Today's Olympics Report : Allegedly Isolated Stabbing in Beijing Kills One of the in-laws of US Men's Volleyball Coach

Here we go again. And yes, I accidentially clicked the button before editing so you got an unedited version. Dang. Anyway here we go, I don't know how much more I can say past the criticism part but let's roll with it.

According to the source article, "A Chinese man stabbed the in-laws of the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball coach, killing one and injuring the other while they visited a Beijing tourist site near the main venue where Olympic competitions began Saturday.

The victims were Todd and Barbara Bachman of Lakeville, Minn., parents of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman, who is married to men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Bachman's father was killed.

The assailant also stabbed and injured a Chinese tour guide with the Americans. He then committed suicide by leaping from a 130-foot-high balcony of the ancient landmark the Americans were visiting, the 13th-century Drum Tower, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua said the injured tour guide was also a woman, it said."

Well, there's yet another fine mess China's citizens has gotten their country into!

According to the article "The volleyball teams is "deeply saddened and shocked," said Darryl Seibel, a USOC spokesman.

He said the two victims "were not wearing apparel or anything that would have specifically identified them as being members of our delegation" or as Americans."

So that sorta counts out the theory that the person was targeting Americans, if we were running with that theory to begin with and this isn't a plot to embarass the host government by causing incidents that make them look bad without any specific target or goal apparent at first glance.

Of course this might as well be the end of it as it seems the U.S. Embassy said in the article "it believed the attack was an isolated act and not directed at Americans or foreigners, given that the Chinese tour guide was also hurt.

"We don't believe this was targeted at American citizens, and we don't believe this has anything to do with the Olympics," embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said."

As it turns out the killing was apparently a rare instance of violent crime against foreigners in tight as a drum overly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics. (Yes, no protestors were harmed in all those detainings recently, they were just... you know... detained. But why bother about that now that China set up areas for protestors to hang out and protest to their heart's content).

According to the article "The attack shortly after noon at the busy tourist site darkened the mood at the games the day after a spectacular opening ceremony had set an ebullient tone after years of nervous buildup."

(Though you couldn't tell that from the coverage on TV as it only gets minor mention between sporting events.)

The article goes on to say that "Beijing's communist leaders are hypersensitive to anything that could take the shine off the games, insisting issues such as China's human rights record, harsh rule in Tibet and ties with Sudan should not be raised at the sports event."

(And they're also probably pissed people insist on killing each other in the region of Georgia over on Russia's side of the world when there's supposed to be no hostilities during the Olympics and all that.)

Oh, by the way China's Foreign Ministry? No immediate comment on the attack... maybe they took the weekend off.

Xinhua (the media source I can never draw info from as they're always red flagged for spyware or something -- oh, right, they're a Chinese media source so of course they have spyware issues, my bad) identified the attacker as one Tang Yongming, age 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou. According to Xinhua they said that Tang attacked the two Americans and their Chinese tour guide on the second level of the ancient tower, then leapt to his death immediately afterward (which makes sense since it would have been hard to leap to one's death if he did the job at ground floor level).

According to the article "Seibel said it was "too early to say" whether security would be stepped up for the U.S. team. But some athletes were already thinking about it.

Jennie Finch, a member of the U.S. softball team, said her heart skipped a beat when she heard about the attack, but she was undaunted.

"I'm here with my husband and son, so it's not easy but we're living our dreams and we're not going to live in fear," she said. "We're going to go out there every day and enjoy every day and celebrate it."

U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt visited the victims at a hospital in Beijing to convey the condolences of President Bush, who is in Beijing for the first days of the games.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Bush told reporters. "And the United States government has offered to provide any assistance the family needs."

"It is impossible to describe the depth of our sadness and shock in this tragic hour," said USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth. "Our delegation comes to the games as a family, and when one member of our family suffers a loss, we all grieve with them.""

The police collected samples from the tower and street below (no doubt working out the exact details of the crime through crime scene investigation). Also there seems to be abit of investigating needed as they are presetly keeping some details of the incident under their hats (motive, weapon used, etc) as it seems these details were not immediately clear (motive being the most unclear at present I'd take it).

Apparently attacks on foreigners in China are extremely rare (and don't get reported much as these incidents all seem rather new to me).

For instance did you hear about the Canadian model who was murdered last month in Shanghai? The police said she had stumbled onto a burglary! Did you hear?

Or how about back in March, when a screaming bomb-strapped hostage-taker commandereed a bus with 10 Australians aboard in the popular tourist city of Xi'an, and was promptly shot to death by a police sniper! You must have heard about that one, right?

Well Shanghai and Beijing are still safer than most foreign cities of their size... unless the government hates you or your some sort of human rights protestor, then I suppose your hosed. According to the article "Punishments for crimes against foreigners are heavier than for crimes against Chinese, and citizens are not allowed to own guns."

Still, the article goes on to say "Even so, the U.S. government now warns Americans against muggings, beatings and even carjackings, especially in the nightlife and shopping districts of large cities."

And what about the place where the incident took place?
The article says "The Drum Tower is one of few ancient structures still in fast-developing Beijing. Drummers pounded their massive instruments on the hour to let people in the imperial city know the time."
Hmm... interesting. How much do you think people earn an hour to be human time keepers?