Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Methane gas was blamed for the explosion deaths of 8 miners in southern Polish‘s Halemba coal mine Tuesday, November 21. Officials say at least 15 are missing. Rescue efforts were halted because dangerously high levels of methane gas returned, according to Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for state-owned Coal Co., which operates the mine. The missing miners’ locater devices were not emitting signals, increasing rescurers’ concerns for their well-being. Grzegorz Pawlaszek, head of Coal Co., said the 15 missing miners’ fate is “not known,” but added that “there is a chance to find someone still alive.” “This is a tragedy. People have died here,” Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw…

Sunday, August 22, 2010 Scottish poet Edwin Morgan has died at the age of 90. The cause of death was announced as pneumonia. Morgan’s writing career spanned for more than 60 years. He was Scotland’s first national poet, known as the “Scots Makar”. His death was confirmed by his publisher. Born in Glasgow in 1920, Morgan grew up in Rutherglen. He later returned to his birth town where he studied at Glasgow University in 1937. Morgan published his first book, The Vision of Cathkin Braes, in 1952. He later began to write experimental poetry. In the early 1960s, Morgan published The Second Life, a book that would boost his career.…

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 “What bothers me is watching an officer write someone a summons and then commit the exact same violation with their official vehicle. A civilian known as ‘Jimmy Justice’ who resides in New York City (NYC), New York, the largest city in the United States, has been videotaping NYC police officers and city workers, breaking the law while on the job. Since 2007, he claims to have caught “hundreds of officers and other city employees violating the law,” and says he has them all on camera. He has posted his best confrontations with them to the video sharing website YouTube. As a result, Justice states that he…

Thursday, April 7, 2011 Late last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed objections to the United States Government’s ‘secret’ attempts to obtain Twitter account information relating to WikiLeaks. The ACLU and EFF cite First and Fourth amendment issues as overriding reasons to overturn government attempts to keep their investigation secret; and, that with Birgitta Jonsdottir being an Icelandic Parliamentarian, the issue has serious international implications. The case, titled “In the Matter of the 2703(d) Order Relating to Twitter Accounts: Wikileaks, Rop_G, IOERROR; and BirgittaJ“, has been in the EFF’s sights since late last year when they became aware of the US government’s attempts…

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 As many as 45 people have been killed and six others were injured after at least four gunmen with grenades stormed a wedding reception in the village of Bilge located in Turkey. Many of those killed were women and children. The attack is not believed to be related to terrorism. “According to our investigations so far nothing indicates that this is a terror attack but a larger investigation is being run by the regional prosecutor,” said the interior minister of Turkey, Besir Atalay. The attack is believed to be part of an ongoing blood feud between two families. Al Jazeera says the attack may also be…

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Monday, November 21, 2011 Myanmar political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi will run for a seat in parliament in upcoming by-elections, National League for Democracy (NLD) senior official Nyan Win announced today. The NLD decided Friday to participate in the by-elections, but Suu Kyi did not say directly then that she would run. The by-elections include 48 seats in Parliament, all of which the NLD intends to contest. Dates for the elections have not yet been set. Suu Kyi was released from house arrest last year. She had stated she would only accept an unconditional release, not a release on conditions. On Friday, in advocating participation in the upcoming by-elections,…

Thursday, October 1, 2009 Rhode Island will receive US$90 million in funding from the United States federal government to support unemployment benefits in the state. Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training stated on Wednesday that it requested the line of credit because the account utilized to provide funding to unemployed individuals in the state had decreased to only $2 million; enough to last only a few days. Unemployment insurance customers will not experience any delays in receiving their weekly payments. In a statement released by the Department, the agency said: “Unemployment insurance customers will not experience any delays in receiving their weekly payments.” Unemployment in Rhode Island was 12.8…