Archives June 2017

Friday, June 17, 2011

Anthony Weiner announced his resignation yesterday afternoon as a Democratic representative from New York to the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he has filled for twelve years. He has been under pressure from politicians within his own party after a sex scandal engulfed his life and that of the Democratic party.

Weiner told reporters it was “impossible” to continue in his role after the events of the last few weeks, including revelations that he was involved in sexual relationships with a number of young women over the internet, including sending lewd photos of himself, and then lying about his actions to reporters.

He announced his resignation at a press conference in a Brooklyn senior center where 20 years ago he began his political career and apologized for his “personal mistakes”. His wife, Huma Abedin, did not accompany him, but Weiner apologized to her in his speech, saying that he hopes “most importantly, that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage that I’ve caused.” He took no questions from reporters.

On June 6, Weiner had admitted to corresponding with women he met on the internet, including exchanging lewd photos. But on June 11 he declared in an emotional interview he would not resign. Under pressure from Democrats, Weiner requested a two-week leave of absence from his position in order to obtain treatment to become “a better husband and healthier person.”

However, Democratic politicians became increasingly anxious to put the growing scandal behind them, as it distracted members from more important issues such as problems with Medicare and the need for more jobs. As the scandal gained momentum, a variety of politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, called on him to resign. President Barack Obama said he would resign if he were in Weiner’s place in an interview with ABC News.

“Weiner exercised poor judgment in his actions and poor judgment in his reaction to the revelations,” Pelosi said in a statement after Weiner announced his resignation. “Today, he made the right judgment in resigning.”

The scandal came to light May 27 after Weiner accidentally sent a photograph of his crotch on his public stream on the social networking website Twitter, and then tried to cover it up by blaming hackers for posting the picture, denying all responsibility.

Weiner later admitted sending online messages to other women, including to a 17-year-old high school student in Delaware, though a police investigation uncovered nothing illegal. On Wednesday, a former porn actress revealed that she had engaged in an online relationship with Weiner and that Weiner had asked her to lie about the nature of their contact.

More photos have continued to emerge, including one showing his nude genitals, and others showing him half naked. On Wednesday, the National Enquirer published images of Weiner cross-dressing while he was a college student at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. In one photo, he is seen wearing a bra and pantyhose, while in another he is oiled and wearing swimming trunks.

Colleagues said Weiner wanted to wait for the return home of his wife, Abedin, before making a final career decision. He has been married for almost a year to Abedin, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child. She is a top aide to Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, and the couple’s wedding was presided over by former President Bill Clinton. She returned home to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning after having traveled with Clinton in the Middle East and Africa since June 8.

Weiner’s district covers parts of Brooklyn and Queens, boroughs of New York City. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of New York City in 2005, and he was considered a potential candidate for future races. Known to be an outspoken supporter of liberal causes, he has irked conservatives and Democratic leaders. In 2009, he pushed for government-run health care, even though Obama had opposed the idea.

Friday, October 5, 2007

The winners of the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize have been announced. The awards, given out every early October since 1991 by the Annals of Improbable Research, are a parody of the Nobel Prize, which are awards given out in several fields. The awards are given to achievements that, “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They were presented at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater.

Ten awards have been presented, each given to a different field. The winners are:

• Medicine: Brian Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer, who studied the health consequences of sword swallowing.

• Physics: A team from the USA and Chile, who made a study about how cloth sheets become wrinkled.

• Biology: Dr Johanna van Bronswijk of the Netherlands, for carrying out a census of creatures that live in people’s beds.

• Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto, from Japan, for creating a method of extracting vanilla fragrance and flavouring from cow dung.

• Linguistics: A team from the University of Barcelona, who discovered that rats cannot tell the difference between Japanese and Dutch when spoken backwards.

• Literature: Glenda Browne of Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study on how the word “The” confuses people when they try to put things in alphabetical order.

• Peace: The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for trying to develop a “Gay bomb” that would turn enemy soldiers homosexual.

• Nutrition: Brian Wansink of Cornell University for his investigation into the limits of the human appetite, by using a self-refilling “bottomless” bowl of soup.

• Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan, for patenting a machine that catches bank robbers by dropping a net on top of them.

• Aviation: A team from the National University of Quilmes, Argentina, for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters recover from jet lag.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The H1N1 outbreak of swine flu, which began in Mexico this April, has now spread across the globe. There have been at least 3,330 deaths from the swine flu since the virus started spreading, out of almost 316,000 total reported cases.

Nine countries — Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the US — have promised to send ten percent of their antiviral vaccine supply to other countries, should the latter be in need of it. The plan was agreed to “in recognition that diseases know no borders and that the health of the American people is inseparable from the health of people around the world,” a statement by the US government read.

In an in-depth report, Wikinews takes a look at how the disease has affected countries around the world.

As of Wednesday, Brazil has registered 899 deaths from the swine flu, making it the hardest-hit country in terms of fatalities. The city of Sao Paulo reported 327 deaths, and Rio de Janerio 84.

However, the country’s health ministry also said that the rate of serious cases “fell for the fifth straight week.”

Brazil had surpassed the United States, which has 593 deaths, in number of total fatalities from the outbreak late in August.

Argentina, Brazil’s neighbour to the south, has 512 deaths from the H1N1 virus.

10,000 cases of swine flu were confirmed across China since the outbreak began. The number of infections seems to be increasing quickly.

Communications director for the World Health Organisation Vivian Tan said that “in the last week or so, the increase has been quite quick,” attributing the rise to a small decrease in temperatures as fall sets in, as well as students returning to school after summer breaks.

China’s official news agency Xinhua reported that 1,118 new cases of the influenza were reported in a two-day period earlier in the week, adding that a vast majority of the cases had been transmitted in China, not by persons entering the country from abroad.

All 31 of China’s provinces have reported instances of the flu. The disease initially seemed to be limited to large cities, but recently has started moving into more rural areas.

No casualties from the swine flu have yet been confirmed in China.

The office of France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy said that the country would pledge up to one tenth or nine million of its 94 million antiviral vaccine doses to the World Health Organisation, to be distributed to countries with fewer vaccine supplies if needed.

International solidarity “will be a determining factor in reducing the health, economic and social impact of the pandemic,” according to a statement released by the government.

On Wednesday, eleven people had been reported dead from the virus in India, taking the country’s death toll up to 212 people. The number of people infected with the influenza is now estimated at 6,800.

India’s health ministry on Tuesday said that the Tamiflu drug would be on sale in the open market within seven days, allowing for a “restricted sale” of the drug.

An unnamed official said that “it is expected that within the next five to seven days, both the drugs would be available in the retail market through identified chemists against proper medical prescriptions.

“Taking into account the current spread of the influenza A(H1N1) in the country, the health ministry has decided that retail sale of Tamiflu and Zanamivir should be allowed in the country but in a regulated manner,” he said.

Previously, distribution of Tamiflu was prohibited by the government, and access to it was only available through public health institutions.

At least 70 people in Kenya have the swine flu, according to local health official. In the latest outbreak, twenty high school students came down with the virus and had to be quarantined on Thursday.

“A majority of the affected students who are in Forms One and Two were treated and advised to remain under bed rest to minimise further spread of the disease among the student community,” said the director of Public Health, Dr. Shanaaz Shariff. However, he said that the students’ illness was “not too serious to warrant hospitalisation.”

Security guards were placed around the school the students were isolated in, with orders only to allow medical personnel to enter the premises.

Kenya’s capital Nairobi has been the worst hit by the flu, having reported forty cases. Other cities affected by the flu are Kisumu and Rift Valley, who have reported eighteen and ten cases of the H1N1 virus, respectively.

Mexico, the country in which the outbreak initially started, has 25,214 reported cases and 217 fatalities from the virus. Some recent cases have forced schools to close down.

Jose Angel Cordova, the Mexican health secretary, said that the virus could infect as many as five million of Mexico’s 107 million people, and, in a worst-case scenario, cause up to 2,000 deaths. His estimate is higher than his previous prediction of 1 million cases and 1,000 deaths, made last month.

About five thousand new cases of swine flu were reported in the United Kingdom in recent weeks, reversing a declining trend in the number of new infections. Health officials have suggested this could lead up to a second outbreak of the virus.

“We don’t know whether this is the start of the next big wave that we were expecting this autumn but it is certainly something that’s giving us concern. It will probably be a week or two before we see whether this increase is sustained.” said Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer.

Health authorities have said that at least 25 cases appear to have been resistant to the Tamiflu drug prescribed to treat the illness.

Donaldson said that “the positive side of it is that so far these have not been strains that have then gone on and affected other patients, they have stayed with the patient in which they were isolated. What would worry us is if we got a resistant strain that then started infecting people like the rest of the cases of flu that have occurred.”

The UK is one of several countries that have pledged up to one tenth of their vaccine stock to to other countries if they are in need of more supplies. “[Britain] recognizes that H1N1 is a global pandemic which requires a global response,” the International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, said. “Solidarity with other nations is vital, particularly the poorest who may be most vulnerable and have least capacity to respond.”

The US government recently bought 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine. Health Care Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that free shots will be given out early in October. The vaccination is to be voluntary, but priority will be given to certain groups, such as toddlers and children, adults over the age of 65, and pregnant women, who are considered especially vulnerable to the virus.

“We remain confident that the United States will have sufficient doses of the vaccine to ensure that every American who wants a vaccine is able to receive one,” a White House statement said.

As of September 16, the US had 593 deaths from the flu.

144 people in Vietnam were diagnosed with the swine flu on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 5,648. This week, the number of affected people has increased by 1104 infections or 6.3%.

Nguyen Tran Hien, the director of the Central Institute of Hygiene Epidemiology, predicted that the swine flu would peak at the end of 2009 and the beginning 2010.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health called for more research into a swine flu vaccine, and urged the the National Steering Board on Flu Prevention in Humans to give out more doses of the drug Tamiflu to areas hardest hit by the flu.

== Used cars should be checked thoroughly before purchase ==

Used car market is steadily rising in India, as working millennials now prefer to travel according to their convenience instead of having to wait for public transport, or take that weekend trip to rejuvenate themselves.

In case you are planning to buy a used car soon or would like to know all about the dos and don’ts in advance, here’s all about it.

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You can choose from certified used car showrooms, which provide guarantee and loan options or you can opt for a standalone used car dealer.

Here, you have to be a little cautious on what you are getting your hands on; sometimes stolen cars, with completely fake registration papers and insurance policy, get sold in the used car market. Always check papers thoroughly before buying.

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While checking the papers if you find out that the vehicle has been in a major accident, it’s best to avoid buying it. The asking price may be lucrative and from outside it may look fine, but it’s damaged.

Chances are the integrity of the vehicle has been compromised and the chassis may get severely damaged if it goes through even a minor accident.

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Also be a little suspicious if the owner is selling the car at a throwaway price, even if nothing looks wrong in the initial check up. Chances are there are problems, which the owner is not making you aware of because he/she wants to get rid of it ASAP.

Take a detailed look at the used car’s repair history, something odd will come up.

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It is a good car and the owner is giving it away at a price, which suits your pocket. Before you take the leap, run a check on what is the cost of getting spare parts for this car.

If the spares are extremely costly or getting them repaired is going to cost you a bomb, it is not feasible for the long run.

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Another important factor, that you need to keep in mind before buying a car, is to check for rust.

Rust tends to lurk behind the exterior and once it starts to spread, it can turn a car into junk very quickly. Remove the floor carpet and take a peek in that area; if you see rust, refrain from buying and look for other options.Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Delete this line, and start typing your article in its place

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

George Bush’s controversial nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, seemed stalled as new allegations surfaced in the Senate Committee’s second interview. Lawmakers from both parties, particularly Democrats, express strong reservations.

“He wants to be our top diplomat at the UN but his life has been something less than diplomatic,” Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, said on a Sunday talk show.

“He wants to work with people around the world. And he couldn’t work with people in his own office. And he’s supposed to be open, as our man at the UN, to ideas from other people,” Durbin said.

“He’s been a real tyrant when it came to people he worked with, who disagreed with him. This man doesn’t have the temperament for this job.”

There was no consensus Thursday whether the Senate committee should ask Bolton to return for more questioning. He testified for eight hours and presented a written draft on other questions, but the stream of allegations has only intensified, as well as a characterization of him as a boss who mistreated fellow workers and lost his temper frequently.

Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Bolton would be hobbled in the job because of the allegations raised during the confirmation hearings. Dodd spoke on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Dodd maintains the Democrats raise objections to Bolton because of evidence he twisted intelligence analysis to fit his personal views. He said Bush should consider withdrawing the nomination.

“There are plenty of other good people who embrace his ideological views,” Dodd added.

But some Republicans had a differing view. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thought Bolton’s “forceful” personality made him the ideal candidate to lead U.S. efforts to reform the UN. He put little concern into Bolton’s alleged personnel problems, saying that Bolton’s supposed history of trying to get analysts who disagreed with him fired were unproven. McConnell is the second ranked Senate Republican. He was also speaking on the CBS program.

Lincoln Chafee, Republican Senator of Rhode Island, has said he is “less likely” to vote for the nominee as a result of the questions that are being raised about his credibility. Instead he sought out the opinion of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Powell’s spokeswoman, Peggy Cifrino, said he returned calls Thursday to senators who wanted to discuss questions that have been raised about Bolton. Powell was the only former GOP secretary of state who did not sign a recent letter endorsing Bolton for the job. It is known that the two did not get along during Powell’s tenure in the Bush Administration. Powell’s former chief of staff has been quoted by the US press as saying Bolton would make an “abysmal ambassador.”

Some Republicans in Congress are doubtful that Bolton will win nomination now that the vote has been pushed back to May 12 to allow more time to investigate his history. Speaking on CNN television Senator Arlen Spector, R-PA, said the odds on Bolton were “too close to call.”

Some wondered what Bush’s reasoning could be for nominating Bolton for the UN post since Bolton acknowledged saying in 1994 that the UN headquarters in New York “has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

Also in 1994, Bolton said, “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States, when it suits our interest and when we can get others to go along.” [1]“

In response to criticism of these statements at his hearing, Bolton replied, “There’s not a bureaucracy in the world that couldn’t be made leaner.”

It appears to trained observers that Bush may have to yield his nomination to a Senate rejection. Behind the scenes, Bolton may be facing a question of withdraw or be pushed out. As President Bush asked Senators to support his nominee, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he strongly supports Bolton, but “I can’t speak for all of (GOP) leadership.”

President Bush continues to support his nominee, according to Whitehouse spokespersons. In an April 20 news briefing, press secretary Scott McClellan said in response to a question whether the Bolton nomination was lost, “No, absolutely not. I think what you’re seeing is some Democrats on the committee trumping up allegations and making unsubstantiated accusations against someone the President believes will do an outstanding job at the United Nations. He is someone who has been an effective manager, a strong diplomat who has gotten things done. And I think he’s earned the respect of many people that he has worked with because of what he’s done….people are playing politics with his nomination….He’s exactly the kind of person we need at the United Nations during this time of reform.”

On Sunday, White House spokeswoman Christie Parell, said the president is standing by Bolton as his nominee. “The president believes he’s exactly the man needed at the United Nations,” she said in reply to Dodd’s comments.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

The British Foreign Office is advising Britons against all but essential travel to Kenya because of the violence following the disputed presidential elections. The warning and the violence are heavily affecting Kenya’s tourism industry, which relies heavily on European tourists escaping the winter cold.

The travel warning recommends that those already in Kenya stay indoors and exercise extreme caution and seek advice locally either from their tour operator or the local authorities if they want to travel. The Foreign Office also warns against attending political gatherings and large public meetings.

This decision comes at the same time as widespread violence in the country and calls for an investigation into the vote results, after suspicion over vote rigging by the government.

Tour operators in the United Kingdom have suspended holiday packages to Kenya until the situation there improves. Two holiday companies are thought to be flying out empty planes to the country, to bring back British residents from the country.

The Association of British Travel Associations, an umbrella body for travel agents says about four hundred tourists who had been scheduled to fly to Kenya have postponed their trips. Sean Tipton is a spokesperson for the association.

“Clearly holidays can’t count as essential travel, because of that British tour operators have two flights one going out on Friday and another one on Saturday both those flights will still be going, but they will be flying out empty,” he said. “They won’t be taking any more customers out to Kenya. The reason they are being sent is they were due to return people to the UK. There is another charter flight which should go out on Monday at the moment that’s still scheduled to go because the advice to Kenya is changing very rapidly, but if the Foreign Office is still advising against all but essential travel, that flight will also be cancelled.”

Another umbrella body, the Federation of Tour Operators also announced the suspension of holiday trips to Kenya with departures due up to Saturday January 5th.

In a statement it said the situation is being reviewed daily and any changes to departures planned after 5 January will be made over the coming days.

Media reports say there are about 6,000 British citizens currently travelling in Kenya.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Japan’s nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, yesterday said the revealed leaking of an estimated 300 metric tons of radioactive water at the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was a “serious incident”, level three on the seven-part international scale.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), who run the plant, announced the leak last week and the new accident’s level-three rating was made after consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority notes this estimate may be overstated as it relies on the leaking tank being full before the leak began.

There is no gauge to measure water quantities inside the tank, used to store contaminated water after the initial accident. Water is being collected at a rate of 400 tons per day, and an unknown quantity of radioactive groundwater is flowing into the sea.

Industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi has already announced increased governmental supervision of TEPCO’s leak mitigation after two other leaks this year. Motegi said TEPCO’s antileak methods were like “whack-a-mole”. Nuclear Regulation Authority disaster taskforce leader Shinji Kinjo has said TEPCO fails to document inspections and is poor at monitoring the tanks on the site. TEPCO staff had said water levels in the tank had remained constant.

Shunichi Tanaka, head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said “We have no idea whether it’s actually 300 tons that leaked. We need to look into this issue more.” TEPCO initially said the leak was small when it was found in July and the watchdog gave it a level one “anomaly” rating at the time. Inspectors now say radiation below this tank stands at 100 millisieverts per hour, and another at the facility has a level of 70 millisieverts per hour.

“One hundred millisieverts per hour is equivalent to the limit for accumulated exposure over five years for nuclear workers; so it can be said that we found a radiation level strong enough to give someone a five-year dose of radiation within one hour,” said TEPCO boss Masayuki Ono last week. TEPCO shares dropped yesterday by 2.6% to 497 yen.