Thursday, July 3, 2008

69-year-old grandfather John Walsh stands accused of murdering three victims in the small New South Wales town of Cowra. All victims were killed in different ways.

Media organisations have reported that the 69-year-old man killed his five year old grand daughter by drowning; her seven year old brother was killed by a blunt force trauma to the back of the head, and his wife was killed by multiple axe wounds to her body – including her head.

New South Wales Police could not confirm the post-mortem examination, saying that the results of the post-mortem examination are not expected to be finalised for a couple of days and may not be immediately made public.

The 69-year-old man, who went before Deniliquin Local Court on July 1, 2008, was refused bail and charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He is currently in a special holding cell on 24-hour watch at the Junee Correctional Centre. A further appearance is due in Wagga Wagga Local Court via an audio-visual link on July 7, 2008.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

On Wednesday the online instant messaging service Telegram announced IFTTT (If This Then That) integration in its client. This feature allows the users to connect their Telegram account to other social networks and web applications. This change came as a part of the 3.15 release. The project team has announced these changes on the official Telegram blog.

IFTTT facilities allow users to connect to multiple services from one platform. The bidirectional facility of IFTTT means a user can opt-in for receiving notifications from the connected applications in Telegram and for updating them using commands from Telegram.

To get started, users needed to query a relay called “IFTTT bot”. According to Telegram, the IFTTT bot provides over 360 services and can also be invited into group chats to facilitate collaboration. Applets need to be enabled to start the IFTTT services. Some of the applets supported are Gmail, Dropbox, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive and Pinterest.

Telegram claimed to be the first messaging application to be fully integrated with IFTTT.

In the new release, Telegram also introduced an option to “pin” the chats. The “pinning” feature allowed a user to pin chats to the top of the chat list, including up to five chats and up to five secret chats, by long press on the chat in Android and left swipe in iOS.

Other introduced features included a new photo high precision crop and rotate tool — the rotate accuracy reached a tenth of a degree — and a new video player for YouTube and Vimeo videos, allowing the users to watch these videos natively from the application. The “picture-in-picture” option in the new player allowed to watch a video and chat at the same time by dragging the playing video around the screen while chatting. The video playing in picture-in-picture mode doesn’t stop playing even when user opens other application.

These last two features — crop and rotate, picture in picture — were made available only in Android. Telegram said they plan to release new updates before the year end.

Previously, Telegram had introduced Telegraph, a publishing medium; and an “instant view” feature which loads articles from Medium and TechCrunch instantly.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

According to officials, Somali pirates have seized a luxury boat named the Ocean Explorer off the coast of the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Seven Seychellois crew members are believed to be on board. The boat is thought to be headed for Somalia.

Patrick Pillay, the Foreign Affairs Minister, said that the Seychelles government had contacted local naval forces who had pledged to “track down the boat.”

“The Indian Ocean Explorer has been seized by pirates about 600 miles west of the capital. What I’ve been told is they believe this has been taken to the Somali coast,” said Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, the British High Commissioner the Seychelles.

“As far as we know there were no foreign nationals on board. The vast majority of tourists come to the inner island resorts but a small number are more intrepid and visit the outer islands. I believe this yacht was used for visiting Aldabra,” she said.

This is not the first time Somali pirates have frequented the area: the Seychelles police chief stated that pirates held hostage three Seychellois sailors after their catamaran was hijacked in February.

Somali pirates, usually looking for a ransom, attacked over 130 merchant ships in the area in 2008. The International Maritime Bureau reports that number of attacks has increased by over 200% since 2007.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Wikinews recently spoke with Mark Busse, president of the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, to find out what his organization’s views are of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi.

While the products at HBC stores of the mascots have been flying off the shelves, many have bashed the designs for having “too much” of a Japanese influence. As of 2001, 1.5% of Vancouverites were Japanese heritage, and 29.9% were of Chinese descent. Vancouver’s Chinatown is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America, and Japan has had diplomatic relations with the city since 1930.

This is the first time the Olympic and Paralympic mascots have been unveiled at the same time.

Busse is also a partner and the design director at Industrial Brand Creative, a design firm in the province. He is co-chair of Graphex ’08, a design exhibition at the Emily Carr Institute, which “showcases the best cultural, social and business communications in Canada.”

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Akio Toyoda, the President and Representative Director of Toyota, made a statement on Wednesday that the company is leaving the Formula One championship before the 2010 season. The primary factor behind this decision was said to be the current economic environment in the midterm perspective.

Panasonic Toyota Racing did not manage to ever win a Formula One race, winning only 13 podium and 278.5 points since 2002. Toyota will still be present in a number of racing series, including Formula Nippon, Formula Three, Super GT and NASCAR.

Another major Japanese automotive giant, Honda, quit Formula One prior to this season and sold the team to Ross Brawn. The renewed team Brawn GP with Mercedes-Benz engined cars won the 2009 Constructors’ Championship recently.

Other Japanese companies Subaru and Suzuki withdrew from the World Rally Championship prior to this season and Kawasaki pulled out of MotoGP.

The space cleared by Toyota may be now used by the BMW Sauber team’s possible successor if BMW can reach an agreement to sell the team after their decision to quit Formula One earlier this year. Toyota drivers of this season Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, as well as the Japanese rookie driver Kamui Kobayashi, could now look for seats in other teams for 2010 including the new entries US F1, Campos, Manor or Lotus.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Following the Pilkhana massacre which occurred February 25 and 26 leaving 74 dead and the inferno at the Bashundhara City shopping mall complex March 13 leaving seven dead, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said security measures are being tightened countrywide across Bangladesh.

Fire drills will be enacted at all key-point installations (KPI). Fire fighting systems will be examined by the fire brigade and the public works department (PWD) to ensure functionality. Security measures will be enhanced supplementing areas under private security such as at the Bashundhara City Complex.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence Department requires modernization and needs new equipment to fight fires past the sixth floor of buildings. The Fire Brigade says it needs turntable ladders, snorkels, foam-tenders, lighting units, emergency tenders, fireproof uniforms, and rescue ropes for fire fighting and rescue operations. Transportation to fires is also an issue due to narrow roads, low electrical wires and congestion.

The Bangladesh National Building Code requires fire fighting equipment installed in buildings over seven floors. This code is to be monitored by authorities to ensure compliance with the new guidelines and to make sure buildings are being maintained.

The Bashundhara City Complex opened Monday for shoppers two days after Friday’s blaze. A probe is underway to determine the cause of the fire and to assess structural damage.

Loss of life was minimized as the blaze broke out on a Friday, the beginning of the weekend in Bangladesh, so offices in the upper floors were empty. The lower eight floors are used for shopping and the upper floors are all Bashundhara Group offices.

The mall is valued at Tk 7.0 billion (US$100 million). It is not known if the complex is covered by fire insurance.

It is estimated that it will take over two years to rebuild the area damaged by flames which were burned down to a skeleton. Bashundhara City’s technical advisor, Latifur Rahman, estimated damages at Tk 2.0 billion (US$29m).

Only one television cameraman has been allowed in to film the burnt area. None of the 2,500 shops, cinemas or cafes were burnt by the inferno. The seventh and eighth floors still experience smoke damage, and there was water damage to merchandise.

A three member committee is currently investigating the cause of the fire which will consist of Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, joint secretary of the ministry, representatives of the police, IGP Noor Muhammad, and fire brigade, Director General Abu Nayeem Md Shahidullah. The committee is required to report within the week with their findings. The forensics department is also sifting through the burnt remains.

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries has also formed a committee which has begun interviewing witnesses and recording their testimony alongside the government committee.

It has been discovered that 150 closed circuit cameras were not being used when the fire started. Another mystery is why the mall fire fighting system has been found unused.

“In the shopping mall there is an ultra-technology elevator which runs even without electricity but we have found that locked,” Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, joint secretary (Police) of the home ministry, said. “Why the fire burnt so fiercely is a matter to think. We have to see if there was any incendiary substance there. These matters seem to be mysterious.”

Mall management has been asked to submit substances and items which would have been in the upper floors when the fire started. The fire erupted on the 17th floor and spread quickly to the two floors above and engulfed the three floors below. The aerial ladders belonging to the Fire Service and Civil Defence reached as high as the 13th floor of the 21-storey building.

Videos have been sent to the United States (US) for examination to assist in determining the cause of the fire and to help in the damage assessment. Experts from the US are expected to arrive soon.

Firefighters were brought to the rooftop of the 20-storey tower by helicopter. The only fatality in this operation was Baki Billa, a firefighter of Bashundhara City firefighting department, who fell when climbing down a rope from a helicopter to the roof of the building. Three other firefighters made the transition safely. At this same time, the chief security officer was safely rescued by the Bangladesh Air Force helicopter, a Bell 212. Six security officers of the complex also lost their lives.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Top broker and Wall Street adviser Bernard L. Madoff, aged 70, was arrested and charged by the FBI on Thursday with a single count of securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud. He allegedly told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that his $50 billion business “is all just one big lie” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme (since at least 2005).” Mr. Madoff faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $5 million. FBI agent Theodore Cacioppi said Mr. Madoff’s investment advisory business had “deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in investors’ losses of approximately $50 billion dollars.”

The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is also the founder and primary owner of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. The firm is one of the top market maker firms on Wall Street. He founded his family firm with an initial investment of $5,000, after attending Hofstra University Law School. He saved the money earned from a job lifeguarding at Rockaway Beach in Queens and a part time job installing underground sprinkler systems.

A force in Wall Street trading for nearly 50 years, he has been active in the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a self-regulatory organization for the U.S. securities industry. His firm was one of the five most active firms in the development of the NASDAQ, having been known for “paying for order flow,” in other word paying a broker to execute a customer’s order through Madoff. He argued that the payment to the broker did not alter the price that the customer received. He ran the investment advisory as a secretive business, however.

Dan Horwitz, counsel of Mr. Madoff, in an interview, said that “he is a longstanding leader in the financial-services industry with an unblemished record; he is a person of integrity; he intends to fight to get through this unfortunate event.” Mr. Madoff was released on his own recognizance on the same day of his arrest, after his 2 sons turned him in, and posting $10 million bail secured by his Manhattan apartment. Without entering any plea, the Court set the preliminary hearing for January 12.

Madoff’s hedge fund scheme may rank among the biggest fraud in history. When former energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets. The scheme would dwarf past Ponzis, and it would further be nearly five times the telecommunication company WorldCom fraud and bankruptcy proceedings in 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate civil suit on Thursday against Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and its eponymous founder Mr. Madoff. It was docketed as “U.S. v. Madoff,” 08-MAG-02735, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). SEC, New York associate director of enforcement, Andrew M. Calamari, asked the judge to issue seizure orders on the firm and its assets, and appoint a receiver. The SEC pleads, among others, that “it was an ongoing $50 billion swindle; our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions.” It further accused the defendant of “paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors” for years. Madoff’s hedge fund business had previously claimed to have served between 11 and 25 clients and had $17.1 billion in assets under management. But virtually all of the assets were missing.

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Louis L. Stanton on Thursday appointed Lee Richards, a Manhattan lawyer, as the firm’s receiver. A hearing is set for Friday, for a ruling on the SEC’s petition to grant plenary powers to the receiver over the entire firm, and an absolute asset sequestration.

Doug Kass, president of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management said that “this is a major blow to confidence that is already shattered — anyone on the fence will probably try to take their money out.”

Friday, December 8, 2017

Today, a federal judge heard the first of several lawsuits filed against the U.S. government over the Bear’s Ears National Monument.

Yesterday, the Utah Dine Bikeyah, a Navajo nonprofit, posted the fourth and latest of several lawsuits against the Trump Administration over plans announced Monday that would split the Bears Ears National Monument into several smaller parcels and greatly reduce its overall size. The Conservation Lands Foundation, Archaeology Southwest, Friends of Cedar Mesa, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Access Fund, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are all co-plaintiffs in the suit.

“President Trump has literally dismembered our sacred Bars Ears monument that five Tribes have worked tirelessly for many years to protect in order to preserve our culture and way of life,” reads a statement by Mary Benally of Utah Dine Bikeyah.

On Monday, shortly after the announcement, representatives of the five Native American tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition, the Hopi, Pueblo of Zuni, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe announced plans to sue the administration of sitting United States President Donald Trump over the shrinking of protections on a Utah monument area that is home to Native American ruins and artifacts. Ten environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, National Resources Defense Council, and Wilderness Society are also filing lawsuits regarding another monument area, also in Utah. President Trump publicly announced his plans to redesignate both sites on Monday.

In a visit to Utah on Monday, President Trump announced plans to break up the Bears Ears National Monument into three smaller areas similarly reduce the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The coalition claims that the Antiquities Act of 1906 forbids the president from doing this. “The President was plainly aware that he lacked the authority to revoke a monument and is thus transparently attempting to evade that strict limitation by purporting to reduce it but, as described herein, the President’s action must be viewed as a revocation, particularly with respect to all objects not included in the two ‘new’ monuments,” the official filing argues.

In his announcement, President Trump said, “The families and communities of Utah know and love this land the best, and you know the best how to take care of your land. You know how to protect it. And you know best how to conserve this land for many, many generations to come,” and called the original designation government overreach.

According to documents acquired by The Washington Post, a uranium consortium called Energy Fuels Resources had engaged a professional lobbying firm to convince the Trump Administration to reduce the size of the monument so that it could access the uranium deposits inside. Uranium is the raw material used as fuel in nuclear power plants, and the only uranium mill in the United States is just outside Bears Ears. Secretary of the Interior Zinke says this was not a factor, however: “This is not about energy,” he said on Tuesday. “There is no mine within Bears Ears.”

Navajo Nation President Russel Bageye called the decision “an open invitation for mining companies to come in and start mining uranium and other minerals in the area.” Many uranium mines have been opened on or near Navajo land. Most were never cleaned properly and the land and water remain heavily contaminated.

There is some legal precedent for a president shrinking a national monument—Woodrow Wilson shrank the Mount Olympus National Monument during the early 20th century, but no court cases ever rejected or endorsed the decision.

Although the specifics were not confirmed until Monday, the fact that the administration had plans to reduce protections on Bears Ears and Escalante in some way has been public knowledge, and the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition had already been planning to sue. In a statement issued Thursday, Nov. 30, President of the Navajo Nation Russel Beyaye said, “At the very least, President Trump should have consulted with the original local governments of the Bears Ears region: our five Indian Nations. Instead, our many requests for consultation were ignored. An action to diminish the Bears Ears National Monument in any way will be an action against the Navajo Nation and the Navajo people who have worked so tirelessly to protect these lands.”

“The tribes view this as an affront to themselves and their own self determination,” said attorney for the Native American Rights Fund Natalie Landreth earlier this month in the Salt Lake Tribune. “All of us, all five tribes will be suing jointly the day he makes an announcement.”

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were declared protected areas by then-Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and both are home to artifacts and archeological sites. Bears Ears had a problem with looters before President Obama declared it a national monument. The changes will split the monuments up into many smaller parcels and reduce the overall protected area by more than a million acres collectively. According to some White House documents, protected status will be “confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects identified” as in need of protection.

The Antiquities Act gives the sitting U.S. President the authority to set aside spaces already within federal territory that he feels are in danger without requiring approval from Congress, for example, by prohibiting industrial development and motor vehicle access. Over the past century, legal scholars and a U.S. attorney general have claimed that the Act does not permit a sitting president to reverse a previous president’s decision.

Several Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, support the president’s decision: “I believe his proclamation, following Secretary [of the Interior] Zinke’s fair, thorough, and inclusive review, will represent a balanced solution and a win for everyone on all sides of this issue.”

Other groups, including the clothing retailer Patagonia have also announced plans to sue. Patagonia, which sells outdoor clothing and equipment, argues that by reducing the size of areas where customers would use the company’s products, the government is denying Patagonia business. However, the Inter-tribal Coalition’s lawsuit was the first one filed.

“The tribes feel it was important to file first, to be ahead of the line, to make it very clear that this is not just a conservation issue,” said attorney Natalie Landreth of the Native American Rights Fund, which is representing the coalition. “To them, it is a tribal sovereignty issue.”

This comes days after President Trump was condemned by the National Congress of Native Americans for his use of the term “Pocahontas” during ceremony meant to honor Navajo Code Talkers, Native American men who developed and used a Navajo language-based military code for the U.S. military forces during World War II. “Pocahontas,” is President Trump’s nickname for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a reference to Warren’s claims that her family has Native American ancestry. The ceremony was held in front of a picture of former president Andrew Jackson, who presided over the Trail of Tears in the early 1800s, in which thousands of Cherokee perished in a forced migration west.

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Sunday, December 31, 2017

On New Years Day 2018, on the steps of New York City Hall, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, runner-up for the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination and potential 2020 presidential candidate, is to conduct the swearing-in of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, himself a potential 2020 presidential contender. In a statement, de Blasio, who was re-elected as Mayor this past November, claims to have invited Sanders due to the progressive icon’s Brooklyn, New York roots and advocacy on behalf of working people. Analysts say the invitation is a calculated political move on behalf of de Blasio to take advantage of Sanders’ popularity.

Sanders, 76, a self-identified Socialist, was born in Brooklyn before relocating to his current home of Vermont. After running for various public offices in the 1970s as a member of the anti-war Liberty Union Party, Sanders won election as Mayor of Burlington in 1981, serving three successive terms. In 1990, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as an Independent, serving for 16 years before winning election to the U.S. Senate, again as an Independent. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders garnered grassroots support, finishing second at the Democratic National Convention to Hillary Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, administered de Blasio’s oath for Mayor in 2014.

Sanders’ 2016 performance and ensuing popularity within the Democratic Party has led to speculation about his plans in 2020. According to Politico, Sanders is taking steps toward a 2020 run. Referencing Sanders’ advanced age, incumbent President Donald Trump, who has already announced plans to run for re-election in 2020, said he expects Sanders to run “even if he’s in a wheelchair.”

News outlets have also speculated about de Blasio’s 2020 prospects. Last week, de Blasio delivered a speech in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, prompting publications such as The Week and Newsweek to discuss whether the speech, delivered before about 200 progressive activists in Des Moines concerning the direction of the Democratic Party, was a way for de Blasio to test the waters for a potential run. De Blasio himself has denied he is running for President, though speculation persists.

Congressman John Delaney of Maryland is currently the only prominent Democrat officially running for President. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York are also expected to run.