PUBLIC MARKS from alamat with tag hostage

While social media has demonstrated its utility in all kinds of unexpected areas, some of the most interesting applications have been discovered by criminals, who use social media to perpetrate elaborate frauds, identify vacation-going burglary subjects, and steal online identities. And it seems like resourceful outlaws are finding new, surprising applications for social media every day. Here’s a good one: social media as a communications platform in armed standoffs.

MANILA — Philippine police conceded Tuesday they made blunders in ending a bus hijacking as outrage grew over the bloody assault played out on live television that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.