Author: Admin

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Approximately 9,000 Romanian miners will be made redundant in 2006, slightly more than the 7,000 which are expected to be laid off this year. This comes as part of a government program for 2005-2008 which seeks to maximise efficiency in Romania’s mining industry, as well as reduce the number of mines and quarries in the country, while progressively bringing down the number of workers in this industry. As agreed with the European Union as part of accession negotiations, Romania must cease to provide major state aid to mining companies after 2007, when the country will become a member of the EU. Until then, it must gradually reduce subsidies to state-owned mining companies, in order to comply with European Union competition law.

Romania’s mining industry currently employs 47,000 people, quite significantly less than the 175,000 it employed in 1997, before restructuring took place. A major reform in the industry took place between 1997-2000. This time around, from 2004 onwards, restructuring is expected to be more gradual. Out of the workers who have been laid off from 1997 onwards, around 100,000 have accepted voluntary redundancy, while 8,000 have retired and 12,000 have found other jobs in the private sector. By 2010, the government expects that more than 340 mining units will be closed throughout the country.

Friday, July 15, 2011

On Tuesday, the Euro fell to a new record low in relation to the Swiss Franc, and to multi-month lows against the U.S. Dollar and Japanese yen; all considered by investors to be safe currencies during times of economic turmoil.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that recent comments from the newly installed head of the International Monetary Fund, France’s Christine Lagarde, resulted in a sell-off of the Euro. At a roundtable discussion in Washington, Lagarde noted that the IMF had not yet reached discussion of terms and conditions of a second Greek bailout plan. In fact, a representative from the IMF is currently meeting with Eurozone policymakers to draft such a new proposal. The yield differential between Italian bonds and German bonds has spread to more than 300 basis points, something not seen in over a decade and evidence of investors’ concern.

Adding to the Euro’s woes is the upcoming release of the bank stress tests on Friday. The European Bankers Association said that they expect the data release to shed new light on the Eurozone’s banking situation. Representatives of several of the Eurozone’s governments, including Germany, have requested that the association consider releasing fewer specific details for fear that investor panic will ensue. The inadequacy of the capitalization rates has been an issue with the European Central Bank, whose president recently called upon Eurozone banks to make every effort to put their balance sheets in order.

For the time being at least, an unsubstantiated rumor reported by the Wall Street Journal states that the Eurozone’s central banks’ purchase of periphery debt has helped to quell the downward momentum of the Euro.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

In Centerton, Indiana a man is alive thanks to his 2 dogs.

Bill Burns was taking his nightly stroll with his dogs, Butch and Dusty, when he had a severe diabetic attack in a cornfield.

His dogs immediately reacted.

Morgan County sheriff’s Deputy, Steve Hoffman, was on a rural road just finishing with a traffic stop, when he noticed a light shining from a cornfield. “I noticed what appeared to be an illumination or a light that was flickering and facing my direction,” Hoffman said. When he got out of his car and walked to where he saw the light, he found Butch was holding a flashlight like he would a bone, in his mouth. Meanwhile, Dusty had stretched himself across Mr. Burns to try and keep him warm.

Hoffman said he then noticed that Mr. Burns was wearing a diabetic medical bracelet and immediately took him to the hospital.

Burns says that he does not remember the ordeal, but thinks that Hoffman even seeing the light is remarkable enough for him.

“It’s got to be just fate or faith, one or the other,” Burns said.

The dogs “definitely are the heroes in the story,” said Hoffman.

Burns was in the hospital nearly 4 days before he had been released.

“Had he not had the dogs with him that evening, I think the outcome would have been a lot worse,” Hoffman said.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Do you own a cat? Do you ever wonder what it’s up to when you are not around? Well German-American Jürgen Perthold, an inventor, has created the “cat cam.”

“I wanted to find out what he gets up to, where he spends his days. He goes out the whole day, sometimes he returns hungry sometimes not, sometimes with traces of fights, sometimes he also stays out all night. It gave me the idea to equip the cat with a camera,” said Perthold.

The camera, which is operated by batteries and weighs 70 grams (including the batteries), is hooked onto the cat’s collar and records their journeys. Operating for a maximum of two days, the camera takes a picture every minute. Perthold used his cat as a test subject and discovered his cat was visiting the neighbor’s female cat on a regular basis. Perthold even wrote his own program to operate and control the camera.

The product currently ships worldwide from the United States for about US$30.00 plus shipping charges.

Sunday, December 5, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO —Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster and a founder of Snocap, Inc., on Friday revealed his plans for a legal peer-to-peer file-sharing platform. Snocap has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group to make the company’s entire catalogue available through the new service. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to Snocap’s press release, the platform will include a copyright management interface, which will allow content owners to control the distribution of their intellectual property among users. The service’s main competitor would be Apple‘s iTunes Music Store, which is currently the most widely used legal source of downloadable music.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

• Braves 7, Nationals 1: Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz lost a no-hitter after seven innings, giving up a single to Ronnie Belliard in the first at-bat of the eighth inning; after allowing the hit, Smoltz left the game to cheers from the home crowd. Belliard later scored, so Smoltz (13-7) finished with one hit and one earned run for the win. Joel Hanrahan (4-3) pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs (four earned) for the loss. The Nationals committed five errors in the game, three of them by third-baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who also went 0-4, striking out all four times he batted. In the ninth inning of the game, a fan ran onto the field; he was immediately tackled by security officers, but one officer was injured after he landed on his head in the scuffle, and the game was halted while the officer was carted off the field for treatment. The Braves (72-69) are 7.5 games back of the Mets in the NL East, and 4.5 games back of the Padres in the NL Wild Card race.

• White Sox 11, Twins 10, 13 inn: In a wild game that saw the Twins score six runs in the 9th inning to break a 4-4 tie, only to allow six runs to the White Sox in the bottom half of the inning, A.J. Pierzynski finally won the game in the 13th inning with a bases-loaded walkoff single. Heath Phillips (1-1) got the win, giving up one hit in the 13th. Juan Rincon (3-3) pitched 1 1/3 inning, allowing the winning run for the loss.

• Red Sox 4, Orioles 0: Jon Lester (4-0) gave up four hits in seven scoreless innings for the win. The Red Sox (86-56) lead the Yankees in the AL East by 6.5 games.

• Yankees 3, Royals 2: Bobby Abreu knocked in the winning run in the 7th on an RBI double. The Yankees (79-62) lead the AL Wild Card race by 3 games over the Tigers.

• Angels 3, Indians 2, 10 inn: Ryan Garko tied the game at 2-2 for the Indians in the 9th inning, but Kendry Morales hit a walkoff single to score Chone Figgins in the bottom of the 10th. The Angels (84-57) lead the AL West by 9 games over the Mariners, while the Indians (81-60) lead the AL Central by 5 games over the Tigers.

• Tigers 6, Mariners 1: Curtis Granderson went 2-4, hitting his 20th homer of the year and becoming only the 6th player in MLB history to hit 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 home runs in the same season. The Tigers (76-65) trail the Indians in the AL Central by 5 games, and trail the Yankees in the AL Wild Card by 3 games.

• Mets 11, Astros 3: Carlos Beltran hit the game-winning solo homer and an RBI single in the game. The Mets (79-61) lead the NL East by 6 games.

• Marlins 6, Phillies 3: Miguel Olivo hit a solo homer and an RBI double, and scored two runs in the game; all three of the Phillies’ runs came off a Pat Burrell three-run homer in the 4th. The Phillies trail the Mets by 6 games in the NL East, and trail the Padres by 3 games in the NL Wild Card.

• Pirates 6, Cubs 1: Jack Wilson finished a triple shy of the cycle, hitting a two-run homer and an RBI double to help the Pirates to a victory. The Cubs (71-69) are tied with the Brewers in the NL Central.

• Reds 11, Brewers 4: A six-run first inning sealed the game for the Reds, led by Ken Griffey Jr., who hit his 30th homer of the year, a two-run shot in the 2nd, and drove in a run off a 1st inning single. The Brewers (71-69) are tied with the Cubs in the NL Central.

• Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 2: Eric Byrnes drove in the tying run off an RBI double, and scored the winning run off a fielder’s choice in the 6th inning. The Diamondbacks (79-63) lead the NL West by 2 games, while the Cardinals (69-69) trail the Cubs and Brewers by 1 game in the NL Central.

• Rockies 10, Padres 4: The Padres lost their third straight game; Rockies starting pitcher Elmer Dessens left due to injury in the third inning. The Padres (76-64) trail the Diamondbacks by 2 games in the NL West, but lead the NL Wild Card by 2.5 games.

• Rangers 5, Athletics 3: Rangers leadoff batter Frank Catalanotto went 3-4 with a solo homer, an RBI triple, and an RBI infield single.

• Giants 5, Dodgers 4: After the Giants lost a one-run lead on a James Loney solo homer in the top of the 9th, the Giants’ Dan Ortmeier answered back with a walk-off homer to win the game.

• Blue Jays 7, Devil Rays 2: Matt Stairs hit RBI singles to right field in the 5th and 6th innings; in the 5th inning, John McDonald and Vernon Wells scored; in the 6th inning, McDonald scored, but Wells was thrown out at home.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

200,000 litres of oil leaked into waters off the coast of Brisbane from the Pacific Adventurer when their fuel tanks were damaged in rough seas on Wednesday. The figure is about ten times higher than the original estimate of twenty thousand litres of oil. The devastating diesel oil spill has spread along 60 kilometres (37 miles) of the Queensland coast. In addition, 31 containers with 620 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser flew overboard during the violent storm.

Questions are being asked why the Hong Kong cargo ship was out in seas with nine meter waves caused by Cyclone Hamish, a Category 5 tropical cyclone, as well as why the fertiliser containers were not properly secured. One of the overboard containers ruptured the hull of the Pacific Adventurer, causing between 30 to 100 tonnes of oil to spew from the severely damaged ship.

If the ammonium nitrate mixes with the heavy oil, an explosion could occur. None of the containers have been recovered. Some of these may float, but it is believed that they may have sunk which then may cause algal blooms.

Disaster zones have been declared at Bribie and Moreton Islands, and along the Sunshine coast.

The vessel’s owner, Swire Shipping, reported that a second leak began on Friday, when the ship began listing after docking at Hamilton for repairs. “As full soundings of the vessel’s tanks were being taken at the port to determine how much oil had leaked from the vessel, a small quantity of fuel oil escaped from the Pacific Adventurer,” it stated. The ship was brought upright, and a recovery vessel was used to suck up the oil from the water. The leak produced a 500m-long oil slick down the Brisbane River. Booms were placed around this oil spill so that a skimmer could clean up the second spill.

Swire Shipping could face clean up costs of AU$100,000 a day as well as fines up to AU$1.5million (US$977,000; £703,000) if found guilty of environmental breaches or negligence.

Sunshine Coast beaches are slowly starting to be reopened. The beach of Mooloolaba was still closed following reports of burning sensations from swimmers. 12 beaches remain closed; however, 13 have been reopened.

Over 300 state government and council workers are using buckets, rakes and spades in the clean up effort. Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbott says the majority will be gone by Sunday afternoon. The full environmental impact on wildlife is not yet known. One turtle and seven pelicans have been found covered in oil.

There are concerns that the drinking water of Moreton Island is at risk, as the island uses water from the underground water table near the oil spill site.

“Every bucketload of contaminated sand has to be removed from the island by barge, and each bucketload from a front-end loader weighs about one tonne. It’s just an impossible task,” said Mr Trevor Hassard of the Tangalooma Dolphin Education Centre.

The commercial fishing industry has suffered from the incident. Trawlers won’t resume operations until Sunday evening, and any catches will be tested for human consumption.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Rescuers are searching for the victims of the Tans Peru airliner crash which occurred earlier this month. Emergency services rescued 5 survivors on Thursday morning.

TANS say that 41 people were killed and a further 57 injured in this, the fifth airliner crash worldwide this month. The Boeing 737-200 airliner crash-landed in heavy jungle near the city of Pucallpa, 840 kilometers (522 miles) northeast of Lima, the capital city.

Peruvian authorities have ordered an investigation and have shipped the aircraft’s two flight data recorders, or “black boxes” to the United States for data retrieval.

Jorge Belevan said “We’ve also found five more survivors and that takes the number (of survivors) to 57. Two people are still missing and there are 41 dead,” Local authorities also said that the death toll is likely to rise due to inaccessible location of the crash site. This is the second TANS Peru plane crash in three years, following the January 2003 crash of flight 222 in the Peruvian rainforest. In that plane crash there were no survivors.

Peruvian government lawyer Marco Ochoa said that rescuers are opening the skin of the aircraft to determine whether there are more bodies trapped inside.

Survivors said that the plane was caught in a fierce storm about 10 minutes before the crash. The plane then caught fire and landed in swampland.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Wikinews interviewed one of the owners of a New York City bar about a popular new politically-themed cocktail drink called Santorum. The beverage was inspired by the santorum neologism coined in advice columnist Dan Savage’s column Savage Love in response to comments made by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum about homosexuality; Savage’s readers voted to define santorum as: “the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”