Monday, March 12, 2007

24 of 26 Swiss Cantons rejected the proposal for a single health insurance system, in which premiums would be based on income and wealth. The vote on Sunday was the latest in a series of attempts to cut rising costs and ease the financial burden on citizens.

Around 71% of voters rejected the reform. Turnout was at about 46%, slightly above the Swiss average.

As expected, voters in the main German-speaking part of the country turned down the planned reform, which was supported by the centre-left but opposed by the centre-right as well as the business community, parliament and the government.

Opposition in the French and Italian speaking regions was less pronounced. The cantons Jura and Neuchâtel in the French speaking regions voted in favor of the proposed reforms.

Health insurance premiums are higher in southern and western Swiss cantons than in German-speaking areas.

The Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin said an important part of the Swiss Population appeared to be opposed to “a revolution” in health insurance but he said that he wanted current reforms currently under discussion in the Swiss Parliament to go ahead. He called on all sides, especially health insurers and the cantonal authorities, to make efforts to reduce spending on health insurance and aim for a greater cost efficiency. Currently Switzerland has 87 private insurers providing mandatory basic health care coverage for Swiss residents under a 1996 law. But costs have sky-rocketed. Over 100,000 people are not covered by health insurance due to non payment.

Opponents to the initiative argued that a single insurance system would lead to complacency and create a two-tier system, in which the wealthy would be the only ones available to afford to have additional private insurance coverage.

Supporters of the initiative said a single health insurer would increase the system’s efficiency and allow for annual savings of at least 300 million Swiss Francs (about $245 million) in administrative costs. Currently, the funding system is unbalanced, since many clients on low incomes use state subsidies to pay their premiums, according to the Green Party and the Social Democrats.

The initiative to unite all the insurance companies and introduce premiums based on wealth and income was the most recent in a series of attempts over the past ten years to reduce the public spending on health care. A proposal, similar to this recent proposal, to modify the funding system of the health insurance companies was rejected by 73% of voters in 2003.

Switzerland has the most expensive health system in Europe. Switzerland’s expenditure on health care was 11.6% in 2005, in front of Germany and France but behind the United States.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Minas, one of the largest states of Brazil, has stopped the sale of the Toyota Corolla over safety concerns.

The move was made after nine Corolla customers reported that their cars automatically accelerated. The state public prosecutor’s office said in an online statement on Tuesday that the problem is blamed on accelerator pedals sticking underneath floor mats. Local government said the issue was “putting in danger the lives of occupants”.

According to the prosecutor’s office, sales of Corollas may resume when Toyota alters the floormats in its current models. Toyota has recalled over eight million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems.

[edit]

Monday, January 31, 2005

New York, USA – Students and professors at New York‘s Hamilton College have raised protests over an invitation to the controversial ethics professor, Ward Churchill, to participate in a panel at the college. The main objection is related to comments by Mr. Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies from the University of Colorado, who in a paper written after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, compared the victims of the attack to “little Eichmanns“.

Churchill’s paper, entitled “Some People Push Back”, charges that all American citizens are complicit in the “genocide of 500,000 Iraqi children,” which he maintains occurred during the Gulf War as a direct result of military actions and the destruction of infrastructure and the water supply. Due to their inaction and empowerment of the American government, he compares American citizens to “Good Germans.” He also charges that the inhabitants of the targets of attack, namely the Pentagon and World Trade Center, have a dubious claim to the title “Innocent Civilians,” as the Pentagon was a military target and the WTC was home to many who he alleges profited from the Iraqi Genocide.

Administrators defended Professor Churchill’s appearance despite the fact that some considered his views repugnant and disparaging.

According to Hamilton College spokesman Michael DeBraggio: “Hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial.”

The University of Colorado’s Interim Chancellor Phil Distefano said in a statement:”I wish to make it clear that Professor Ward Churchill’s views of the events of 9/11 are his own and do not represent the views of University of Colorado faculty, staff, students, administration or Regents. While I may personally find his views offensive, I also must support his right as an American citizen to hold and express his views, no matter how repugnant, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

The professor’s opinions divided New York’s Hamilton College, where Churchill is scheduled to speak. Jessica Miraglia, a student at Hamilton, created a poster defending the professor reading “You don’t have to agree with them in order to learn from them.”. Sophomore Matt Coppo, who lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks was angered over the invitation to Churchill. “Knowing that I’m paying for a person to disrespect my father, it doesn’t go over too well in my mind.”

Two congressmen from Colorado asked professor Churchill to apologize for comparing victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack to Nazis. Professor Churchill has said that he will not back off his statement.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.

Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will partner up with the Microsoft-Nortel Innovative communications alliance (ICA) team to sell Unified Communications and VoIP products.

The announcement on Tuesday the 16th of October 2007 includes Dell selling VoIP, data and wireless networking products from Nortel and the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and other unified communications products.

The partnership with both manufacturers should allow Dell to provide a pre-integrated solution.

In March 2007, competitors IBM and Cisco announced they would join in the competition for developing unified communications applications and the development of open technologies around the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) client platform an application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime.

“We want to make it simple for our customers to deploy unified communications so their end users can get access to all their messages in one place – whether its e-mail, phone or mobile device. This will pave the way for more business-ready productivity tools,” said vice president of solutions, Dell Product Group, Rick Becker.

• Customers have four options:
  • Core Office Communication Server 2007 – provides instant messaging and on-premise Microsoft Live Meeting.
  • Office Communication Server: Telephony – enables call routing tracking and management, VoIP gateway and public branch exchange (PBX) integration.
  • Audio and Video Conferencing – allows point-to-point conference, video conference and VoIP audio conference.
  • Exchange Unified Messaging – provides voicemail, e-mail and fax in Microsoft Outlook, and anywhere access of Microsoft Outlook Inbox and Calendar.

Saturday, April 30, 2005File:Lord Ram.jpg

Shiv Sagar, the grandson of a popular Indian TV and movie producer, is planning to build an infotainment theme park called Ganga-Dham on the banks of the Ganges River within the next two or three years. The project is expected to cost $6.4 million and one of the main investors is Alice Coltrane, wife of jazz great John Coltrane.

The family theme park, called “Disneyland on the Ganges” by the BBC News article, could probably be better compared to Disney’s Epcot, since both feature an educational, interactive multimedia experience. Billed as the “world’s biggest-ever mythological theme park”, its purpose is to instruct the masses of Indian pilgrims who come to bathe in the Ganges with tales about the exploits of such Hindu gods as Rama, Vishnu, and Hanuman.

The focus is to be educational, not religious. “We’re not doing this as a religious project,” said Sagar to India-West in an interview last September. “It’s not propaganda. We want to make it fun, a place where people can learn the Indian stories,” a place that can appeal not only to Hindus but people of other religious faiths as well.

“The Hindu religion is well suited to something like this, religions like Islam are not allowed to depict forms but we have many different forms and representations of Gods,” Sagar said in last week’s BBC interview.

The name Ganga-Dham comes from the Indian words Ganga, for the Ganges, and Dham, meaning “place” or “abode”. The park is to be built on 25 acres of land in the holy town of Haridwar, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where an estimated 18 million pilgrims a year come to ritually cleanse themselves in the river. The god Vishnu is said by legend to have left his footprint in the town.

The company behind this project is the Sagar Group. Shiv’s grandfather Ramanand Sagar established a film company, Sagar Art, in 1950 and went on to make 25 films and some hugely popular serials for Indian television. Most notably, Sagar Art produced the groundbreaking TV mythological serial “Ramayan”, about the Hindu god Rama. Starting in 1987, the series went on to attract worldwide attention and claim as many as 650 million viewers over a period of several years. Images and songs from their TV serials will be incorporated into the park to increase the popular draw and build on the tradition of reverence toward the Hindu gods that the series is known for.

The project has also attracted some criticism, by some who feel that the site next to the holy river Ganges is inappropriate for building, and others who do not appreciate the project’s light-hearted take toward the Hindu pantheon, which they find disrespectful. However, an important hurdle has been cleared with the official support of the state government of Uttaranchal, and positive comments have been received from other interested parties who favor spreading the knowledge of Hindu philosophy by popular means.

There are other difficulties that still must be addressed, for example, a lack of infrastructure in the area to support tourism. But the Sagar Group stands to profit as they already have a Sagar Ganga Resort in the area.

The parts of the planned site, as described on the Sagar Group’s website, are:

• “High-tech” rides
• Animated, interactive museum
• Food courts and bazaar
• Temple city
• Petting zoo

Also places are to be provided for visiting non-resident Indians (NRIs) to set up “remote poojas” and other rituals over the Internet.

Construction is planned to begin later this year for completion by 2007, specifically timed to be ready for the major Kumbh Mela religious festival in 2010, which is expected to draw as many as 50 million or more visitors to the area.

Some of the park proceeds are said to be set aside for various charities. If the park is successful, the Sagar Group plans to build similar Dhams around the world, in Asia, Oceania, South America, or perhaps even in places such as London, England; Los Angeles, California or Orlando, Florida in the United States.

Friday, July 30, 2010

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, operated by the United States Air Force, crashed on Wednesday near Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska at about 6:15 pm (0215 Thursday UTC), killing all four crew members. The plane was practicing for the 2010 Arctic Thunder air show.

These facts were confirmed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, Commander of Alaskan Command NORAD, in an impromptu press conference later in the evening. Col. John McMullen, commander of the 3rd Wing (under whose authority the plane belonged), announced the four deaths on Thursday. Three were members of the U.S. Air National Guard, one was active duty. Names are being withheld pending the notification of family members.

The Elmendorf base is near Anchorage, Alaska, and the fireball and plume were visible from that city’s downtown. “It was a big, gray plume of smoke and I saw a fireball go up in it,” said Anchorage Fire Dept. Captain Bryan Grella in an interview with the Associated Press.

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft is designed for rapid response strategic airlift, medical evacuation, and airdrop roles, carrying cargo and troops. The aircraft are used by the United States, the United Kingdom, NATO, Australia, Canada, and Qatar.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Doctor Don Brash, New Zealand National party leader, is seeking legal advice to see if the injunction he has placed on his emails to stop them from being published will still be valid if he lets a new book based around those emails to be released to the public. Dr Brash, however, wants the people who he sent emails and received emails from not named.

“As I’ve said earlier, I want to see the book by Nicky Hager published so that the claims can be exposed to daylight,” Dr Brash said, “On the strength of the initial discussion with Mr Brown [legal counsel], I am confident that there are ways in which the book can be released, even in the next few days. These are being actively explored.

The book in question is by Nicky Hager and has been given the title: The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception. It includes emails that were, allegedly, given to him by insiders in the National party, who Mr Hager will not name, it also includes interviews with unhappy people inside the National party. Despite the claims made by Mr Hager, Dr Brash is still adamant that they were stolen from his computer.

The book includes political strategies behind the Orewa speech, the input into Nationals campaign from neo-conservatives in America, industry lobby group influences, donors to National and also the election spending strategy that was thought up by Australian advisers. The accusations that the author, Mr Hager, has made are wild according to Dr Brash.

The injunction that was issued from the High Court stops anyone from broadcasting, publishing or giving the emails to anyone, in any form, which includes the internet.

Michelle Boag, the person who got Dr Brash to enter the National party, said: “Mr Hager has no credibility. The media is giving the author and activist too much attention. He got access to some stolen property, he selectively took bits to try to reinforce it and now people are believing this man who has never in his life published anything that has had any credibility. All the media is doing is help Mr Hager to sell his book in time for Christmas.”

The book has been published by Craig Potton Publishing.