STORY GIST 247

 execution and the death penalty in China, Executions generally take place in specialized chambers or vans,  away from public view. Executions are mainly carried out by hanging, shooting in the back of the head or lethal injection. EXECUTIONS AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN CHINA Executions are carried out by hanging, shooting in the back of the head or lethal injection.  In many years there are several times more reported executions in China than the rest of the world combined.  Even then according to Amnesty International: "Only a fraction of death sentences and executions carried out in China are publicly reported."  The annual toll is not released and is treated as a state secret. These days many executions are carried out with a lethal injection as opposed to gunshots. Executions generally take place in specialized chambers or vans, away from public view.  In 2009, the city of Beijing began using lethal injections in the execution of condemned prisoners inste...

 Lavrenti Beria Executed. Stalin's security chief Lavrenti Beria was executed on December 23rd, 1953. Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian, like Stalin, who called him ‘my Himmler’. Involved in revolutionary activities from his teens and head of the secret police in Georgia in his twenties, he supervised the ruthless 1930s purges in the region and arrived in Moscow in 1938 as deputy to Nikolai Yezhov, ‘the blood-thirsty dwarf’, head of the Soviet secret police. He soon succeeded Yezhov, who was shot on Stalin’s orders, apparently at Beria’s prompting.  Beria, who went on to run the Soviet network of slave-labour camps, was notorious for his sadistic enjoyment of torture and his taste for beating and raping women and violating young girls. Bald and bespectacled, by the time of Stalin’s death in 1953 he was one of the most hated men in the country. With Stalin gone, Beria quickly came to an understanding with Georgi Malenkov, an old ally, and was given the combined ministries...

 Does this photo really show Belgians hanging a child in the Congo? A photograph shared thousands of times in multiple posts shows a black child standing on a platform, surrounded by white men holding a rope. Captions claim the picture shows Belgians preparing to hang a child in the Congo in 1908. However, US military historians told us the men’s clothing suggests they are American soldiers. We’re still trying to track down the source of this image. Can you help? The photo has been shared on Facebook, for example in this post, which we’ve archived, shared more than 69,000 times. The caption reads: “This is in 1908. Belgians reading the Bible before hanging a 7 year old black child in the Congo under King Leopold. The boy was hanged because his father did not produce enough wheat for the colonialists." The photo has also been shared on Twitter here, here and here, where captions also claim it shows Belgians preparing to hang a child in the Congo. AFP contacted several specialist hi...

 OKLAHOMA WILL EXECUTE PRISONERS using an experimental method never before attempted anywhere in the world: nitrogen hypoxia. Mike Hunter, the state’s attorney general, and Joe M. Allbaugh, the director of the department of corrections, announced Oklahoma will asphyxiate prisoners by locking them in a chamber that will fill with a physiologically inert gas, such as nitrogen. Such gases are not toxic but instead deplete blood oxygen levels. The method has never been tested, but those who support the method contend it is “more humane” than lethal injection. They point to support among advocates of voluntary euthanasia and its use in some food production processes to kill animals. Death penalty abolitionists, on the other hand, believe capital punishment can never be humane or just, regardless of the method. They maintain the death penalty is disproportionately used against black and poor people. It does not deter crime. People who are innocent or too mentally ill to understand their ...

 British soldiers from the York and Lancaster Regiment in trenches near Cambrin, February 6, 1918. These photographs were all taken today 106 years ago. Colourised by @coloursofyesterday @in.colore.veritas and @dougbanksee.  During the First World War, the British York and Lancaster Regiment raised 22 Battalions, some 57,000 soldiers, though only 17 Battalions saw action overseas. These Battalions fought in some of the war's bloodiest campaigns, such as the Battle of Gallipoli, the Second Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Loos, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days Offensive. In the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, on July 1, 1916, 8 of the Battalions saw action, suffering huge casualties. Fx, the 8th Battalion went over-the-top with 703 men and officers, of whom just 68 were available for roll call the following morning. In total, of the 57,000 men who served in the York and Lancaster Regi...

 Watch | Man Touches High Voltage Wire In Bengaluru’s Majestic Station Bengaluru:  A man was electrocuted and charred to death when he touched a high voltage electrical wire at the Majestic railway station in Bengaluru.  CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO HERE The video of the incident has been circulated on social media which shows the man standing on the roof of the train at the railway station threatening to commit suicide. The identity of the man could not be ascertained yet. He then touches the live wire and instantly, one sees spark flying followed by a loud sound. As the high voltage current zaps through his body, he dies instantaneously. Onlookers instead of trying to dissuade him to not take the extreme step were seen making the video.  CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO Later, the locals can be heard expressing regret over his actions and also adding that he was electrocuted. Thanks for reading, leave your thought in the comment section below.

 The mysterious letter that revealed Ralph Johnson’s fate. In 1919, Hubert Johnson of Brighton, Victoria, received a mysterious letter. The sender was Johann Fischer of Germany.  Hubert had the letter translated into English. What he read shocked him. Hubert and his wife, Alice, had grieved for years after losing their son, Ralph, in the Fromelles attack in July 1916. Ralph’s body was never recovered.  Johann’s letter explained that he had found the badly wounded Ralph near Fromelles at dusk.  While Johann bandaged him, Ralph asked if he could send news of his perilous condition to his father. Just after Ralph handed some letters to Johann he died. ‘He passed away in the Lord’s quiet and peacefully.’  Thereafter, Johann repeatedly tried to contact Hubert, ‘but always my letters came back.’  Johann’s unfulfilled pledge continually haunted him, ‘I hardly know whether I am doing right, but I want, as I promised him, to give his letters only into his parent’s h...