Wednesday, September 24, 2008

United States presidential candidate John McCain announced today that he is suspending his campaign and sought to postpone a scheduled debate with his opponent, Barack Obama, to focus on the country’s financial crisis and says that Obama should also suspend his campaign.

McCain said he would be asking president George W. Bush to call a meeting for members of Congress in order to support Bush’s controversial $700 billion bailout plan, but also said that there is no consensus for the proposal and it will not pass in its current form.

He called the crisis “historic,” stressing the need for legislation and warning of “devastating consequences”.

“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem. It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration’s proposal and I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands. We are running out of time,” said McCain during a press conference.

Early this morning, Obama had called McCain and asked for the two to put aside partisanship and focus on the economic troubles. The two agreed to issue a joint statement supporting an economic fix, just minutes before McCain made his announcement. Bush is scheduled to speak to the people of the U.S. in a televised speech at 9:01 PM EDT tonight.

Obama responded to McCain’s speech minutes later, confirming that he would still attend the debate. He expressed a desire for fairness to taxpayers and an objection to rewarding those responsible for the financial crisis. Both candidates have stated that they intend to put politics aside to work on the financial crisis. Obama said, a president “is going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time.”

The proposal comes in the wake of Congressional hearings where US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have urged support of the measures proposed by the administration. Despite such appeals, both McCain and Obama have expressed skepticism over the proposed bailout, and the U.S. Congress has shown a noted concern that the measure may not benefit ordinary home owners as well as those on Wall Street.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Businessman Rocky De La Fuente took some time to speak with Wikinews about his campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

The 61-year-old De La Fuente resides in San Diego, California, grew up in Tijuana, and owns multiple businesses and properties throughout the world. Since getting his start in the automobile industry, De La Fuente has branched out into the banking and real estate markets. Despite not having held or sought political office previously, he has been involved in politics, serving as the first-ever Hispanic superdelegate to the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

De La Fuente entered the 2016 presidential race last October largely due to his dissatisfaction with Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He argues he is a more accomplished businessman than Trump, and attacks Trump as “a clown,” “a joke,” “dangerous,” and “in the same category as Hitler.” Nevertheless, De La Fuente’s business background begets comparisons with Trump. The Alaskan Midnight Sun blog described him as the Democrats’ “own Donald Trump.”

While receiving only minimal media coverage, he has campaigned actively, and according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing, loaned almost US$ 4 million of his own money to the campaign. He has qualified for 48 primary and caucus ballots, but has not yet obtained any delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Thus far, according to the count at The Green Papers, De La Fuente has received 35,406 votes, or 0.23% of the total votes cast. He leads among the many lesser-known candidates but trails both Senator Bernie Sanders who has received nearly 6.5 million votes and front-runner Hillary Clinton who has just shy of 9 million votes.

With Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn?, De La Fuente discusses his personal background, his positions on political issues, his current campaign for president, and his political future.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

At least nine people have died in northern Italy after a landslide caused the derailment of a passenger train. A further 25 people were injured, according to emergency services.

The incident occurred earlier this morning near the border with Austria, in a mountainous region near Merano, a city around 300 kilometres north of Venice.

“There are nine confirmed victims, while 28 people have been injured, seven of them seriously,” reported the governor of the Bolzano-Bozen province, Luis Durnwalder, to the Reuters news service. Initially, eleven people were reported dead, due to what the governor described as a “counting error”. However, he noted that “there could still be someone buried in the mud”, so the death count is not yet final.

According to the ANSA news agency, the train had about forty passengers on board when it derailed. Sky TV, meanwhile, quoted officials as saying that three people are reported to be missing. The authorities say the landslide was due to a broken irrigation pipe, which caused rocks to fall onto the tracks below. Authorities say they are looking into why the pipe burst.

The trains front car hit two trees upon derailment, local media says, which prevented it from dropping off into a river below. The carriage, however, was hanging over the river, and firefighters had to use cables to stop it from falling any more. A crane was also dispatched the scene to help clean up debris, ANSA reported.

“The train is hanging off the rails about five meters from the river. It is now only a few trees that are holding up the train and preventing it falling into the river,” said a witness, Alex Rowbotham, to the BBC.

“[…] The landslide occurred at the very passage of the train. It hit the train,” said Thomas Widmann, a transport official for the city of Bolanzo.

The crash was the deadliest in Europe since February, when eighteen people died after two commuter trains ran into each other near Brussels, Belgium. Italy saw its worse rail crash two decades ago, when 29 people died following the derailment of a freight train carrying petroleum gas, resulting in several explosions.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Officials announced that a treasure containing sacks of diamonds and gold coins as well as golden idols, jewelry and other riches has been discovered in the secret subterranean vaults of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, in the southwestern state of Kerala, India. Estimates of its worth have been rising and it is now thought to be worth US$20 billion.

The Hindu temple was built in the 16th century by the kings of the then Kingdom of Travancore to serve as a royal chapel for the rulers of Travancore. The six vaults containing the treasure have been undisturbed for over a century. Assessment of the treasure began on June 27 after a lawyer concerned about the security of the treasure petitioned India’s Supreme Court, which then appointed a seven-member panel of experts to inventory the treasure. The panel does not have the power to determine to whom the treasure will belong. Estimates of the treasure’s worth are rising, provoking a heated debate as to how the treasure will be used in a country that has 450 million poverty-stricken people.

The chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, announced on Sunday the treasure would remain with the temple, and security matters would be decided in consultation with the Travancore Royal Family, the temple management, and the temple priest.

“The gold was offered to the lord. It is the property of the temple. The government will protect the wealth at the temple,” Oommen Chandy said. Meanwhile, hundreds of armed police have been deployed around the temple to protect the treasure.

However, the view that the treasure should remain at the temple has been disputed. Among the dissenters is eminent jurist V R Krishna Iyer, who said the treasure should be put in a national trust for the peoples’ benefit. “God’s wealth belongs to the people, not to the king. It’s meaningless to say that it belongs to Hindus or any particular religious community,” said Iyer. “A mechanism should be devised to ensure that the benefits of it reach the poor and the needy and not the rich.”

Five of the six vaults of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple have been inventoried.

On Saturday, reports leaked to the press revealed that the treasure, including a golden idol of Mahavishnu and a golden ‘anki’, were found in one of the vaults, estimated to weigh 30 kilograms, along with precious stones, silver, two coconut shells of pure gold and another golden idol as well as other jewels and valuable coins. The panel hopes to find more treasure when the sixth and final vault is opened, but the attempt was suspended on Monday because the iron door inside presented “technical problems” requiring further consultation before opening. This vault is thought to contain the bulk of the wealth.

Keralan officials in a preliminary estimate said that the treasure was worth over US$11.2 billion; those estimates have now risen to US$20 billion. Historians say that the temple’s location on a site through which passed lucrative trade routes support the higher evaluations.

“Traders, who used to come from other parts of the country and abroad for buying spices and other commodities, used to make handsome offerings to the deity for not only his blessings but also to please the then rulers,” said P.J. Cherian, the director of Kerala Council for Historic Research

Some suggest that the profit from the sale of the treasure would be enough to wipe out the entire public debt of Kerala and fund future Kerala projects such as seaports, airports and highways.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The four stars of Bratz appeared Thursday in Toronto on the television series MuchOnDemand, to promote their new film.

While a great deal of computer animated, direct-to-DVD Bratz films have been made, as has a relatively successful television series, Bratz: The Movie is the first time the characters have appeared in live action.

The film centres around four “BFF”s, best friends forever, Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Jade (Janel Parrish), Sasha (Logan Browning) and Cloe (Skyler Shaye). Each has a distinct personality, talents, and fashion sense, which each friend supported. But entering high school, they suddenly face being lumped into social cliques, enforced by senior Meredith Baxter Dimly. Torn apart, they eventual decide to find peer pressure head-on, as “the Bratz”.

Director Sean McNamara commented in press materials, “The producers, writers and I hung out and talked about the fact that we had all lost friendships during high school, not because you want to but you start meeting new people and start hanging out with people that are into the same things as you.”

“This theme of cliques still happens even when you grow up, it’s in the business world — hey they are everywhere,” McNamara continued. “I think that’s what I’m trying to say with this movie is that you don’t have to be part of a clique exclusively. You can have friends all over the place and still be with kids that are into what you’re into… be with your jock friends, your science friends, whomever.”

Actress Logan Browning comments, “Friendships are so important because you can think that you can go to school and be by yourself and be the coolest girl but without true friends, you’re going to be stuck in your life.”

The movie is produced by Avi Arad, a producer of the Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Punisher, and Ghost Rider.

Arad feels that “If we can unite kids without taking away their individuality, that’s fantastic.”

MuchOnDemand is a long-running program MuchMusic, Canada’s primary music channel. The program airs every weekday at 5 pm ET, as an hour-long per broadcast viewer interactive television program.

View all of the Creative Commons-licensed photos by Robin Wong at Wikimedia Commons’ gallery.

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.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The fuselage of the Sikorsky S92 helicopter that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday has been found at a depth 120 to 150 meters and is being retrieved. 17 of the 18 people who were on board the helicopter died after it crashed.

Personal belongings, upper and lower segments of the main entrance door, the aft cargo door, and one emergency exit door have been recovered. “We totally dissect everything we can and certainly that is going to be an area that will be examined,” said Mike Cunningham, lead investigator with the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). “It looks like the fuselage is relatively intact.” An underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is aiding in the investigation.

“The structure of the aircraft, the body of the aircraft seems to be in relatively solid state. The tail section has broken off and it is lying by the side of the aircraft which is not a problem. We are still evaluating how it’s going to be brought to the surface but we believe it should be done relatively easily, possibly in a couple of days,” said Charles Laurence, TSB’s lead investigator of operations.

The remaining victims may still be strapped within their five-point harnesses.

The mayday to Transport Canada aviation database reported oil pressure in the main gearbox which caused the problem. The gearbox links the engines and transmission and is located on the top of the fuselage and under the main rotor head.

Robert Decker remains in critical at the St. John’s Health Sciences Centre but has stabilised. It is reported that he suffered a broken bone, hypothermia and had aspirated sea water.

The recovered body is that of Allison Maher from Aquaforte, Newfoundland, aged 26. Throughout the search and rescue there were no locator signals received from survival suits of any of those missing.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have released the names of twelve of those who are are still missing. It is a partial list, as some relatives were “not prepared at this point of time to release the names of their loved ones, and we respect that,” said Supt. Reg Reeves.

They are:

• Peter Breen, from St. John’s, N.L. age 55;
• Gary Corbett, from Conception Bay South, N.L. age 46;
• Wade Drake, from Fortune, N.L. age 42;
• Wade Duggan, from Witless Bay, N.L. age 32;
• Colin Henley, from St. John’s, N.L. age 38;
• Ken MacRae, from Greenwood, N.S. age 47;
• Derrick Mullowney, from Bay Bulls, N.L. age 51;
• Burch Nash, from Fortune, N.L. age 44;
• Paul Pike, from Bay Roberts, N.L. age 49;
• Allison Maher,from Aquaforte, N.L., age 26
• Tim Lanouette, from Comox, B.C., helicopter first officer age 48; and
• Thomas Anwyll, from Langley, B.C. Crew member age 46.

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.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

On Sunday, London-based football club Chelsea F.C. defeated local rivals Arsenal F.C. 0–1 in a Premier League match played at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners were reduced to ten men in the 18^th minute. Per Mertesacker brought down Diego Costa after a pass from Willian gave Costa a good opportunity to run towards Arsenal’s goal, and the referee showed Mertesacker the red card. Five minutes later, Costa scored at close range from Branislav Ivanovi?’s cross, putting the visitors 1–0 ahead.

The local derby saw four yellow cards and at least 25 fouls. Oscar was the first player to be booked in the 11^th minute. Mathieu Flamini was shown a yellow card for a late tackle on Willian moments before the end of the first half.

The Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger substituted Alexis Sánchez for Joel Campbell in the 57^th minute. Three minutes later, Nemanja Mati? received a yellow card. Costa was injured during the match, and Loïc Rémy replaced him in the 68^th minute. John Obi Mikel was booked in the 72^nd minute. The match ended 0–1, and Guus Hiddink’s team, who had had the greater share of possession of the ball during the match, collected three points.

After the match, Wenger blamed Costa for Mertesacker’s sending-off. Wenger said, “He got him sent off — you cannot say it’s not true.”

In Sunday’s other Premier League match, Everton lost 1–2 at home to Swansea.