May 2, 2009

Featured TwitPic: Stormy day in Texas


"iPhone photo of the day- my son's baseball game was just rained out." (Posted by @nontrivialmatt, Garland, Texas, May 2, 2009)

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Violence escalates in Karachi, Pakistan

Per Dawn in Pakistan, three more people have been killed today in Karachi, where violence the last four days has been on the rise. At least 37 have died since Wednesday in what local officials have attributed to ethnic tensions.

Karachi Twitterers have been discussing the spike in violence, which has mostly consisted of shootings:

  1. madsat
    pakjourno (Karachi, Pakistan) Editing story on recent Karachi violence. When you look at the root causes, this is something that will take years to fully resolve.
  2. Umair Khan Jadoon
    jadoon88 (Karachi, Pakistan) people of #karachi don't get fooled by the word talibinazation attatched to the violence. Its something else.
  3. Jamal Ashiqain
    Jamash (Karachi, Pakistan) Violence, unrest, firing, bloodshed # Karachi had been chaotic all day - very little signs that tomorrow will be peaceful :s
  4. Yousuf Khan
    ucofkan (Karachi, Pakistan) i've heard of "shootings" before but "gun attacks" are new
  5. Salman Siddiqui
    sid_iij (Karachi, Pakistan) the senseless violence in karachi continues. the victims r all the poor and the innocent, young and old: http://tinyurl.com/d92dbn


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Helicopters in Edinburgh cause a stir on Twitter

Dozens of Twitterers near Edinburgh, Scotland, were all atwitter today about multiple helicopters hovering in and around the city for at least 45 minutes.

The incident was similar to the Twitter buzz in another city, Melbourne, Australia, where helicopters circled on March 19. That case ended up being anti-terrorism training.

The reason the Edinburgh helicopters were in the sky was still unknown at the time of this post, but speculation was rampant:

  1. Andy
    andrewghayes (Edinburgh) Hmmm - the royals must be in Edinburgh. A whole entourage of helicopters doing some 'maneuvering' over at the palace.
  2. The Queen's Hall
    queens_hall (Edinburgh) #edinburgh Helicopter over Edinburgh could be scoping for tomorrow's 10K TV coverage?
  3. blip2
    blip2 (Edinburgh) @breakingtweets Helicopters over Edinburgh owned by PLM DOLLAR GROUP LTD -> http://tinyurl.com/cp3uzv -> http://twitpic.com/4f1x5
  4. Calum Crawford
    14zombies (Edinburgh) Adding to the list of tweets about the mysterious helicopters over Edinburgh, escaped con? Govt conspiracy? aliens in disguise? I hope all 3

The helicopters puzzled and even agitated some Twitterers.

  1. Ross Wood
    gonzo_rosco (Edinburgh) What's with all the helicopters hovering overhead? It's like apocalypse now outside
  2. Felicity Anderson
    flickitten (Edinburgh) I can still hear those sinister helicopters... Why are they here? What do they want?! Edinburgh is not the sort of place you see this!
  3. Ian Mackay
    maniacyak (Edinburgh) 3 helicopters hovering in the vicinity of my flat. Beginning to get paranoid.
  4. Alistair Marshall
    thatscottisheng (Edinburgh) Though royals are in edinburgh - these helicopters aren't hovering over the same bits of town - over medows now
  5. Felicity Anderson
    flickitten (Edinburgh) why are the helicopters STILL HERE?!
  6. chrisdonia
    chrisdonia (Edinburgh) Helicopters circling overhead and slowly lowering themselves is a surefire route to paranoia.
  7. Loes
    iamloes (Edinburgh) Wondering why there's 3 helicopters hovering above Edinburgh...
  8. Alastair McFarlane
    alitheg (Edinburgh) #Helicopters have left #edinburgh now, so it seems. As well as a camera, one seemed to have a bright light underneath
  9. Denise Wood
    dnwood (Edinburgh) Watched the helicopters with Alistair up on the Crags until they left... that was very nearly 45 minutes of hovering. Bizarre.

If you have information on why the incident occurred, please contact us @breakingtweets or leave a comment.

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May Day protests spark violence across Europe

Per the Financial Times, demonstrations turned violent in city streets across Europe yesterday, as thousands of protesters voiced their discontent with the current state of the economy. Some of the worst incidents occurred in Germany, Greece and Turkey, where clashes between demonstrators and police occurred.

Many Europeans also found time to tweet about their May Day experiences, posting observations and TwitPics to put a personal touch on the news.

In Germany:

  1. Irina Enders
    IrinaEs (Berlin, Germany) today in berlin, the police arrested a man who hail-hitlered the anti-nazi demo outside his house. old berlin-made may day tradition.
  2. Alexander Ljung
    alexanderljung (Berlin, Germany) uh oh, now bottles, stones and fire crackers are being thrown at the police (& random other targets)
  3. Thomas Bremser
    TB09 (Berlin, Germany) Survived Berlin-Kreuzberg today!First it was fun all along,then it just went mad - stones and bottles and panic and I was right there, crazy

In France:

  1. Vesna Gerintes
    holychic (Paris, France) All the peepl in Paris are on the street today to demonstrate at May Day protest. TU @maopapa for the pics http://twitpic.com/4c2un #paris
  2. Ines Horneij
    ineshorneij (Paris, France) went to the protest at the bastille today. it was [expletive]. a bunch of people wearing sandals and playing drums. france sucks. :(

In England:

  1. Martin Smith
    martinrsmith (London, U.K.) It must be May Day // Student protest ambles past // Nice weather for it
    #twaiku
  2. Russel Caulfield
    RWC1 (London, U.K.) May day protest trotting by the office
  3. Stefan Carter
    stefan171 (London, U.K.) Oh go on, here's a picture from the bank of enlgnad may day protest http://twitpic.com/4cdk7

In the Netherlands:

  1. Patrick Simpson
    pndsimpson (Den Haag, Netherlands) Working on this fine Mayday. Can someone riot on my behalf? I'm against everything. so take you pick. Much appreciated.
  2. Smoke
    SmokeRH (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Everythin going easy at 1 may demo in Rdam - some police, some on horses, no presence yet of riot cops

In Greece:

  1. tsimitakis
    tsimitakis (Athens, Greece) Το μπλόκ των αναρχικών με πολιτικά χαρακτηριστικά, χωρίς βίαια στοιχεία (όπως δείχνει), χωρίς κουκούλες, ακολουθείται απο μεγάλη αστυνομική (The bloc of anarchists with political characteristics, without violent elements (as shown) without hoods, followed by large police)
  2. Anastasia Kapsali
    kapsali (Athens, Greece) Greek police fire tear gas in May Day protest clash http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5402ZZ20090501

In Turkey:

  1. Frederike Geerdink
    fgeerdink (Istanbul, Turkey) authorities finally gave permission for unions to gather at taksim square for may 1 celebrations, thousands of people gather now, #istanbul
  2. Lawrence B
    ldbster (Istanbul, Turkey) watching 1st May riots from my balcony in cihangir. Cihangir Cad. is kind of trashed.


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