Man armed with knife kills 10 in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - "A man armed with a 21-inch-long knife killed 10 people, including seven children, and wounded 14 others in a rampage early Saturday in a central Philippine province, police said.

The man first attacked and wounded five members of his cousin’s family with whom he lived in a remote village outside Calbayog city in central Samar province at around 2 a.m. local time, said Senior Police Officer Jessie Gianan, desk officer at the Calbayog police station. Two of the cousin’s sons, aged 5 and 7, died later at a hospital, he said.

The man then barged into a neighbor’s house, where he stabbed and hacked to death a 37-year-old pregnant woman and her three daughters and two sons, aged 1 to 9. Two daughters survived, Gianan said by telephone."

Lunatics, you see, will use whatever they have on hand when the alarm for run-amok time awakens their frenzy. Al Capone had a favorite baseball bat, autographed by Ty Cobb no less, that he used to talk some sense into those who had a habit of disagreeing with him.

In the Philippines, as well as most of Indonesia, and even Malaysia, edged weapons are the instrument of choice for self defense and it isn't all that strange to see a cop on the beat in Borneo armed with nothing other than a Bowie knife or machete. I wouldn't exactly refer to something with a 21" blade a knife, by the way, but the story DID come from the AP and what do they know about anything.