Sunday, October 1, 2006

A video, which was made in 2000 and released by the Sunday Times shows September 11, 2001 hijackers Mohammed Atta and Ziad Jarrah attending a camp in Afghanistan. Mohammed Atta was on the American Airlines plane which hit The World Trade Center’s North Tower and Jarrah was on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers on the plane attempted to regain control after the highjackers took over the aircraft. The Times reports that they received the video from “a previously tested channel,” but it is not known what channel they are referring to.

The video is believed to have been recorded on January 18, 2000 and features the two men reading their martyrdoms and the Sunday Times reports that the two were at Osama bin Laden’s main headquarters located inside Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks. In the video, both hijackers appeared to be smiling and laughing. The video also shows Atta reading the will.

The video also showed Osama bin Laden speaking to a crowd of his followers in the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan. Ramzi Binalshibh can be seen in the crowd during the speech by bin Laden. A bodyguard, that has instructions to kill bin Laden if he were in any danger of being caught or killed, is also present in the video. Two other commanders of al-Qaeda, wanted by the U.S., Abu Faraj al Libi and Saif al Adl also appear in the video.

The video contains no sound and it is unknown what exactly the hijackers were saying. According to the Sunday Times, the United States attempted to use Arabic lip readers to find out what the hijackers were saying, but were unsuccessful.

MSNBC reports that the video was found by U.S. troops at a compound that had been controlled by al-Qaeda sometime in 2001.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Before the annual Earth Day on April 22, several environmental-related events were progressively promoted in Taiwan. For example, industrial and academical units promoted several energy-efficiency policies, parts and accessories, and products in three recently-closed trade shows (AutoTronics Taipei, Motorcycle Taiwan, and Taipei AMPA) respectively located at TWTC and TWTC Nangang with the international environmental laws and policies promoted in several nations including Taiwan. Taiwan Railway Administration promoted “Twin-rail Environmental Train” (in Chinese: ??????) for bicycle and mass transportation industries. And also, HBO Taiwan promoted the movement of “Decreasing chopsticks to save the earth” (in Chinese: ?????) to drive the public changing habits on common food habits when using environmental tablewares.

By the way, he also commented on the upcoming event of “Taiwan Bicycle Day” and “Project of Light-weighted Electronic Vehicle” by ITRI and said:

Monday, November 22, 2010 Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Ford 400 held yesterday at Homestead Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. Jimmie Johnson claimed the championship after finishing second — his fifth championship in a row. Throughout the course of the race there were 10 cautions and 25 lead changes among 9 different drivers.

Afterward, Edwards commented, “To finish like this is unreal. It’s just these guys didn’t give up. It’s just a great way to end the season.”

Kevin Harvick came in third for Richard Childress Racing, and Aric Almirola finished fourth, after starting 24th. Almirola’s teammate A. J. Allmendinger finished 5th in front of Kasey Kahne. Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart finished behind Kahne in 7th and 8th. Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle rounded out the top ten finishers in the race.

In the Drivers’ championship, Johnson claimed his fifth consecutive championship, after being in second prior to the race. Denny Hamlin followed, 39 behind Johnson, and three ahead of Harvick in third. Edwards was scored fourth, Kenseth took fifth , Biffle was sixth, and Stewart was seventh, after finishing eighth. Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer was ninth and tenth.

Showing his excitement, Johnson said, “I can’t believe this! It’s unbelievable. You guys are the best. I can’t thank you enough,” on his radio. Chevrolet won the Maunfacturers’ championship with 261 points, while Toyota followed with 217.

Afterward, Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus commented, “I think finally, finally after pulling this off Jimmie will get the respect that he deserves. Knowing what we had to do — come down here and beat them — and we beat them.”

“I’m disappointed,” Hamlin said afterward. “Our car was lightning fast until that last wreck. When we hit the 16 (Biffle) that knocked the toe-in out. It wasn’t as fast after that. It’s just circumstances but we had a great year. We won the most races (8) and we contended like we have never contended before but circumstances took us out of this one. I don’t think the 48 (Johnson) showed the strength this year like they did in the past and that opened the door for the rest of us.”

Next, third place finisher, Harvick commented, “We went down swinging and that is what we came here to do. Those guys outran us on that last restart there. All in all I’m proud of all my guys. We did everything we wanted to do today but win the race. This is a great spot to start building for consistent championship runs next year. We had a top three car but they got by us on the restarts. All in all, it was a good day. What can you do?”

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wikinews reporter Nicholas Moreau contacted professional photographer David Fore of Lloyd David Photography to go to the recent Christy Carlson Romano concert at Sesame Place theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

Romano, perhaps best known for her breakout role in Even Stevens opposite Shia LaBoeuf, is presumably working towards a new album, regularly posting new singles to her MySpace profile. She is listed as “indie” on her profile, having originally been signed to Disney Records.

Romano has performed Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as well as voice acting in the television series Kim Possible and video game Kingdom Hearts.

Sesame Place recently opened for the season, adding Abby Cadabby to its cast of life-size Muppets. The park offers a variety of wet and dry rides, as well as stage attractions. Christy performed at the park four times over last weekend, as well as riding in its daily Rock Around the Block Parade.

• Sesame Place theme park

Sunday, August 13, 2006

The Australian federal government has announced that it will be introducing an electronic system for Medicare rebates within the next twelve months. Under the new system, patients will be able to receive their Medicare rebates electronically without having to visit a Medicare office.

During an interview in Sydney today, Prime Minister John Howard, along with his human services minister Joe Hockey and health minister Tony Abbott, announced that patients who pay for the services of a doctor using their credit cards will be able to receive their rebates electronically within 24 hours. Under the current system patients must visit a Medicare office to receive their rebates.

John Howard said the 80,000 people per day who queue at Medicare offices will no longer need to spend their lunch break in line at Medicare.

According to the government, doctors who bulk-bill their patients through Medicare will benefit through faster payments and reduced paperwork. “If it’s a bulk bill transaction; all they do is hand over their Medicare card,” said Mr Hockey.

“The Medicare card is swiped in the EFTPOS device, all is done.”

“Doctors will be rebated within 24 hours.”

“Currently doctors are rebated up to 14 days for bulk bill claims.”

The government claims that electronic rebates will be less expensive to process—costing only a few cents, compared to an estimated AUD $3.50 for an over-the-counter transaction. Despite this, patients who still wish to visit a Medicare office to receive their rebates will still be able to do so.

The minister for human services was quick to assure Australians that Medicare offices would remain open saying that over the past twelve months they have taken on an “expanded role” with the Family Assistance Office’s services being provided in Medicare offices.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Following the first major snow storm of the season, several cars were reported to be ‘entrapped’ by slick ice in the seaside city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ice was believed to be created when the snow, which fell during the night of December 9-10, was packed down by successive cars and trucks passing over it. By morning, several areas of the city had patches of slippery, low-traction crystalline water lying in wait for the next unsuspecting motor vehicle to pass over them. Soon enough, your correspondent witnessed cars which had slowed to a stop or were parked find that, try as they might, they were unable to move forward on the ice and were therefore stuck.

Luckily, most of the cars were able to extricate themselves after either slowly accelerating in a low gear, or ‘rocking’ the car back-and-forth to build up momentum. No one was reported injured, and the only damage believed to be done was the excessive wear and tear on the entrapped vehicles.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Qatari non-profit organization Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD) launched a low emissions car at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 18) in Doha. The car was designed and developed in Qatar.

Revealed during a press conference at the Qatar National Convention Centre, the car in addition to an internal combustion engine, includes an automotive thermoelectric generator designed to capture waste heat to produce hydrogen. GORD expects the heat waste collecting system to be compatible with any gasoline or compressed natural gas car.

GORD chairman Dr Al-Horr summarised the key concepts of the invention in a statement saying, “Our car produces electricity at no cost by capturing thermal waste energy, reducing costs and eliminating the need for an external source of electricity. Also, bulky compressed-hydrogen cylinders are a thing of the past, as our concept accomplishes the production of hydrogen by using water through fuel cells integrated within the car.”

Most of the energy in Qatari vehicle comes from the the car’s gasoline tank, supplemented by a thin film photo-voltaic panel on the roof. Normally in a combustion engine, chemical energy stored in a fuel, such as gasoline, is converted into heat energy through combustion. This heat energy is then converted into mechanical energy, manifested as an increase in pressure in the combustion chamber due to the kinetic energy of the combustion gases. The kinetic energy of these combustion gases are then converted into work; because of the inefficiencies in converting chemical energy into useful work, internal combustion engines have a theoretical maximum effiecincy of 37% (with what is achievable in day to day applications being about half of this). Of the chemical energy in the consumed fuel used by an internal combustion engine 40% is dissipated as waste heat. However, the Qatari vehicle uses a thermoelectric generator to convert this waste heat into electricity. Such generators are used in space vehicles, and produce electricity when thermoelectric materials are subjected to a temperature gradient, the greater the gradient the greater the amount of electrcity produced. In the GORD vehicle the electricity produced is used to electrolyse potable water to produce hydrogen which can be introduced into the vehicle’s existing fuel system.

The researchers showed that the heat waste collection engine caused a decrease in the car’s emissions, including a decrease of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions by more than 50%, the fuel efficiency increasing by 20%. On its website, GORD said that the heat waste collector engine is universal, “Any car can be adapted to accommodate the system as it doesn’t alter any electro-mechanical systems”.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Limassol. At least two people have died at a Cypriot army aircraft crash in the village of Kolossi this morning, west of the island’s southern coastal town of Limassol.

Kolossi is a community of some 2,000 Britons, Germans and Cypriots.

Director of the President’s Press Office Marios Karoyan told CNA that the aircraft was a PC – 9 (Pilatus). It is one of the two training military aircraft of the National Guard (Cyprus Army) and according to the first reports two people have died, believed to be the two pilots.

Defence Minister Kyriakos Mavronicolas and National Guard Commander Lieutenant-General Athanasios Nikolodemos have rushed to the area. Ambulances and fire engines are in the area.