Monday, May 14, 2007

The DaimlerChrysler Corporation has announced that the corporation is divesting itself of the Chrysler Group by selling it to New York City-based private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for US$7.4 billion. The companies’ names are announced to be changed to Daimler AG and Chrysler Holding LLC. DaimlerChrysler has sold 80.1% of its stake in Chrysler, retaining the other 19.9%, for joint ventures and other agreements and partnerships.

Cerberus has agreed to take on billions of dollars in pension and retiree health care costs at Chrysler. Cerberus also led a consortium that acquired the majority stake in April of last year in GMAC, the financing arm of GM, and is said to planning to invest in auto parts giant Delphi.

Buzz Hargrove, the president of Canadian Auto Workers said he had been assured that the collective bargaining agreement with Chrysler would remain and that jobs would not be eliminated.

The name change of the German company DaimlerChrysler to Daimler AG is pending shareholder approval at the next meeting, scheduled for fall 2007.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

A road accident followed by a fire on a Florida highway near Gainesville on Thursday killed five children in a church bus and two truck drivers. One semi truck and a car broke through the center guardrail before colliding with other vehicles; around 50 gallons of diesel fuel, officials said, spilled and ignited.

The children were all from Marksville, Louisiana. The Avoyelles House of Mercy, a Pentecostal church, had been travelling 700 miles from Louisiana to Walt Disney World and was within an hour of its destination. One truck driver was from West Palm Beach, Florida, the other from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The deceased were aged nine, ten, thirteen, two aged fourteen, 49, and 59. At least eight more people were hospitalized.

The accident sequence began, Florida Highway Patrol described, in the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 close to Alachua when the initial collision between the car and truck occurred. After crossing the center divider, the out-of-control vehicles collided with the church bus and a second semi truck in the southbound lanes. The bus overturned, with occupants ejected; a southbound fifth vehicle was unable to prevent itself running through the debris. Reports indicate this vehicle may have struck victims lying on the roadway.

According to eyewitness Vinnie DeVita, “within probably 15 to 20 seconds of it all, it exploded. I mean, just a ball of flames.” DeVita narrowly avoided being caught up in the accident. The Alachua Sheriff’s Office tweeted the response “required all hands on deck.” Authorities stated the road was damaged by the fire’s ferocity. Emergency workers have indicated a homicide probe is ongoing.

Another eyewitness, Nicole Towarek, described extensive tire marks and “insane” heat. Florida Department of Transportation official Troy Roberts said yesterday morning the road itself, which is straight in the vicinity, will be examined as part of investigations. He said “Guardrails can only take so much.” The guardrail would be examined, Roberts said, to determine if it had performed as designed. The state had lanes closed last night as it worked to repair the damaged surface.

Also investigating is the Florida Highway Patrol, which is attempting to ascertain who, if anyone, is to blame. Meanwhile the National Transportation Safety Board, commonly involved in major highway accident probes, was absent. It is presently unable to operate due to a shutdown of much of the Federal government in a budget dispute; however, its website notes that its operations center is still accepting accident notifications without specifying if this resource is operating 24/7 as it usually does.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

During a raid by cattle rustlers in northern Kenya, as many as 55 Kenyans were killed, twenty of them children.

Up to 400 members of the Borana tribe living across the border in Ethiopia attacked the nomadic Gabra people aiming to steal their livestock. The societies are not monetarized – cattle is the main form of wealth.

The two groups have been fighting over water and pastures for years in the semi-arid land. Cross-border raids for livestock are very common in the area, but it is said that this is one of the most deadly and severe attacks in Kenya’s history. The attack may be in retaliation for an earlier raid on the Borana, in which six people were killed.

Whole families were killed in this most recent attack. Okille Hukha survived when he ran into a bush, but his wife and four children were murdered. Darare Bathachas’ son, wife and grandson were also killed, but she survived by going under a bed.

A woman watched as her four children were killed, and her husband beheaded. A grandmother spoke of how she hid under a table while her forty year old son, his wife and their nursery school age son were killed.

Ten Borana were later killed in a revenge attack.

Kenyan police are pursuing the attackers, moving on foot in the rugged terrain but supported by three helicopters. Thousands of sheep and goats as well as cattle, camels and donkeys have been recovered.

The Kenyan Red Cross Society have sent a helicopter carrying medics and supplies to aid the injured in the local hospital.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

A reporter from Wikinews recently interviewed Jim Babka, chair of Libertarian organization Downsize DC. The organization claims to have arranged for 22,158 people to send a message regarding the “American Freedom Agenda Act” proposed by Ron Paul, in addition to supporting many other laws. The full text of the interview can be found below.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A Scottish woman who set out before Christmas to purchase a turkey finally made it home on Monday, after being cut off by snow for a month. Kay Ure left the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage on Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of Great Britain, in December. She was heading to Inverness on a shopping trip.

However on her return journey heavy snow and ice prevented her husband, John, from travelling the last 11 miles to pick her up. She was forced to wait a month in a friend’s caravan, before the weather improved and the couple could finally be reunited.

They were separated not just for Christmas and New Year, but also for Mr Ure’s 58th birthday. With no fresh supplies, he was reduced to celebrating with a tin of baked beans. He also ran out of coal, and had to feed the couple’s six springer spaniels on emergency army rations.

“It’s the first time we’ve been separated”, said Mr Ure in December. “We’ve been snowed in here for three weeks before, so we are well used to it and it’s quite nice to get a bit of peace and quiet.”

Friday, January 26, 2018

Fire broke out on Friday morning and destroyed the bottom two floors of a six-story hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing at least 37 people, most of them elderly. More than a hundred injuries were reported, with eighteen people in critical condition. This is the highest death toll from fire in South Korea in almost a decade.

The fire is believed to have started at about 7:30 local time, according to fire chief Choi Man-woo. It originated on the ground floor in the emergency room as per various officials. The hospital has 98 beds and a medical staff of about 35, and specializes in long-term care of elderly patients. It adjoins a nursing home, all of whose 94 residents were evacuated. Staff carried some patients out of the hospital on their backs.

One patient, Jang Yeong-jae, who told his story to JoongAng Ilbo, said he escaped by removing a screen from a window to get to a ladder placed by firefighters. He described people “running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms”. The majority of the victims died from smoke inhalation and are believed to be elderly, said the head of the city’s public hospital, Chun Jae-kyung. A doctor, a nurse, and a nursing assistant have died, according to the fire service; it took three hours to put out the fire.

In a press briefing, Seok Gyeong-sik, the director of the hospital, apologized to patients and their families. Son Kyung-chul, its chairman, stated that there were no sprinklers because the facility was small. Sprinklers are being installed in the nursing home, where a new law requires them by June 30.

Last month, 29 people died in a fire in a gym in Jecheon; the owner and the manager were arrested for safety violations. In 2014, a blaze in a nursing home in Jangseong left 21 dead. The President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, responded to the Friday fire by calling an emergency meeting of his staff, and promised that the cause would be found rapidly “to prevent the recurrence of the fire in the future”.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

A 54-year-old German farmer who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago has become the first patient to receive a complete double arm transplant. The patient, whose name has not been released, underwent the operation at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, part of the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München), last week; he is said to be recovering well.

The operation lasted 15 hours and was performed by a team of 40 specialists in Plastic Surgery, Hand Surgery, Orthopedics and Anesthesiology, under the direction of the head of the Plastics and Hand Surgery department, Prof. Hans-Günther Machens, Dr. Christoph Höhnke (Head of Transplants, Senior Physician; Plastics and Hand Surgery) and Prof. Edgar Biemer, the former Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Clinic.

In a press statement released by the clinic, it was revealed that the patient had been thoroughly physically checked and had psychological counselling prior to the surgery to ensure he was mentally stable enough to cope with the procedure. Since completion of the surgery, the patient has been on immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the new limbs.

Following the surgery, the press release from the clinic’s press manager, Dr. Tanja Schmidhofer, included the following statement:

Without the immuno-suppressant drugs given to the patient, the risk of there being a Graft-versus-Host Reaction or GvHR, would have been significant due to the upper arm containing a large amount of bone marrow, consisting of ICC’s or Immuno-Competent Cells, which would have triggered a near total rejection of the new limbs. A GvHR is a condition which results in the cells from the transplant attacking the immune system of the body.

Indications from the clinic suggest that the double attachment went well, although it could be up to 2 full years before the patient is able to move the arms.

The donor arms came from an unnamed teenager, who is believed to have died in a car accident.

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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Former US Representative Dan Rostenkowski died of lung cancer Wednesday at his vacation home in Genoa City, Wisconsin. Rostenkowski, whose political career ended in the early 1990s after he was convicted on fraud charges, was 82.

Rostenkowski’s death was confirmed by his spokesperson, Jim Jaffe, who said that the former congressman had been receiving treatment for lung cancer for a while. Rostenkowski had previously been treated for prostate cancer in the 1990s.

Rostenkowski was born on January 2, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. He was an athlete and declined an invitation to try out for the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics) in order to pursue a career in politics. Rostenkowski attended St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Wisconsin, served with the US Army in Korea, and graduated from Loyola University in 1951.

Rostenkowski’s political career was supported by the Cook County political machine, and he became a member of the Illinois state legislature in 1952, one year after graduating from college. In 1958, when he was 30, Rostenkowski was elected to the US House of Representatives. In 1961, he began serving on the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, the chief committee of the House for writing taxes. From 1981–1994, he served as the committee’s chairman. Rostenkowski was involved in the creation of Medicare in 1966 and he helped make amendments to the Social Security system in 1983.

In 1992, a federal jury began an inquiry into the House post office, and Rostenkowski was accused of buying US$22,000 in stamps with government funds and then turning them into cash. The investigation, which lasted two years, led to Republican allegations of corruption within the Democratic party. In 1994, Rostenkowski was charged with 17 felony counts, including the use of federal money to purchase furniture, and obstruction of justice. In order to avoid a trial, Rostenkowski made a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to two counts of mail fraud in exchange for fifteen months in prison, two months in a halfway house, and a US$100,000 fine.

Rostenkowski, who was not reelected for a nineteenth term in Congress in 1994, continued to maintain his innocence, and was pardoned by US President Bill Clinton in 2000.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Local caterers get ready for big business, as almost three thousand fans converge on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center over the Independence Day weekend for the world’s largest ever furry convention, Anthrocon 2007.

Many hope to renew acquaintances, or meet new friends. Others look to buy from dealers and artists, or show off new artwork or costumes. Some attend to make money, or even learn a thing or two. But one thing unites them: They’re all there to have fun.