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Robin Cook, the former British foreign secretary and current Member of Parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing during a walk on Ben Stack hill in Scotland. Cook, aged 59, was airlifted to a hospital 90 minutes after the collapse. He was reported dead five minutes later.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Documents found at the hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi revealed al-Qaeda‘s desire to force a war between the U.S. and Iran. The document was translated by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, but the authenticity of the information could not be confirmed to be from al-Qaeda.

The documents reveal that al-Zarqawi was planning to destroy the relationship between the Shi’ite Iraqis and the United States. The document also said the U.S. military was hurting the insurgency by seizure of weapons, disrupting their financial outlets, massive arrests, and training Iraqi security forces.

The translated document said, “Generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the U.S. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups.”

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said, “These documents have given us the edge over al-Qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organization and the whereabouts of their meetings.”

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Sun Microsystems has released StarOffice 8 today. StarOffice 8 is a commercial office suite that includes word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database applications.

According to Sun, StarOffice 8 “provides excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office”. This new version improves Word, Excel and PowerPoint import and export filters, improving support for password-protected Word and Excel files and presentations with complex animations, autoshapes and slide transitions. StarOffice 8 also includes a Microsoft Office macro converter allowing many Microsoft Office macros to work in StarOffice.

StarOffice 8 is also the first commercial office suite to support the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument). OpenDocument is an XML based file format created by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. Massachusetts has recently announced the plan to switch to OpenDocument format. Microsoft has said it will not support the OpenDocument format.

StarOffice 8 is based on the open source OpenOffice.org project. OpenOffice.org was founded July 2000, by Sun with the release of StarOffice code under two open source licenses.

StarOffice 8 is available as a download from Sun’s Web site for $69.95, or packaged product can be ordered for $99.95. Enterprise customers can purchase StarOffice 8 for $35 (£20) per user. OpenOffice.org is available for free from openoffice.org.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Two days of ministerial talks have ended without agreement and evidence of a possible deadlock between developing and developed countries.

148 member countries are trying to reach a consensus on how to proceed with the Doha round of talks which are scheduled to be agreed in 2006. However, they are now behind the deadlines they set and the Geneva meeting saw no progress.

Richer countries are being accused of demanding too many concessions in return for opening up trade and reducing subsidies while they say that the poorer countries are holding them to ransom by blocking progress.

Friday, May 26, 2006

After approximately 150 Australian troops from 4 Royal Australian Regiment (Commandos) secured Comoro airport in Dili yesterday, the total number of Australian troops in East Timor has risen to 600, with a further 1200 in transit or directly supporting Operation Astute. Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal have also begun their deployments. Malaysia has now sent 25 military officers ahead of its 500 strong commitment of military and police personnel; New Zealand has committed two C-130s, and an infantry company is on standby pending negotiations over rules of engagement; Portugal’s 120-strong commitment has commenced preparations, but is not expected to arrive for a matter of weeks. The Australian contingent involved in Operation Astute has been placed under the command of Brigadier Michael Slater, who arrived in Dili this morning.

Currently, the Australian Department of Defence states Operation Astute’s tasks are:

1. to facilitate the evacuation of Australian and other foreign nationals as is appropriate and necessary;
2. to stabilise the situation and facilitate the concentration of the various conflicting groups into safe and secure locations;
3. to audit and account for the location of weapons that belong to each group; and
4. to create a secure environment for the conduct of a successful dialogue to resolve the current crisis.

Australian forces are already actively operating in Dili; Infantry patrols are operating in the area, supported by the four Blackhawks from the 5th Aviation Regiment that have arrived so far. Blackhawks have also been operating missions above the hills around Dili to seek out rebel positions and communicate a strong presence to the rebel soldiers. Two Armoured Personnel Carriers and an infantry platoon have set up position in and around the UN Headquarters and Dili police station, which came under attack earlier today, and was the location of considerable violence yesterday when East Timorese army soldiers killed 12 East Timorese police and wounded numerous others, including 2 UN personnel. “At the moment things are relatively stable, the troops are arriving and we are establishing good control throughout the Dili area” BRIG Slater said of the situation.

Yesterday 80 Australian nationals were evacuated by RAAF C-130, a number that is rising as flights in and out of East Timor have been unhampered since the securing of Comoro airport. Approximately 800 Australian nationals were in East Timor at the beginning of conflict.

Events involving East Timor’s government are complicating the situation. Reports state that Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is reluctant to allow foreign troops to independently operate in the country and arguing with President Xanana Gusmao over who should control the small nation’s still loyal military of 800 troops. After President Gusmao declared he had taken over command of the military and ordered all East Timorese military personnel to barracks, Alkatiri stated that he believed the President does not have a constitutional right to take control of the military, as that depends on a ‘situation of emergency’ being declared, which is itself dependent on the parliament.

According to Mark Thompson, a military budgeting specialist from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Operation Astute would cost a similar amount to Australia’s earlier peacekeeping operation in East Timor – approximately $200 million.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Nine people have died in bush-fires in the region of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The fire has spread over 40,000 hectares of scrub, bushland and farmland so far and is still burning out of control. Hundreds of firemen have been fighting the fire, but conditions have been difficult because of strong winds and temperatures soaring well over 40 degrees Celsius. Of the nine who have died, eight were attempting to escape the advancing fire in their cars. Four children were among the dead. Locals of some rural towns fled to the ocean to escape the fires. Thousands of sheep and cattle have also been killed in the fires.

Separate fires have also been burning around Mount Osmond and Cleland National Park in the Adelaide hills. No fatalities have been recorded in this region. Fires also burn in country Victoria.

Bush-fires are annual occurrences in Australia, but these fires have been the worst in terms of deaths since the Ash Wednesday fires that killed 28 people in South Australia. Two years ago, over 400 houses were burnt down in a bush fire in the Australian capital city, Canberra.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Buffalo, New York —A massive warehouse complex of at least 5 buildings caught on fire in Buffalo, New York on 111 Tonawanda Street, sending a plume of thick, jet black colored smoke into the air that could be seen as far away as 40 miles.

As of 6:40 a.m., the fire was under control, and firefighters were attempting to stop it from spreading, but could not get to the center of the fire because of severe amounts of debris. Later in the morning, the fire was extinguished.

“The fire is mostly under debris at this point. It’s under control, but it’s under some debris. We really can’t get to it. We’re just going to have to keep on pouring water on it so it doesn’t spread,” said Thomas Ashe, the fire chief for the North Buffalo based fire division who also added that at one point, at least 125 firefighters were on the scene battling the blaze. One suffered minor injures and was able to take himself to the hospital to seek medical attention.

Shortly after 8:00 p.m. as many as 3 explosions rocked the warehouse sending large mushroom clouds of thick black smoke into the air. After the third explosion, heat could be felt more than 100 feet away. The fire started in the front, one story building then quickly spread to three others, but fire fighters managed to stop the flames from spreading onto the 3 story building all the way at the back.

According to a Buffalo Police officer, who wished not to be named, the fire began at about 7:00 p.m. [Eastern time], starting as a one alarm fire. By 8:00 p.m., three fire companies were on the scene battling the blaze. Police also say that a smaller fire was reported in the same building on Saturday night, which caused little damage.

At the start of the fire, traffic was backed up nearly 4 miles on the 198 expressway going west toward the 190 Interstate and police had to shut down the Tonawanda street exit because the road is too close to the fire.

At one point, traffic on the 198 was moving so slow, at least a dozen people were seen getting out of their cars and walking down the expressway to watch the fire. That prompted as many as 10 police cars to be dispatched to the scene to force individuals back into their cars and close off one of the 2 lanes on the westbound side.

One woman, who wished not to be named as she is close to the owner of the warehouse, said the building is filled with “classic cars, forklifts, and money” and that owner “does not have insurance” coverage on the property. The building is not considered abandoned, but firefighters said that it is vacant.

Officials in Fort Erie, Ontario were also swamped with calls to fire departments when the wind blew the smoke over the Niagra River and into Canada.

It is not known what caused the fire, but a car is suspected to have caught on fire and there are reports from police and hazmat crews, that there were also large barrels of diesel fuel being stored in one building. Firefighters say the cause of the blaze is being treated as “suspicious.” The ATF is investigating the fire and will bring dogs in to search the debris.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

A trustee of the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs filed a lawsuit against the US publisher of the Harry Potter series, Scholastic Inc, on Tuesday. He claimed that J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, had copied scenes from Jacob’s novel, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, to the fourth novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The suit followed a similar case last year, in which the trustee sued the UK publisher of the series, Bloomsbury Publishing plc. Both of these cases are currently pending.

The complaint stated that in both books, the protagonists “are required to deduce the exact nature of the central task in the competition”, and had done so in a bathroom. Both books also involved “rescuing hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal creatures.” The suit also claimed that Christopher Little, a literary agent of Rowling, was originally the literary agent of Jacobs. The claim was denied by Scholastic.

Scholastic called the claim “completely without merit”. They pointed out that Rowling had said in February that she had never read Jacobs’ book. The trustee said that the US was the world’s largest foreign market, so they brought their first overseas action there. He demanded that all copies of the Harry Potter novel be destroyed, and all the profit made by the book given to him.