Quote:Monday, September 13, 2004 Posted: 3:07 PM EDT (1907 GMT)
LONDON, England (CNN) -- London's police chief has demanded an urgent inquiry after a fathers rights campaigner dressed as Batman evaded supposedly tight security to stage a protest on a Buckingham Palace balcony.
Officers, facing their second security breach in four months after the group pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair with flour-filled condoms, took five hours to finally bring the protester down from Queen Elizabeth's London residence.
A police spokeswoman told CNN that a man was arrested on Monday night in connection with the incident on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
Police said no members of the royal family were in the palace but admitted the protester should not have been able to scale the perimeter fence with a ladder and climb onto the high-profile balcony.
Scotland Yard issued a statement saying London police chief Sir John Stevens had demanded a report on the incident by Tuesday morning.
Stevens said "the intruder was readily identified as performing a publicity stunt but if he had been carrying a gun or a bomb he would probably have been shot," the statement added.
"He said that the CCTV (close-circuit television monitoring) and the alarms worked and the police response was speedy but nevertheless it was unacceptable that the wall had been scaled and he would ensure that whatever was necessary would be done in relation to improved security."
Former Buckingham Palace spokesman Dickie Arbiter said officials would be seriously embarrassed by Monday's incident.
He told Sky News: "They will be very seriously embarrassed by what has happened, and they will be looking at ways now to really tighten up on possibly even public access, and make it even harder to get in.
"But they've made it hard already, so how much harder they can make it in the light of this I don't really know."
The campaign group Fathers 4 Justice said the man scaled the palace's outer fence helped by a would-be accomplice dressed as comic hero Batman's sidekick Robin.
Meanwhile, other protesters distracted the attention of armed police by climbing on the front gate.
The group said police had threatened to shoot Robin unless he got down from the fence, "which we think is unacceptable because this is a peaceful, non-violent protest." Police declined to comment on the incident.
The protester dressed as Batman, wearing grey tights, black pants and cape, the superhero's bat symbol and a mask with pointed ears, then climbed up on the palace balcony -- which is used by the royals for ceremonial occasions.
Standing on a ledge to the right hand side of the balcony, about 8 meters (25 feet) above the ground, he unfurled a banner that read: "Super dads of fathers 4 justice."
Also on the banner were the words: "Fighting for your right to your kids."
After spending five hours trying to persuade the protester to come down, police on a cherry picker finally removed him at 7.20 p.m.
Royal security was reviewed after a Daily Mirror reporter got a job at Buckingham Palace as a servant before U.S. President George W. Bush stayed there during a state visit in November last year.
Stand-up comedian Aaron Barschak also highlighted lax security by gate-crashing Prince William's 21st birthday party at Windsor in June last year.
Fathers 4 Justice, which says Britain's courts are biased against fathers in divorce cases involving child access, are notorious for their publicity stunts.
Its attack on Blair in the House of Commons four months ago caused a massive security alert amid fears of a terrorist attack and prompted changes to access rules for parliament.
KICK ASS! I just read this on Yahoo! Whoa, you can get AKs, Uzis, TEC-9s, etc. I want one. That'd be cool.
Imagine going do to the hood, where some stupidass "gangstas" try to mug you with their gay "9s," and you pull out a TEC-9 submachine gun. (Well it has to be semiautomatic.) But still, damn.
http://www.gamespot.com - Much more enjoyable of a site to get game news from if you have a web browser such as mozilla, so you don't have to deal with those insufferable pop-ups.
The official story: "We are exploring the idea of a PC version."--BioWare co-CEO Ray Muzyka.
What we heard: While at the European Developers Forum--the GDCE wannabe that ran alongside Game Stars Live! and EGN in London last week--Muzyka talked to Sanqualis about Jade Empire. Naturally, he was asked whether, like Knights of the Old Republic, the currently Xbox-only RPG would come to PC. "We're certainly interested in the idea," he said. "We own the IP, and we're interested in developing for the PC." Myzuka then dispelled any notion that Microsoft, eager for Xbox exclusives, would pay BioWare to keep Jade Empire solely on its console. "Microsoft's interested too," he said, all but sealing the deal. "But until it's officially announced, it's not something I can confirm or deny."
Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus. It's just a matter of time.
Posted by: OB1 - 9th September 2004, 10:28 PM - Forum: Tendo City
- Replies (52)
I've been anxiously waiting for news of the ICO follow-up to be announced and have been looking at that countdown page every hour or so since it first came up. ICO is probably my favorite game this gen and I am looking forward to its successor more than anything else. Ladies and gents, I present to you the game previously known as NICO, now titled Wanda and the Collosus:
Gorgeous! Horse-back, a giant, a desert... man I can't wait to see how it plays!
The website intro reads "We're fighting to meet you again", and more will be revealed at TGS! I can't wait!!
And for comparison's sake here are some of the leaked NICO screens from way back:
Honestly, it's been going on for a few years now, and it's kinda disgusting exactly how much total trash labelled "alternative medicine" is making the rounds these days.
So, with things like "magnetic therapy" (sans MRI), homeopathic "medicine", the Atkins diet, and that great elixer made from a root found only on the tallest mountain of China that's a sure thing to cure what ailes you, how long is it until we actually, I mean we REALLY DO, start seeing mercury being sold as medicine?