Saturday, October 11, 2008

George W. Bush, the President of the United States, has attempted to reassure Americans on the economy in his weekly radio address.

“Over the past few days, we have witnessed a startling drop in the stock market — much of it driven by uncertainty and fear,” he said, introducing the address. “Many Americans have serious concerns about their economic well-being.”

Bush then pointed out the action that the government is taking. “Here are the problems we face and the steps we are taking: First, key markets are not functioning because there is a lack of liquidity. So the Federal Reserve has injected hundreds of billions of dollars into the system. The Fed has joined with central banks around the world to coordinate a cut in interest rates — a step that should help free up credit. The Fed has also announced a new program to provide support for a vital tool that many American businesses use to finance their day-to-day operations — the commercial paper market, which is freezing up. As this program kicks in over the next week or so, it will help revive a key source of short-term financing for businesses and financial institutions.”

“Second, some Americans are concerned about whether their money is safe,” continued the president. “So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration have significantly expanded the amount of money insured in savings accounts and checking accounts and certificates of deposit. That means that if you have up to $250,000 in one of these insured accounts, every penny of that money is safe. The Treasury Department has also acted to restore confidence in a key element of America’s financial system by offering government insurance for money market mutual funds.”

Bush then said that there was an issue with fraud in the economy. He stated that, to address this issue, “the Securities and Exchange Commission is launching rigorous enforcement actions to detect fraud and manipulation in the market.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday fell to its lowest level in five years at 8,579.19, falling 679 points in one day. This, at 7.3%, is the eleventh largest percentage fall in the history of the index. The growth then continued, with the index being up over 150 points on the start of the day at one point.

The index, did however, recover, and as of 19:30 UTC was up 17.68 points, or 0.21%, pushing the index up to almost 8600.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

New York Police Department spokesperson Paul Browne said that New York City’s Triborough Bridge was shut down after a U-Haul truck with Arizona state license plates was found abandoned.

The truck reportedly smelled of gasoline according to the toll booth operator. Officials reported that the police department’s bomb squad investigated the vehicle. There was no report of a bomb, says Reuters.

Police say witnesses reported seeing a man fleeing from the vehicle on Wednesday night.

This comes just days after the bomb scare in Times Square.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Catherine Mullany, a newly married British woman, and her husband, Ben Mullany, have been shot while on honeymoon in Antigua. Catherine died on the scene, while Ben is in a critical condition in Hospital.

The families of the Mullanys have described themselves as “deeply shocked and devastated.”

The incident occurred at 05:00 Antigua time (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday, and it is being treated by police as a robbery. A police spokesperson described the incident. “Shortly after 5am this morning officers from the Bolans Police station responding to a call, arrived at Cocos Hotel and Restaurant in the Valley Church area, the scene of a murder.” UK police have been asked to help in the inquiry.

Catherine Mullany was a doctor, who, before her death, planned to become a GP. Ben was a physiotherapy student at the University of the West of England (UWE), which is located in Bristol, England. Mary Price, the Media Relations and Internal Communications Manager for UWE, gave Wikinews the following statement:

Monday, June 14, 2021

Arthur Oliver Kostendt, a candidate running in the mayoral election of the US city of Cleveland, Ohio set to take place November 2, discussed his campaign and policies with Wikinews this spring.

According to Cleveland Scene, 29-year-old Kostendt is a member of the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Republican Party but has referred to his campaign as “casual”. According to his web site’s personal biography, he was a cadet for the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), scout platoon leader for the 2nd Squadron of the 107th Cavalry Regiment of the Ohio Army National Guard and logistics officer for the 1st Battalion of the 145th Armored Regiment. He served in Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and assisted coalition force detachments in Southeast Asia.

Kostendt is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and summa cum laude graduate of Cleveland State University. He writes he uses an apostrophe to abbreviate his middle name as “Arthur O’Kostendt” instead of the customary period after the O to emphasise his Irish heritage.

A poll published May 5 by Baldwin Wallace University, which does not feature Mr Kostendt, has Dennis Kucinich and Basheer Jones leading in the mayoral race by 17.8 and 13.3 points, respectively, with a margin of error of up to five per cent either way. 48% of those surveyed were undecided. Incumbent mayor Frank G. Jackson, who won the 2017 Cleveland mayoral election with 59% of the vote, is eligible for a fifth term but announced on May 6 he would retire.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.

Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..

Saturday, January 29, 2022

On Monday, the James Webb Space Telescope entered its destination orbit around the L₂ Lagrange point, about 1,500,000 kilometers (932,057 mi) from Earth, on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun.

A thruster maneuver closed the spacecraft’s month-long journey that began in late December, following years of delays and several cost overruns. For its expected five- to ten-year service life, it is to study the most distant, and therefore the earliest galaxies formed after the Big Bang.

During its journey, dubbed “30 days of terror” by Sky & Telescope, the telescope successfully unfurled its 21-foot (6.4 meter) wide mirror, deployed its sunshield and cooled down to below 50 degrees Kelvin as it traveled to the L₂ Lagrange point.

L₂ is a secure location for spacecraft where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Earth is balanced. Full scientific operations are slated to begin later this year and will involve 13 teams of scientists. The primary mission is to find the most distant and earliest galaxies formed after the Big Bang to help study the origins of the Universe. The nominal mission time is five years, with a goal of ten. The location of its orbit is very different to its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits much closer to Earth. James Webb’s instruments will face away from the Sun, giving a greater clarity to the images it will obtain compared to Hubble.

An Ariane 5 launch vehicle carried the telescope up on December 25 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, after arriving in October. The launch date was delayed by a week due to unfavorable weather.

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began project development in 1996, planning for a launch in 2007 at a cost of USD550 million. After NASA contracted Northrop Grumman to build the telescope, mission managers estimated a 2010 launch would cost between one and 3.5 billion USD. Redesigns to reduce technical requirements pushed launch plans to 2013 for an estimated cost of USD4.5 billion. The US Congress ordered a project review in 2010 which delayed the launch again to 2015.

For an estimated cost of USD6.5 billion, the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies proposed canceling the telescope altogether in 2011. After a plan was made for a 2018 launch at a cost of USD8.8 billion, technical errors found in the telescope and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the launch date to 2021.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

A hijacked Air Mauritania Boeing 737 passenger plane has landed on Spain’s Canary Islands after making a fuel stop in Western Sahara, officials in Mauritania said today. It was hijacked after the takeoff from the Nouakchott airport.

While on the plane, the man demanded it to be flown to France to seek asylum.

The 71 passengers and eight person crew were let out when the hijacker landed the plane in Las Palmas. Several people were wounded by a gun and the suspect was arrested.

Reports say that it is unconfirmed as to what the man’s motive was. Mauritanian police are still investigating.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A 16-year-old girl was shot dead from distance in Zürich, Switzerland on Friday night. The victim was waiting with her companion at a bus stop in Zürich at 10 p.m. CET, next to the Hönggerberg campus of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a technical university. The shooter, a conscript in the Swiss Armed Forces, used his army-issued assault rifle to shoot the victim at a distance of 60-100 metres. With a gunshot wound in her upper body, the girl died in the arms of her companion before the medical help could arrive.

“Yes, it was me who was shooting,” confirmed the 21-years-old Swiss recruit of Chilean ancestry, who had just finished his training at recruit school on the same day. He did not know his victim, who was a 16-year-old hairdresser apprentice. The state attorney assumes that the shooter has picked his victim randomly. The motive of the crime is not known at the moment.

There is an ongoing domestic debate whether soldiers should continue to keep their firearms at home. According to a study by Martin Killias, a criminologist at the School of Forensic Sciences and Criminology in Lausanne, army-issued firearms are responsible for 300 deaths annually in Switzerland and two-thirds of suicides-by-firearm are committed with army-issued firearms.