Friday, April 1, 2005

A resident of Schaumburg, Illinois in the (U.S.) was severely injured by an industrial punch press machine on Monday. He died an hour later.

Elk Grove Village police said William Naras, 48, was operating the machine at a local metal manufacturing plant when he became pinned by an I-beam, or metal arm, about 4 p.m. He was transported to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village where medics pronounced him dead at 4:51 p.m.

The death was ruled an industrial accident and reported to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to a spokesperson for the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Presses of the type which killed Naras routinely develop pressures in the 80,000 pounds (40 tons) per square inch range, according to manufacturers’ Internet pages.

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, December 4, 2008.

On December 2, the Toronto city council voted in favor of banning the sales and distribution of bottled water on city property. The council also agreed to provide public drinking fountains on their properties, as well as on a measure that would make shoppers pay at least five Canadian cents for plastic grocery bags and force business owners to offer reusable bags and carry-out containers.

“Toronto’s decision to ban the bottle and turn on the tap sends a clear message that bottled water’s 15 minutes are up,” said Polaris Institute’s campaign coordinator, Joe Cressy.

All of the city’s facilities should be following the water ban by 2011, while businesses will have to implement their bag fees by 2010. Toronto has become the largest city in the world to ban bottled water on government property.

Related news

• “Calls for bottled water bans grow in Canada” — Wikinews, August 23, 2008

Sources

• “Toronto Bans Bottled Water” — CNW Group, December 3, 2008
• “Toronto council approves plastic bag charge, bottle ban” — CBC News, December 3, 2008

On Tuesday, American actor, Patrick Swayze, who suffers from pancreatic cancer, denied reports that he was near death. American tabloid National Inquirer reported on November 28 that Swayze’s cancer had spread to his liver and that he was preparing for his death.

“The only thorn in my side being that many tabloids have been consistently reporting lies and false information about me and those close to me,” said Swayze in a statement to the press who also added that he knows he is in “the fight for his life,” but that it is a fight that he “is winning.”

“I’m one of the lucky few that responds well to treatment,” added Swayze.

Swayze has starred in over a dozen films, including the 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing.

Related news

• “Wikinews Shorts: November 28, 2008” — Wikinews, November 28, 2008

Sources

• “Swayze denies ‘deathbed’ rumours” — BBC News Online, December 3, 2008
• “Patrick Swayze denies reports he is near death” — Reuters, December 2, 2008

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Elizabeth May has been elected leader of the Green Party of Canada today, winning the position with 2,145 votes or 65.34 per cent of ballot cast. She beat her nearest rival, environmental consultant and Green deputy leader David Chernushenko by a margin of almost 2 to 1. Jim Fannon, the third candidate, finished far back with only 29 votes. The new leader will replace Jim Harris, who stepped down after holding the position since 2003.

In her acceptance speech, May called on the federal government to give notice that Canada will withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement in order to force the United States to renegotiate the treaty.

May, a long-time environmental activist and former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada takes over the party which received 4.5 per cent of the popular vote in the last federal election, enough to secure over $1 million a year in federal funding but not enough to elect any of its candidates to the Canadian House of Commons. Chernushenko won the highest vote percentage of any Green candidate in the January election winning 10% of the vote in Ottawa Centre.

“We draw pretty much equally from across the entire political spectrum,” Jim Harris told CBC News. “If you were a Progressive Conservative, as I was, where do you go? The Green party supports Kyoto. We were opposed to the war in Iraq and yet at the same time we’re fiscally responsible. This is something that’s attractive to people.”

“What we need to do is clearly build a method and a platform so that they are not voting for ‘none of the above’ but so that they are voting for ‘all my dreams,’ ” said May after her victory.

The race has brought new people to the party with membership rising from 5,517 to 8,694 in recent months.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Beatles‘ Apple Corps has filed a lawsuit against computer and electronics maker Apple Computer in a London court this week, the third such lawsuit in a long running trademark dispute between the two companies. Apple Corps claims that Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store violates an agreement reached between the two companies in 1991, which barred Apple Computer from using the “Apple” brand in certain uses in the music business.

The trial is set to begin on Wednesday in the Royal Courts of Justice, located in central London. Presiding Judge Martin Mann has stated that he owns an iPod portable music player, which is made by Apple Computer and marketed alongside the iTunes Music Store.

Apple Corps has twice before sued Apple Computer over its use of the “Apple” name. The first lawsuit was settled out of court in 1981, with the young computer maker paying $80,000 and agreeing to stay out of the music business.

In the late 1980’s Apple Computer added audio recording abilities to its Macintosh computers, prompting Apple Corps to file suit again in 1989. That lawsuit was settled in 1991, also out of court, with Apple paying $26.5 million. The settlement included a more specific agreement over the boundaries between the two brands: Apple Computer was allowed to use its name to market “goods or services…used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such [music] content,” but barred from distributing music on a physical medium such as CD or cassette.

Apple Corps’ latest suit, filed in September 2003, claims that the computer company violated the 1991 agreement with its iTunes Music Store, which sells digital music that can be downloaded to personal computers. A statement from Apple Computer stated that “Apple and Apple Corps now have differing interpretations of this agreement and will need to ask a court to resolve this dispute.” Some observers have suggested that the wording of the 1991 agreement, which did not explicitly bar digital music distribution, could be to Apple Computer’s advantage.

A similar suit was filed simultaneously in California, Apple Computer’s home state, but on September 21, 2004 the parties agreed to have the case heard by the UK court.

Beatles songs have not been licensed for digital download on any of the online music services.

Apple Corps was founded by the Beatles in 1968. Apple Computer was started by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, and launched the iTunes Music Store in 2003.

Friday, May 1, 2009

At approximately 06:00 a.m. (00:30 GMT) Wednesday, between four and seven people were killed when an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) passenger train crashed into a stationary freight train at Vyasarpadi Jeeva station, in Chennai, India. Between eleven and twenty persons were injured, and rushed to General Hospital in Chennai.

Officials are unsure of the number of persons aboard the passenger train, which was operated by an unknown person. “It is not clear who operated (it),” said S. Jayanth, acting general manager of Southern Railway. The operator of the EMU train was not in the train when it left 15 minutes to half an hour before the scheduled departure time. It is said some passengers did board the passenger train.

The EMU train ignored all signals, and drove about 7 kilometers (4 mi) at high speed, jumping tracks, before colliding with the goods train.

The driver of the goods train, Arumugam, has been confirmed as one of those who has died. The goods train was traveling between Arakkonam to Chennai. The motorman, guard and assistant jumped from the goods train sustaining fractures.

“We heard a loud noise and saw several compartments in flames. The smell emanating from bodies from the mangled coaches was nauseating,” said M.N. Selvi, a nearby resident.

The platforms at the Vyasarpadi Jeeva station were destroyed, and electrical cables were torn down. The EMU train caught fire in the collision destroying two compartments completely. The other compartments were thrown from the tracks. The freight train was loaded with oil tanks, however reports indicate that only the EMU train was set ablaze.

All train services were canceled for a time on one of the busiest rail lines of India. “Train services are disrupted due to the mishap but we hope to restore the services in two to three hours time,” an Indian Railways spokesperson.

Railways Minister Lalu Prasad announced that an inquiry will be held.

December 22, 2004

The government of Zambia has launched a new national agricultural policy, according to a report by the Times of Zambia. The newspaper reports that the policy was announced yesterday by the country’s Minister of Agriculture & Co-Operatives, Mr. Mundia Sikatana.

At the event marking the launch of the new program, Mr. Sikatana described the policy as addressing the issues of food security, economic growth and poverty reduction. The policy will cover all sectors of agriculture in the nation, and will be implemented by the ministry of Agriculture.

Mr Sikatana went on to say that the policy contained detailed strategies to cover a variety of sectors within the agricultural industry, including livestock, fisheries, irrigation, and agricultural finance. The new policy also continues Zambia’s previous policy of prohibiting the import and use of genetically modified foods within the country. This policy is controversial due to areas of poverty within the country, and the smuggling of genetically modified grains into the country earlier this month.

The Zambian government has previously been criticised by some for its annual ban on fishing during December. It is unclear whether this policy, which was widely applauded by environmentalists and implemented to protect sensitive fish stocks, will be affected by the new agricultural policy.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Susan Atkins, a former member of the Manson clan and the longest-serving female prisoner of California, US, has died in prison. She was 61.

It was Atkins who exposed those responsible for the murders after she bragged of her involvement while imprisoned for an unrelated offence. Two fellow inmates reported her to the authorities. Subsequently, her testimony ensured that she, Charles Manson and several others would be convicted of a string of murders in a 10-month trial, including those of heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate and of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Atkins received another murder conviction for the separate killing of Gary Alan Hinman, bringing her total to eight murders. All convicted killers in the Manson clan were sentenced to death but this was replaced with life imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished in California.

In recent years, Atkins had developed cancer which spread, almost totally paralysing her. She also had one leg amputated. She was denied compassionate release last year and parole earlier this month, with the parole board citing the vicious and remorseless nature of the crimes. Prosecutor Stephen Kay described her as “the scariest of the Manson girls. She was very violent.”

Ex-chief prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that she “had the most unfortunate background,” of all the killers except Manson himself. Her mother died of cancer while Atkins was fifteen, her father selling the family’s house and all their possessions to pay hospital bills. He became an alcoholic and first neglected, then abandoned Atkins and her younger brother. Both were in foster care for a time and Atkins dropped out of school after her standards fell. She struggled to look after both herself and her brother and later worked as a topless dancer. Once, she was arrested and charged while hitchhiking because the car that gave her a ride was stolen.

In prison, she became a Christian and denounced Manson. Prison staff supported her 2005 parole bid, but she would be kept imprisoned. She ultimately served 38 years behind bars.