. As a member, I have no problem editing my story at any time, adding photos, adding videos, updating, etc. So I'm not quite sure what you meant by he needed the gold crown to be able to make changes to his post.
Of course, I don't know what other parts of the website he needs to access in order to post. Are there other features that would also be helpful to other members who work alone, and who post from various places (vs. in the Vancouver newsroom/area)?
Educate us! Maybe this would make a good Forum topic for you.
at 14:22 on August 9th, 2008
Here.
at 12:53 on August 9th, 2008
Clarifications: actually the picture posted on the security story where from several months back and not related to the recent story posted...
as far as this story goes, I cross posted the facts that where confirmed on the ground talking to a reuter photographer and someone at the IOC..
I did not witness the incident first hand, this is confirmation from someone who called me from the location several hours before i cross posted this news. I actually waited for the confirmations from the Chinese news agency before i uploaded the news..
This was not original writing but indeed cross posted from several posts including IOC, china new agency, and yahoo..
to be honest I should have complimented the original post on this which came out several hours before, I only saw it after this was submitted.
Last, yes I have recently been made a super editor and I am still learning all the tricks of the tools.. any help you folks wanna past my way to augment your great stories will be appreciated.
at 13:38 on August 9th, 2008
Hi Robert, here's a link to the Newsroom section that discusses the Highlight Tool for copying and pasting in excerpts of material written by others. It's pretty nifty.
One of the things about NP that you may find a wee bit uncomfortable, as you did today, is that people are free to comment on your work, add video/photos, etc. Because the issue of human rights goes hand-in-glove with having the Olympics in China, don't be surprised if you get further comments or material from that viewpoint.
Have fun!
at 15:26 on August 9th, 2008
They should be cheering you on, instead of attacking you. Guess none of them even bothered to check your profile. But that's typical.
at 15:45 on August 9th, 2008
Where on the profile does it say it's OK to paste material from other sites or give yourself GS flags, as always Rene you miss the point of members concerns.
at 16:15 on August 9th, 2008
That's not the point, Vinny. I didn't miss your points. If you had looked, you might have seen his Twitter posts. Obviously you still haven't looked. And GS flags should be disabled for Editors etc. own posts. Not the newbie's fault it's not. Nor ours. It's the NP tech people you should complain to about that. They certainly are disabled for us lowly peons.
Try GSing one of your own posts. You can't. and that should be the same for everyone!
As always, Vinny? (Sorry, Robert, but others have already taken this off topic)
at 16:21 on August 9th, 2008
Robert, could you dig around and see if maybe this guy or his family were effected by the huge displacements to build the Olympic facilities? It certainly seems a big mystery why he would do this, and then kill himself.
at 17:13 on August 9th, 2008
Hi Amyjudd, I gave out this information several hours ago here:
[q url=http://www.nowpublic.com/world/us-tourist-killed-beijing-chinese-suicide-victim-named-update]
at 17:17 on August 9th, 2008
Ok, I took down my comment as it was redundant.
at 17:22 on August 9th, 2008
Thanks Amyjudd, you didn't need to, as I was just pointing out that information does get duplicated soemtimes, quite inadvertently.
at 17:43 on August 9th, 2008
I agree - so I didn't want to add to that. Thanks for pointing out you had already posted that.
at 17:55 on August 9th, 2008
Please move any discussion that is not related to the subject of the story to the forum here.
at 17:59 on August 9th, 2008
I agree lets bury it in the darkest recesses of the forum even though the comments are directly connected to the integrity of the post!
at 18:27 on August 9th, 2008
Amy, I didn't get to see your comment before my latest one, answering Rene's question. As we have an urgent storm alert out for severe thunderstorms moving in, I can't fix it. If you'd like to copy it and move it to the Forum posting, that's fine with me. Just please at least provide a link back to Rene's post, or copy hers, too, so people can clearly see what I'm refering to.
Gotta run! Power's flickered once already, my UPS held it, but time to get offline!
at 02:22 on August 10th, 2008
Thanks for the great feedback Zichi and everyone, and thank you for pointing me to the tools and guideline..
Despite having been a user on NP since 2005, i am a relatively new "active" user and I have only been made a Super Editor recently due to my role here in Beijing. Sadly I have not received any training on NP (as I was already on location) and for the record I am not on the payroll.
I appreciate everyone's feedback and will make a constant effort in the future to work within those guidelines and help maintain the integrity of the stories and the community.
Much love to everyone from Beijing, Scales.
at 02:28 on August 10th, 2008
Many thanks Robert have a great time in Beijing!