nikeshoxsmart.com

Friday, February 2, 2007

The French government has banned the smoking of cigarettes in all public places.

The ban includes no smoking in hospitals, airports, schools, places of employment and any public area that is “closed or covered.” Eleven months from now, the ban will include restaurants and cafes.

Some members of France’s Parliament are surprised to see how quick the ban was enacted.

“Nobody, not even I, thought a year-and-a-half ago that France would abandon tobacco so fast,” said member of Parliament (MP) and an advocate of the prohibiting of smoking, Yves Bur.

Police and other law enforcement agents are required to fine anyone who violates the ban. Fines for smoking in banned areas could be as much as $88.00 [USD]. Employers who do not enforce the smoking ban could be fined at least $174.00 [USD].

At least 15 million people who live in France smoke cigarettes, but a poll conducted by the French government had shown that 76% of the country’s population was in favor of the ban. 74% of the population also backs the restaurant and cafe ban to take place in one year.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the termination of a natural gas contract between Egypt and Israel is a business matter and not a political issue between the two counties. Netanyahu’s statement on Monday backs away from other officials’ earlier responses to the action.

Egyptian Natural Gas Company announced Sunday, April 22 that it will stop supplying Israel with natural gas over a disagreement about payments. The company’s leader claims the other side is in “breach of contract” as Gasco has not been paid for what has already been delivered.

In 2005, Israel and Egypt, under former president Hosni Mubarak, signed a 15-year trade deal whereby Egypt would supply natual gas at a discounted rate to the Israelis. Tensions between the two countries have made Israel cautious about relying on Egypt for its energy. Since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the pipelines for transporting natural gas from Egypt to Israel have been damaged up to 14 times.

When this decision was broadcast on Sunday night in Egypt, commentators for Egyptian news services discussed whether this decision was a blatant contractual infringement, a necessary commercial move, or an attack on the original peace treaty between Egypt and Israel made at Camp David in 1978.

In Israel, Yuval Steinitz, the finance minister, said, “This is a dangerous precedent that diminishes the peace treaty [between the two countries].”

Avigdor Lieberman, foreign affairs minister, had called on Egypt to reverse the decision and prevent the contractual dispute from escalating into a political issue. Since Netanyahu’s more recent comment, Lieberman has also backed away from characterizing the issue as a political dispute.

Egypt’s natural gas exports once made up 40 percent of Israel’s natural gas reserves, but Israel has looked for other options as the political atmosphere in Egypt changed. Israel is developing its own offshore fields, and it has begun to import other types of “dirty fuels,” like gas and diesel. As a result, Israeli consumers have seen a nine percent increase in electricity costs and Israel is preparing for the possibility of blackouts.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Copenhagen, Denmark – The Danish Integration Minister Rikke Hvilshøj’s car was set ablaze outside her family-home on the morning of Wednesday 8 June. From there, the fire spread to the family’s garage, and further on to the side of the house, damaging the roof above the kitchen and children’s room.

At the same time, an e-mail was sent to several media agencies, where a group calling themselves “Action Group Beate” claimed responsibility, saying it is a “protest against the racist immigrational laws of Denmark”. The police found the computer used for sending the mail within a few hours, and closed down the cybercafé whilst removing the computer.

Throughout the Danish political system politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition have expressed their outrage over the terrorism.

The insurance company is currently assessing the amount of damage done to the home, but so far they have made an estimate of £27.000, just for the house damages.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Convicted cult leader and murderer Charles Manson has released his album One Mind under a free content license. The album was already released on April 7, 2005, but now it has become available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 2.0 License. This means that anyone can remix and share the album for non-commercial purposes, as long as they give proper credit and use the same license.

The website Family Jams (Manson’s record label), which offers hard-copies of the CD, says that “ONE MIND is pure Charlie, no additions, no corrections, no added opinions, filters or editing… consisting of songs, trance-poetry, conversations, raps, ramblings, musings and more.” The cover-art is a painting by Manson, liner notes include excerpts from his letters, and, as the sites mentions, song titles and interludes are by friends or editors.

The disc has 16 tracks, totalling almost 76 minutes of Manson’s work. The CD can be bought on the Family Jams site for $15.00 in the U.S. and Canada, and for $17.50 in other countries. Because of the new license, the tracks can be legally downloaded, and samples can be used for derived works.

Manson was part of the Los Angeles music scene before his conviction as leader of the Manson Family commune. He was close to Beach Boy Dennis Wilson —Manson wrote the song ‘Never Learn Not to Love‘ for the Beach Boys.

In 1970, Manson released the album Lie: The Love & Terror Cult to finance his trial. The Manson Family also released The Family Jams, with songs written by Manson. Manson has released several albums since.

Groups such as Nine Inch Nails have previously released some of their work under a free license.

In a related story, Lindsay Lohan will play Nancy Pitman in an upcoming movie called Manson Girls. Lohan has previously revealed that she was fascinated by Manson during her “dark period” before she sought help for drug and alcohol addiction in 2007: “Yeah, I have a dark side. I watched all those videos on Charles Manson for a while.” Lohan also stars in the movie Chapter 27 about John Lennon‘s assassination.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, is currently threatening parts of New England and eastern Canada.

Bill weakened somewhat on Friday, although it remains a formidable Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. As of 11 p.m. AST August 21 (0300 UTC August 22), Hurricane Bill was located within 10 nautical miles of 31.0°N 67.5°W, or about 545 mi (880 km) east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Maximum sustained winds were near 90 knots (105 mph, 165 km/h), with stronger gusts. Forecasters estimate the storm’s minimum barometric pressure to be around 957 millibars.

The storm is currently moving towards the north-northwest at about 20 mph. This path should lead to an eventual turn towards the north and later northeast, bringing the storm between Bermuda and the east coast of the United States on Saturday.

Though the brunt of the storm should remain offshore, residents in New England are monitoring Bill’s progress. The National Weather Service expects seas to turn dangerous this weekend, with some waves potentially reaching 35 feet (11 meters) in height offshore. According to Steve Kass of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, “If you own a boat and you like to go out any distance, this is not the weekend to do it”.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick advised pleasure boaters and swimmers to avoid waters around Cape Cod: “Boaters should not, I repeat not, stay on their boats to ride out this storm. Swimmers should stay out of the water throughout this weekend. There will be life-threatening rip currents along the entire coast”. Beaches were being closed in some areas, including on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Patrick said emergency workers were moving supplies to certain shelters, just in case conditions worsen. On its predicted path, Bill will likely disrupt the Obama family‘s vacation to Martha’s Vineyard.

While the U.S. will most likely be spared from significant damage, the Canadian Maritimes might not be so lucky. Peter Bowyer, a program supervisor of the Canadian Hurricane Centre said “it will definitely be a hurricane when it reaches our Maritime waters Sunday. At this point, it is still not possible to give all the specifics everyone wants.” The eastern shore of Nova Scotia and southeastern portions of Newfoundland appear to be at greatest risk.

Oil companies have been vacating workers from offshore platforms within the Sable Offshore Energy Project in advance of Hurricane Bill.

Friday, December 15, 2006

The Ontario Court of Appeal yesterday has reaffirmed Ontario’s right to negotiate with Six Nations protesters on the disputed Douglas Creek Estates, a housing development, which was bought by the province, in Caledonia, Ontario.

The decision says that the attorney general and the OPP will decide if new proceedings will be launched against the protesters. The court decision also allows the protesters to continue occuping the land. It said Six Nations protesters are no longer occupying the land illegally because the Ontario government now owns the land and will let protesters continue, and that talks with both levels of government have “restored a measure of peace to the community.”

“Ontario is content to permit the peaceful occupation of its property,” the decision reads. “It has the right to do so. As a property owner it has the right to use its own land as it sees fit.”

Caledonia Mayor Marie Trainer said the decision shows that aboriginals are above the law. Mayor Trainer also said that she hoped the court of appeal would upheld a lower court order to halt negotiations with the province and federal government until protesters cleared the disputed land.

“It shows two rules of law — you and I couldn’t stay there illegally but they [the aboriginals] apparently can. That’s what’s irritating for everyone,” Trainer said. “It’s frustrating, especially when it’s illegal.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he was glad that the court reaffirmed the province’s right to continue talks with protesters. He also added that the dispute is a federal issue.

“We are now waiting for the federal government to bring a substantive proposal to the table that would involve a number of aspects related to this land claim, including the use of this specific parcel,” McGuinty said.

The Caledonia land dispute has been going on since February 28 and still has not been resolved. The native protesters occupied the Douglas Creek Estates, southwest of Hamilton, saying that the property belongs to them.

Featured articles are selected by the community to represent the best of Wikinews. See the Featured Article Candidates page for nominations and discussions of candidate articles for this page. Or, subscribe to the RSS feed!

[edit]