The time is 20:00 (UTC) on August 10th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.
Large increase in number of foreclosures across US
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Recently released figures have revealed that the number of foreclosures in California, United States has more than quadrupled. The figures for the first quarter of 2008 show a significant increase on previous figures.
There were 47,171 foreclosures on California properties in the first quarter of 2008. The figure for the same period last year was just over 10,000.
The Attorney General of Arizona released a report that showed an increase. It said that “the collective efforts of servicers and government officials to date have not translated into meaningful improvement in foreclosure prevention outcomes.” The Attorney General also commented on the report:
| We continue to see a rising number of foreclosures in Arizona, which is a significant drag on Arizona’s economy. This report confirms that efforts made by servicers to prevent unnecessary foreclosures are not enough. We need to explore additional approaches to prevent tens of thousands of unnecessary foreclosures in Arizona. |
US President Obama celebrates his first Martin Luther King Jr. Day while in office
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
On Sunday, at a Bapist church originally founded by freed slaves, US President Barack Obama addressed the congregation about the “Dream” of slain civil rights activist Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—whom Obama credits with paving the way for his 2008 election—and about the importance of hope and faith in his own life.
On Monday, Obama, with his family in tow, served hot lunches at a local Washington soup kitchen—one of several ways America’s first black president planned to pay tribute to the late Dr. King on the federal holiday that honors his legacy and lasting impact upon society.
Later at the White House, Obama will host a gathering consisting of small selected group of African-American seniors and their grandchildren where they will discuss the meaning of the civil rights movement and how it still effects them to this day. Following which, that evening, the Obamas are slated to attend the “Let Freedom Ring” concert at the Kennedy Center. A musical event that will feature gospel artists and choir members from various area churches among other houses of worship.
Another prominent American politician, governor-elect of New Jersey, Chris Christie held a banquet on Monday evening to honor the importance of Dr. King’s message as well. Other commemorations included a march in Seattle where participants rallied for issues in the African-American community.
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middlenotesBritney Spears is coming back again
Britney Spears was everywhere again wasn’t she? She was like a bad penny her face kept turning up in the media; her voice was on talk shows, videos and radio. She’s even had cameos in movies such as Austin Powers: Gold member. Good news! Britney Spears is coming back again and now even your nose can’t get away from her – there are three Britney Spears perfumes in circulation for you to run screaming into the night away from.
What if I am not a Britney Fan??
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTKDyShVO-s[/youtube]
There are 3 different flavored Britney Spears perfumes; Curious (released 2004), Fantasy (released 2005) and In Control, the newest to the stable. Britney Spears perfumes can be found in department stores and online specialty perfume stores and online department stores. You generally will find the best deals on the web – however you can’t try before you buy. Make sure they have return policies.
Britney Spears perfumes are made my Elizabeth Arden with complete teamwork of the star. In other words, Britney knows they are being sold in her name and is probably getting a big slice of the perfume pie. Britney Spears is just one in a long line of celebrities diving into the world of perfumes, swimming in the same pool as Elizabeth Taylor, Prince and fellow blonde Paris Hilton.
Curious
Curious is the oldest of the Britney Spears perfume, a characteristic perfume for the non-typical female. It is packaged in a classic blue or pink perfume bottle in sort of squashed diamond shape. It is suggested for special events or for trying to get a good estimate on your car repair down at Hank’s Garage. It is considered a youthful, fun, flowery and yet sexy fragrance.
Fantasy
Britney Spears second perfume family has an incredible marketing campaign. Going to the official website, there is gorgeous computer animation with lush, sensual colors and sparkles. It is amazing what this country spends on frivolities such as perfume. And even more amazing – someone got paid for thinking this campaign up! Perhaps making perfume look like Love Potion No.9 was someone’s Fantasy at Elizabeth Arden.
In Control
The last Britney Spears perfume family smells possibly more like Britney Spears current image as temptress and siren. Its base is white vanilla, but then includes a blend of creme brule , loquat fruit, midnight orchid, sugared sandalwood and musk. Elizabeth Arden does not test on animals?just customers.
see
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for more information on perfume
Article Source:
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Chinese activist severely beaten by “mob”
Monday, October 10, 2005
Guardian journalist Benjamin Joffe-Walt has claimed to have witnessed democracy activist Lu Banglie beaten “lifeless” by a mob on Saturday night. Joffe-Walt and Lu were in a taxi attempting to enter the villiage of Taishi, which the journalist described as “the hotspot of the growing rural uprisings in China”.
According to Mr Joffe-Walt, their car was surrounded by a group of about 30 men. When the men recognised Mr Lu, “… they completely lost it. They pulled him out and bashed him to the ground, kicked him, pulverised him, stomped on his head over and over again. The beating was loud, like the crack of a wooden board, and he was unconscious within 30 seconds. They continued for 10 minutes. The body of this skinny little man turned to putty between the kicking legs of the rancorous men.”
Mr Lu was later found to have survived but suffered serious injuries. Mr Lu has told the Guardian that he was battered unconscious and later driven hundreds of miles to his home town where he is now recuperating. Civil rights lawyers said they were considering a legal case against his attackers, thought to be a group of thugs hired by the local authorities to put down an anti-corruption campaign against the chief of Taishi village.
New Zealand man sentenced to life in prison for murder
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
James Junior Lawrie, 26-year-old, has been sentenced to life in prison at the Auckland High Court for a minimum of 16 years after he killed the Uptown Mini Mart owner 58-year-old Bhagubhai Vaghela on 19 June, 2005.
Vaghela was found dead at the scene by ambulance officers.
Lawrie had entered the store planning on stealing phone cards from the New North Road shop. Instead he shot Vaghela in the chest at point-blank range when he activated the alarm and Lawrie panicked.
Lawrie had pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him even though he could not remember most of the incident. The court was told today by the prosecutor Ross Burns that he had smoked one kilogram of methamphetamine (P) two months prior, which is worth NZ$1 million. The P had fuelled six previous aggravated robberies in the attempt to gain more money for his P habit. Lawrie has had 32 previous convictions of which nine were relating to violence.
Roger Chambers, Lawrie’s lawyer, said: “Lawrie’s late expression of remorse is genuine, in spite of a pre-sentencing report that said he had no recognition of the trauma he had caused to his victims. He pleaded guilty to some pretty horrendous crimes – and knew that any expression of remorse was likely to be laughed at. For Lawrie, prison is home.”
Burns said, “Mr Vaghela had come to New Zealand to enjoy a well-deserved and planned retirement. He was a kind, considerate and gentle man who put his family first.” His wife had now gone back to India where she has been ill, while the rest of the family struggle with the death. “His son had said: ‘This world is a far worse place without my father being here’,” the court was told by Burns.
Lawrie had shown no remorse, Burns said.
Pennsylvania man admits to June 25 beating of elderly woman
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Joshua J. Goyette allegedly confessed to breaking into a Saxonburg, Pennsylvania retirement home and beating 86-year-old Gertrude “Trudy” Johanson in the early morning of June 25, 2005. The crime, which shocked the small community north of Pittsburgh, was not the only one which occurred recently at area retirement homes. Goyette is also suspected in a May incident where another apartment at the Commons of Saxonburg was broken into through a first floor window and the 90-year-old woman inside was groped while she slept.
Goyette, 25, has addresses listed in court documents in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, his mother’s home.
The alleged confession was given last Thursday, June 30, 2005, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Pennsylvania state police investigators. Goyette is currently being held in the Butler County prison in lieu of $300,000 cash bond. He faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal mischief.
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By Robert Corter
In today’s electronic world, online training is now one of the more popular forms of learning. It’s easy to follow, most online training courses give step by step guides and the training is normally slit down into chapters, with lessons within each chapter. You can stop and start the training at you own leisure without having to sit through a 2 hour lecture.
Geographical distance is a major factor these days with learning. Once upon a time you would either have to look for your chosen course at a college on University near to you or be prepared to travel away from home. Now, you can learn from the comfort of your own home, in your own time and at a pace that suits you. And your instructor can be anywhere in the world, it makes no difference. Provided you have an internet connection, the world is your oyster.
Many companies provide online training these days. In fact, whatever your chosen field of study you would struggle not to find an online course to suit your needs. And the benefits of online training are evident to both student and instructor.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36MLtd3BPu4[/youtube]
For companies that provide online training, it is easy for them to keep track of their student’s progress. Any tests that are taken can be marked and the results back in a much shorter time frame than a hand written test. This gives both the student and the instructor the ability to keep track of progress much easier and any problems can be picked up on and rectified in a shorter timescale.
For those who want to turn their web content into an online training course there is plenty of software available. Learning management systems are available for purchase that can make the whole process much easier. Your online training course can be created very quickly and almost at the touch of a button.
Providing online training is as easy as picking up the phone these days. Provided you have access to certain authoring tools you can easily turn your web content into a training course. You should have access to tools such as MS Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, any PDF generation programme and, if you require it, video content software. Any combination of these together with the software to pull it all together makes it easy to provide online training.
Video training is one of the more popular forms of training these days. You can produce your videos using any number of methods including camcorders and even phone videos. Along with pdf or word documents you can create an online training course made up of a combination of videos and presentations, and throw in a few tests along the way as well.
Purchasing a complete learning management system to provide your online training course will make the whole task easier and is much cost and time effective than trying to pull it altogether yourself. Whilst the initial cost may seem steep, the time and effort saved is worth its weight in gold alone.
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Gov. Bobby Jindal supports creationism as part of ‘the very best science’
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Louisiana, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday and said he supports teaching intelligent design (ID) in public school as “the very best science.” Jindal, who was elected governor in 2007, is a Hindu convert to Catholicism who takes the Bible literally.
In his exchange on the Sunday morning talk show, “Some want only to teach intelligent design, some only want to teach evolution. I think both views are wrong, as a parent.”
In a September 2007 debate he supported the view of creationism saying, “Personally, it certainly makes sense to me that when you look at creation, you would believe in a creator.”
Recently, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed legislation, which the National Center for Science Education said “opens the door to creationism in public school science classes.” The bill is currently on his desk.
Jindal is currently considered a possible Vice President candidate for John McCain’s U.S. Presidential campaign.
World’s most expensive hotel-casino opens in Las Vegas
Friday, April 29, 2005
The world’s most expensive hotel-casino ever has opened in Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct. The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.
Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.
“I think it’s going to start a shift of power. It’s been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier — that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so,” gaming expert Anthony Curtis told Las Vegas KLAS TV.
As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.
“It’s always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors,” Wynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
File:WynnSign.JPG
Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of The Mirage hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.
“If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; ‘couldn’t be done,’ they all said,” Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.
The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and “parlors” for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari–Maserati dealership and the Le Reve stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.
A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.
All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.
“Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before,” Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Several of Wynn’s largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on Las Vegas.
“I’ve never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in Las Vegas and Atlantic City,” Harrah’s Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Other casino bosses from the Mandalay and the MGM Mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.
“It’s a positive in terms of bringing more visitors,” Mandalay Resort Group President and CEO Glenn Schaeffer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, then we’ll pick up some of that business also,” MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. Security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.
“I think it’s spectacular,” David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told Reuters.
“People were pushing and shoving,” Las Vegan Kathie Anderson told Associated Press.
“There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos,” British billionaire Richard Branson told Associated Press from the casino floor. “I would say every other casino must be nervous. He’s lifted the bar dramatically,” Branson said.
“This would be hard to top,” Las Vegan Marlene DeMarco told Reuters.