'Witchcraft' claim sparked deadly soccer riot

from CNN.com:

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday.

Most of the victims were between the ages of 11 and 16, Radio Okapi said. They were suffocated as panicked crowds ran for the exits during the mayhem Sunday in Butembo in eastern Congo's North Kivu province.

Radio Okapi said police tried to control the violence at Matokeo stadium by firing into the air to protect their commander, who was hit in the head and wounded by fans.

The two local clubs involved were Socozaki and Nyuki System, the radio said.

Dozens of teenagers marched through Butembo's dirt streets Monday in protest, and the regional governor, Julien Mpaluku, paid a visit to the hospital.

Mpaluku said the government was investigating.

He made no mention of witchcraft, but confirmed that soldiers had fired into the air to calm angry crowds. The shooting prompted panic instead, which became fatal "when the crowds all tried to leave at the same time."

"Most of the dead were children, only two or three were adults," Mpaluku said.

North Kivu has been the epicenter of violence between Congo's army and rebels over the last year which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Monson: RM debate only crops up when BYU wins

Interesting take on the debate over whether being returned missionaries is an unfair advantage for BYU football players.

read more | digg story

Another One

http://www.cougarfan.com/article.asp?ArtID=48813&URL=http://bleacherreport.com/articles/57903-bringham-young-and-the-mountain-west-conference-deserve-national-attention

BYU and MWC

Podcast about BYU and the MWC

Conference Rankings

http://realtimerpi.com/football/ncaaf_conf_Men.html

This website's stats backup my earlier post.

Kirk Hops on the Bandwagon...Sort of

MWC > PAC10

This weekend was a huge weekend for the MWC. At least it should have been, but of course all the ESPN losers will completely overlook this interesting fact.

The MWC played 4 games against the Pac 10, and guess what, the MWC won all 4 games. And on the entire season, the MWC has played 5 games against the Pac 10 and won all 5 games.

Washington, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona State, and Arizona were the victims. They may not be the powerhouse of the Pac 10, but neither are UNLV and New Mexico.

Later in the season a MWC team will also play Oregon State. But regardless, by my count the MWC dominated play against the Pac 10.

The BCS is weak, and this proves it. So someone again try and tell me either how the WAC is better than the MWC, when our conference won more games against BCS opponents this weekend than the WAC did in all of last year, or that the MWC is an inferrior conference to the Pac 10.

Holy Crap.

That was as close to a perfect game as these eyes will ever see.

BYU Defense

I'm sure I'm not in the minority thinking that BYU's defense is horrible; however, I came across an interesting statistic. The numbers don't change my mind that our secondary is terrible, but it does give me slightly more hope for the season.

BYU allowed Locker the fifth lowest number of yards (62), the third lowest yards per carry (3.4) and the second shortest long run (17) even though he had his second highest number of carries of his career (18).

And here's an important number left out of the article, Locker has started 15 games. So what do you make of these numbers?


ps. I got these stats from Dick Harmon.

Hockey Eh?

Read Here

This cracks me up. Bulgaria's women's hockey team lost a match 82-0. The part that kills me is they don't want to recogize the goalies amazing 57 saves. So funny because I just picture this fat girl sitting in as goalie and all 57 saves are the times she was actually hit by the puck. I bet she cringes remembering all 57 of those. So funny...

Armstrong to Compete in '09 Tour?

I was reading this article on ESPN.com (admittedly I haven't read the full thing), about Armstrong coming back for the 2009 Tour de France.

I don't know enough about the cycling landscape to know how this is being viewed. With the plummeting reputation of cycling (the result of disqualifications of famous riders due to doping charges, etc), the return of a star this big would probably help, but is it enough to help bolster cycling back to where it was? What if Lance competes and does horrible? How does he go about finding a team? Are there tryouts?

Ben? Nartker?

The Art & Science of Wheelchair B-Ball

I'll just make this easier and post a link to the NY Times story.

Game Changing Performance

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/pontiacgcp/

Vote for the Cougars for the Game Changing Performance of the Week.

30 feet = "High"

Let's be honest with ourselves here. BYU outplayed UW all day. Our defense looked bad, but our offense was unstoppable. If Harvey doesn't uncharacteristically fumble (considering he fumbled once last year) into the endzone then we win easy.

As far as "the penatly" goes, Locker broke a rule, which is not a new rule. It may be a dumb rule, but the rule was enforced. Which makes me wonder, if Locker would have been called on this in the 1st quarter would it have mattered? Of course not. Now suddenly college football is suppose to pick and choose when to call penalties like the NBA does? Last I checked 3 steps in the first quarter and 3 steps with 5 seconds left is still traveling and should be a turnover.

On top of that, all the ESPN losers that say he "flipped the ball over his shoulder" prove that they either didn't watch the game at all, so they should shut their faces; they are completely biased toward the BCS; or most likely, they are completely retarded.

And since when did a 30 yard field goal from straight on become a big deal? I wish UW would take some responsibility and realized that UW special teams lost the game not Jake Locker for throwing the ball.

Game 1 Thoughts

Just off the top of my head.

Second-half Fumbles A Good Thing

Despite the anxiety that a 27-17 lead against Northern Iowa caused me (I believe I blacked out at one point and had to be revived with an oxygen tank), I think the reason that it was closer than it should have been (our mistakes: fumbles) will serve us well for the rest of the season because they served as a reminder. I think if we had continued with the momentum we had in the first half and annihilated NIU, we would have gone into UW almost too confident. The fumbles reminded us that "yeah, we're good, and yeah, we have an extremely high-powered offense, BUT we still need to protect the ball no matter who the opponent is." I think it was good.

Pitta Better Than Harline?

This may have already been a point of discussion last year, and too early in this season to tell already, but Pitta was an absolute beast. Harline will forever be etched in BYU fans' minds because of the catch, and he was undoubtedly a beast at tight end, but I think Pitta will put up some crazy stats.

Other input? Thoughts?