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Friday, February 3, 2006

Federal judge, Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head, Christine Todd Whitman, immunity from a class-action lawsuit brought by people in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The suit seeks to hold Whitman personally liable for her actions as EPA administrator and the suit claims that thousands of people (including children) were “unnecessarily exposed” to airborne asbestos and other hazardous substances.

“Whitman’s deliberate and misleading statements made to the press, where she reassured the public that the air was safe to breathe around lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and that there would be no health risk presented to those returning to those areas, shock the conscience,” the judge said in her 83-page ruling. “Shock the conscience” is a legal standard that lawsuits must meet to hold U.S. government officials personally responsible for their actions.

“No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws,” Batts said. The statements by Whitman came two days after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City that brought down the twin World Trade Towers.

Batts noted that the EPA and Whitman repeatedly reassured residents that the air seemed safe to breathe. The EPA’s own internal watchdog discovered that the agency gave misleading assurances apparently at the urging of White House officials.

Bloomberg News states that calls to Whitman’s consulting firm and to the EPA weren’t immediately returned.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

The terrestrial analogue television broadcasts in Finland ended in September 1, 2007, at 04:00 local time, marking the transition to the digital DVB-T standard. DVB broadcasts were started in 2001, Users of terrestrial TV are no longer able to receive the formerly nationally available TV channels – YLE TV1, YLE TV2, MTV3, and Nelonen – without set-top boxes or TV sets with built-in digital receivers. SVT Europa is also no longer available in analogue networks.

Cable networks are permitted to make the analogue mode available until the end of February 2008.

While over 75% of households already use digital TV, as of mid-August, over 220 000 households that depend on terrestrial broadcasts have not yet purchased a set-top box. There are also areas where digital terrestrial broadcasts are not yet available. This is being remedied through relay transmitters that will be set up over the following months.

Friday, December 2, 2005

The body of former Manchester United player, George Best, has arrived in Northern Ireland. It was flown into RAF Aldergrove, on a chartered plane accompanied by his son, Calum, and his agent, Phil Hughes. Bests Family, including his father Dickie were waiting at the runway of RAF base in County Antrim.

Mr.Bests body was then driven in a black herse along a 20-mile route to the home of Best’s father, Dickie, in the Cregagh Estate in east Belfast, where it will be kept overnight.

Up to 500,000 people are expected to line the streets to Stormont, the Northern Ireland Parliament buildings, where a public funeral ceremony for the former Manchester United and Northern Ireland football player will be held tomorrow.

Mr Best died at the Cromwell Hospital in London last Friday afternoon, aged 59. A private family service will be held at Best’s Fathers home, which has been turned into a shrine to his son. Then a service will take place in the Great Hall at Stormont, before Best is buried in a private family service beside his mother Ann at Roselawn Cemetery. Among the people attending the private ceremony will be Best’s lifelong friend Denis Law, Harry Gregg and Derek Dougan.

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

British pop group Girls Aloud have won the 2005 Popjustice £20 Music Prize with their single “Wake Me Up”. The award, organised by music journalist Peter Robinson, is given annually to the best British pop single of the previous 12 months and is a tongue-in-cheek response to the Mercury Music Prize, the winner of which was announced earlier in the evening.

This year’s shortlist included Basement Jaxx, Robbie Williams and Charlotte Church.

This is the second time Girls Aloud have won the award – they won the inaugural prize in 2003 for “No Good Advice”.

Also announced was the winner of the £20 Invoice Prize for the worst British single of the previous 12 months. The winner, charity single Band Aid 20’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, was the UK’s Christmas number one in 2004.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Kristen Monster is running for the Family Coalition Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Willowdale riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.

Sunday, May 7, 2006

During a live press interview broadcast at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on the Seven and Nine Networks, veteran 60 Minutes news reporter Richard Carleton suffered a massive heart attack.

Other reporters witnessed Carleton going red in the face, walking a short distance then collapsing to the ground. A few minutes earlier Carleton asked Beaconsfield Mine Manager Matthew Gill about the safety of the mine.

Ambulance officers worked to revive Carleton for over 25 minutes, before he was rushed to hospital. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at Launceston hospital.

Carleton had a history of heart problems, which includes a heart attack in 2003 and a bypass operation in 1988. He was also diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 2005.