- UncategorizedVladivostok fire witnesses dispute official death toll of nine, claim at least 50
Monday, January 23, 2006 At 11:45am on January 16, in Vladivostok, Russia, a fire broke out on the three upper floors of the Sberbank building. Photographs taken by eye-witnesses show people, who were trapped, dropping from 8th floor windows to their deaths. According to some reports the firemen who were dispatched to the scene were pre-occupied at the rear of the building. They had apparently been ordered to evacuate the bank and its management from the area, which was not under immediate threat. Official Russian media initially denied the fire, accusing the reports of being false. Russian media later confirmed 7 and then, 9 dead. Witnesses and those rescued from…
- UncategorizedCanadian government settles lawsuit over children ‘scooped’ out of indigenous communities
Saturday, October 7, 2017 The Canadian federal government of Justin Trudeau yesterday responded to a group of lawsuits by agreeing to pay C$750 million to the survivors of the “Sixties Scoop” program, in which 20,000 First Nations children were removed from their parents’ households and placed with non-indigenous foster or adoptive parents. The plaintiffs claimed that this caused them mental and emotional problems, in addition to the loss of their ancestral culture. Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister, announced the agreement. “I have great hope that because we’ve reached this plateau, this will never, ever happen in Canada again,” Marcia Brown Martel, now Chief of the Beaverhouse First Nation, said…
- UncategorizedAustralia’s New South Wales Fire Brigades in crisis over bullying
Sunday, June 13, 2010 The New South Wales Fire Brigades (NSWFB) in Australia has come under scrutiny as a report highlights the latest in a string of sexual abuse and harassment cases. The report also describes the humilation of new recruits in “bizarre” initiation rituals. The independent investigation led by KPMG, a Swiss audit, taxation and advisory firm, found that less that 9% of those who claimed to have suffered from such abuse were said to be satisfied by the action taken by the NSWFB. The investigation states that “there are still instances of bullying and harassment … and they are not being adequately addressed…Some degree of physical bullying and…
- UncategorizedAdam Folkard and Nick Norton ready for more men’s softball
Monday, March 19, 2012Hawker, Canberra — Coming off a national championship win for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) men’s open team in mid-February, Australia men’s national softball team representatives Nick Norton and Adam Folkard are getting ready for more softball later this year, including the Australian club championships to be held in Brisbane in June. Folkard and Norton have both won the World Championships and have each won a total of ten national championships with the ACT side. They are both named to the current men’s national team, which has roughly thirty players, and believe they are likely to survive the December cut down to eighteen players who will represent…
- UncategorizedFour killed, dozens injured in southern Thailand bombings
Monday, May 28, 2007 Four people were killed and about two dozen injured in a bombing at a crowded market in Saba Yoi, Songkhla Province, Thailand. The day before, a series of bombings in Songkhla’s main city Hat Yai injured 13 people. Police are investigating those attacks, which occurred at around 9 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Sunday, when seven coordinated explosions went off at stores, hotels and restaurants in a city that is popular with tourists. In Monday’s bombing, the dead were two women and two girls, ages 4 and 8. The bomb, which exploded shortly after 4 p.m. local time (0900 GMT), was hidden in a motorcycle parked in…
- UncategorizedAndrea Muizelaar on fashion, anorexia, and life after ‘Top Model’
Monday, November 26, 2007 In the 18 months since Andrea Muizelaar was crowned winner of the reality TV series Canada’s Next Top Model, her life has been a complete whirlwind. From working in a dollar store in her hometown of Whitby, Ontario, to modeling haute couture in Toronto, she had reached her dream of becoming a true Top Model. But at what cost? Unknown to casual television viewers, Muizelaar had been enveloped in the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which inevitably became too much for her to bear. She gave up modeling and moved back to Whitby, where she sought treatment for her disorder, re-entered college, and now works at a…
- UncategorizedFrench fishermen blockade Channel ports
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 French fishing vessels have blockaded the English Channel ports of Calais, Bolougne, and Dunkirk. Not a boat will go in nor out The protest is an industrial action over tighter fishing quotas imposed by the European Union, with French fishing unions asking for their government to provide financial assistance or take a tougher line. CFTC Fishermans Union spokesman Bruno Dachicourt told Agence France Presse: “There are easily twenty boats blocking the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in organized ranks. Not a boat will go in nor out.” The fishermen are protesting the lowering of European Union quotas on fishing, which place a ceiling on the amount of fish…
- UncategorizedLarge creature loose in London suburb
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Police organized a search in the Sydenham Park area of south-east London after a local, Anthony Holder, was attacked by a 6ft long black animal while looking for his kitten in his back yard that borders a woodland. Holder said the animal pounced, knocked him to the ground, and then he was “in its claws for about 30 seconds. Its teeth were out and I tried to defend myself and eventually I got the thing off my body.” Holder was scratched all over his body and suffered swelling and bruising to his hand and the back of his head. He called the police at about 2:15…
- UncategorizedStanford physicists print smallest-ever letters ‘SU’ at subatomic level of 1.5 nanometres tall
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 A new historic physics record has been set by scientists for exceedingly small writing, opening a new door to computing‘s future. Stanford University physicists have claimed to have written the letters “SU” at sub-atomic size. Graduate students Christopher Moon, Laila Mattos, Brian Foster and Gabriel Zeltzer, under the direction of assistant professor of physics Hari Manoharan, have produced the world’s smallest lettering, which is approximately 1.5 nanometres tall, using a molecular projector, called Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) to push individual carbon monoxide molecules on a copper or silver sheet surface, based on interference of electron energy states. A nanometre (Greek: ?????, nanos, dwarf; ?????, metr?, count)…
- UncategorizedFour Romanian ambassadors recalled
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Romanian President Traian B?sescu signed an order yesterday recalling Romania’s ambassadors to three European Union countries – Austria, Lithuania and Greece, as well as Croatia. The Romanian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, is also accredited to represent Romania’s interests in Latvia. All five of the recalled ambassadors were appointed by the previous administration, under President Ion Illiescu. The recall is part of an ongoing process of replacing Romanian ambassadors abroad, with the present government planning to recall nearly all diplomats appointed by the previous administration. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai R?zvan Ungureanu, said that the recall was not based on political criteria, or as a way…