Archives May 2018

Micronesia left behind by the Paralympic movement

Thursday, August 30, 2012

London, England — At the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) press conference Monday, Sir Philip Craven indicated the goal of the IPC is to grow disability sport globally. At the same time, according to Paul Bird of the Oceania Paralympic Committee, the Micronesian of Oceania has been left completely behind by the Paralympic movement.

According to a member of the Oceania Paralympic Committee, the IPC recognizes fewer countries than the International Olympic Committee, with IPC rules prohibiting countries from becoming full members of the organization if their independence is not clear. This rule dates back to the organization’s founding and no serious attempts have been made to change it since.

As many Micronesian countries are not viewed as independent countries, they cannot join. This includes Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The only eligibility route for elite athletes with disabilities in these countries to the Paralympic Games is through their home country, which for most of the Micronesian region is the United States; they have to compete against better-funded and better-supported competitors to earn national team selection. No disability sport competitors from Micronesia were chosen to represent the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

This problem is not unique to Micronesia, with the United States territories of Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands not being represented as members of the United States team in 2012.

MOEA Taiwan signs MOUs with 5 global WiMAX companies to connect with networking industry world-wide

Monday, October 22, 2007

At the 1st day of WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase & Conference, Ministry of Economic Affairs of R.O.C. Taiwan (MOEA Taiwan) not only set M-Taiwan Pavilion supervised by Industrial Development Bureau of MOEA Taiwan, but also signed MOUs with five world-class WiMAX companies to enhance the advance of networking industry in Taiwan especially in WiMAX environment.

In the contract-signing ceremony, MOEA Taiwan chose Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola Inc., Nokia-Siemens, Starent Networks, and Sprint-Nextel to sign MOUs with different technologies such as interoperability testing (IOT) to help companies in Taiwan with testing and purchasing WiMAX networking devices and develop solutions with high prime costs to expand the opportunity in global marketing.

“Governments and networking industry in Taiwan is still promoting on M-Taiwan project, the investment with WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan is the 2nd highest in the world, we estimate that by 2012, the production value of WiMAX will break NT$140 billion. With the MOUs signing, the industry development of WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan will be improved rapidly with product testing and lots ways of applications to ensure the prime position in the global WiMAX chain.” Steve Ruey-long Chen (Minister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan) remarked at the Ceremony.

According to MOEA Taiwan, this MOUs signing is the 2nd time after signing with world-class companies like Intel, NEC, Nortel, and Rohde & Schwarz Technology. With this MOUs signing, it will improve the networking industry and WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan.

Wikinews Shorts: August 9, 2009

A compilation of brief news reports for Sunday, August 9, 2009.

Contents

  • 1 Indonesia’s most wanted man believed to be killed
  • 2 Iran holds second mass trial
  • 3 Ronnie Biggs released to die a free man
  • 4 Laos transfers drug-charge Briton to serve life sentence in UK
  • 5 News Corporation to charge for online content
  • 6 Obama: “we’ve rescued our economy from catastrophe”
  • 7 Hong Kong Disciplined Services continue to demand pay parity
  • 8 Twitter victim of Russian-Georgian hostility
  • 9 Pakistan Taliban leader dies in succession battle
  • 10 Felicia weakens to a tropical storm

File:NoordinTop-FBI.jpg

Indonesia is to carry out DNA tests on the body of a man killed in the Temanggung district of Central Java. The body is believed to be that of Noordin Mohammed Top. Born in Malaysia, Top is believed to have been behind a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2002, including the 2002 Bali bombings and the bombing of the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels this July.

After a 16-hour siege, Indonesia’s elite Detachment 88 stormed a building in Beji village that police intelligence officers believe was occupied by Top and his group.

In an unrelated police raid two would-be suicide bombers were also killed; the target of their truck bomb was believed to be a residence owned by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Sources

Following a mass trial on August 1, at which critics of the Ahmadinejad regime were tried for sedition, Iran has on Saturday initiated a second mass trial of those it accuses of attempting to destabilise the Iranian state. Amongst the dozen accused are staff members of the British and French embassies and a French national. Both France and Britain have protested, with British officials calling the situation “completely unacceptable” and the French saying that the Iranian allegations were “absolutely baseless”.

In what have been described as show trials, opposition leaders have confessed to crimes against the state.

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

Sources

Great train robber Ronnie Biggs has been released from prison custody on compassionate grounds by British Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw. Biggs, aged 80, is suffering from pneumonia and is said to have just days to live.

His release comes on the day of his birthday and the 46th anniversary of the crime that made him infamous.

Sources

Samantha Orobator, a British 20-year-old from Peckham, London has been returned to the United Kingdom to serve out the remainder of a life sentence for drug smuggling. Convicted in Laos of attempting to smuggle 680g of heroin, Orobator initially faced execution by firing squad, which she escaped only when she became pregnant.

The circumstances of her trial and the circumstances of how she came to be pregnant has led to human rights organisation Reprieve to call for the quashing of her conviction. However the British government has indicated that it will honour its prisoner repatriation agreement with Laos.

Sources

In a move championed by its chief executive officer, Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation announced it will charge for online content across all its titles by the end of the year. News Corporation owns the publications The Times and The Wall Street Journal amongst other media interests.

The move comes after a collapse in advertising revenues and US$3.4 billion of losses in the fiscal year just ended. Murdoch explained “…quality journalism is not cheap” and said his plan will “save journalism”. He says he is confident that competitors will follow his lead.

Sources

Buoyed by better then expected unemployment figures for July, President Barack Obama claimed on Friday that the United States economy is “pointed in the right’ direction and that “we’ve rescued our economy from catastrophe”.

His speech comes in the wake of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures indicating that 200,000 fewer jobs were lost in July then in June.

Sources

Five of Hong Kong’s six Disciplined Services continue to press the territory’s government for pay parity with the Hong Kong Police Force. Although industrial action is for the time being unlikely unions representing officers from correctional services, customs and excise, fire services, immigration and government flying services will hold a mass meeting later this month to put pressure on the government.

Similar rank and grade structures are used through out the six services, however despite the claim that customs and police officers having similar duties and workloads, a police officer will receive up to HK$7,900 more than a custom officer of the same rank.

Sources

Social networking site Twitter is the unlikely victim of the ongoing hostility between Russia and Georgia. However, on the anniversary of the South Ossetian war, Russian hackers launched a mass denial-of-service attack aimed at silencing Cyxymu, a Georgian economics professor critical of Russia. In addition to Twitter other sites at which Cyxymu posted were also attacked, however being a smaller operation the attacks caused a complete outage of Twitter while the other sites were merely slowed.

Sources

Pakistani intelligence service sources state that Hakimullah Mehsud leader of Fedayeen al-Islam has been killed in a fight for the leadership of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) an al-Qaeda ally.

The statement comes a day after public speculation of the death of TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack on the 5th of August. Baitullah and Hakimullah are cousins with Hakimullah serving as a deputy to Baitullah. The TTP is a coalition of disparate groups and without the charisma and leadership of Baitullah, appears to have fallen victim to internal feuding. According to sources Hakimullah Mehsud met with rival Taliban leader Waliur Rehman to determine the succession, word at the shura became heated and led to a gunfight that resulted in the death of Hakimullah and the serious wounding of Rehman.

Hakimullah had earlier issued statements denying Baitullah’s death.

Sources

Hurricane Felicia has weakened to a tropical storm, but residents of Hawaii are continuing to monitor the storm’s progress as it approaches the islands.

Tropical storm watches were posted for portions of the state, and some beaches have been closed in anticipation of high surf. Meanwhile, emergency supplies were selling rapidly at local stores: “Things are just flying out”, said Vicki Lebowitz, manager of The City Mill in Oahu.

The storm, once a Category 4 major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, is expected to further weaken before making landfall on Hawaii.

Sources

Get Sound Online Exposure With Ecommerce Application Development}

Submitted by: Shahdeep International

Ecommerce application development is the one stop solution for growth in the businesses. It helps the businessmen to reach a wider group of customers.

Now every business is seeking for online exposure to reach people beyond geographical boundaries. Ecommerce development has become the ultimate solution for the growth and prospers of every sector. Currently, numerous ecommerce websites are running on the internet providing numerous products from different section of industries.

Ecommerce application development provides a right approach of development from the basic system analysis and design to all the necessary promotional activities. It is trouble free, consumes less time and secures all the commercial transactions to exchange goods and services in the most accurate way. For a successful website, the applications should be flexible, reliable and have elements of quality. For the perfect ecommerce application, one needs to utilize some brilliant techniques and sound development skills.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxXrUWV2Vmk[/youtube]

Ecommerce web application development for retailing or wholesale organization is complex if not done expertly and properly according to the business. Relating to the present situation of outsourcing, all intelligent marketers and organization managers use to outsource their IT tasks to offshore web designing companies, this intelligent approach of doing organization brings quality, reliability and flexibility to the application tasks. As they get more economical expert IT developments as compare to national sourcing. Designers for Ecommerce development from these overseas web service providing organizations, offer some expert services.

Professional designers gather deep knowledge about the businesses and all core products of organization as well as sub categories. They develop a profound ecommerce program, which benefits to both people such as powerful administration for management and control to entrepreneur and simple interface experience to client. Developers offer a good navigation program, which plays significant role with many different functions for the ease of clients. Professional ecommerce designers use to make such a program, which allows one time registration procedure and client friendly shopping cart application plus, function of multiple shipping address and simple check out procedure. For making a proficient ecommerce program, expert designers use to offer powerful administration panel to management and manage all the back-end and front-end activities.

It has made online shopping much more comfortable for the users too. Now a person doesnt have to seek from market to market for a particular product. He can search online for whatever he wants, without any hassle and get them delivered at their home. The user doesnt even have to waste money on traveling and can get the products delivered at their home. It has made the life of both the businessmen and the user much easier.

To succeed in the modern competitive world on the internet, ecommerce development must be designed expertly, which makes them capable to produce efficient results for businessmen as well as the users.

Bryan Strang is an experienced writer having more than 10 years of experience in writing articles on various topics such as Ecommerce Application Development, Drupal web development , ecommerce development, wordpress website design, Joomla web development, ecommerce development etc.

About the Author: For more information on Ecommerce Application Development:

shahdeepinternational.com/e-commerce/index.php

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=1649721&ca=Internet}

21 July London bombing suspect held

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Yasin Hassan Omar, 24 — suspected of the attempted attack on Warren Street Tube Station — has been arrested by police in Birmingham in a raid yesterday.

After being informed by a member of the public, police — supported by an army bomb disposal team from the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) — launched a dawn raid at 04:30 am BST on a ground floor flat in Heybarnes Road that Omar was apparently staying in alone. According to the British tabloid newspaper “The Daily Mirror”, Omar allegedly shouted at police to “Get back or I’ll take you with me”.

After a struggle ensued involving, it is believed, a rucksack that police feared was a bomb, Omar was shot in the bathroom by a 50,000-volt taser stun gun that temporarily disabled him. The rucksack was apparently thrown outside the window by police officers.

Around 100 homes were subsequently evacuated as a precautionary measure on the orders of the RLC bomb disposal team. The team then made a controlled explosion of the suspect package.

In a house in nearby Bankdale Road, three men, thought to be Somalis, were arrested and taken to a local police station.

Omar was later taken to Paddington Green, West London, the Metropolitan Police’s only high-security police station.

The flat in Birmingham remained guarded by police while forensic tests continued.

Elsewhere, three women were arrested in Blair House in Stockwell, London in connection with the investigations into the attempted attacks on 21 July.

Early this morning, nine people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 in raids on two houses in Tooting, south London. None are believed to be the three remaining 21 July bombers at large.

Haitian earthquake: in pictures

Friday, January 15, 2010

Haiti was hit by a heavy earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 on Tuesday, killing an unknown number of people, and destroying up to ten percent of buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

No official death toll has been released as of yet, although the United Nations says that up to fifty thousand people may potentially have been killed. An estimated 300,000 more were left without homes.

In a special photo report, Wikinews looks at the extensive damage caused by the disaster.


To find more information about a certain image or to enlarge it, click it. For an in-depth textual report on the same subject, please see Haiti relief efforts: in depth.

9/11 health care bill passed in US House of Representatives

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The United States House of Representatives on Wednesday approved US$7.4 billion to pay for the medical bills of workers sickened or injured by the September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11 attacks) on the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. The bill was passed by a vote of 268–160. Thirteen Republicans joined the Democrats in supporting the bill, while three Democrats opposed the measure. Similar legislation is pending in the US Senate.

“Let’s not have any more people die because of the attacks of 9/11,” said Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from New York.

The bill, which will provide free health care to 9/11 workers, will be paid for by ending tax breaks for foreign corporations, was fiercely debated on the House floor, with Democratic backers of the bill proclaiming that they stood for 9/11 heroes and victims. Republicans against the bill argued that it was an entitlement program for New Yorkers and that it was another example of bloated government. “There is no excuse for this kind of legislation,” argued Texan Republican representative Lamar Smith.

The Republicans offered an alternative that would reduce funding for 9/11 workers and pay for the remainder by cutting parts of a major health care bill passed earlier this year. This measure failed 185–244.

Bathurst War Memorial vandalised before ANZAC service

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The carillion war memorial in Bathurst in Central Western NSW was vandalised just hours before a dawn ANZAC day service. Police allege that five teenage girls aged 15 and 16 were involved.

Diggers‘ who had been looking forward to the dawn service said they were bought to tears after they learned that statements saying “ANZAC murderers” and “Aussies don’t fight” were painted on the war memorial.

Police say they were called to the memorial after reports that a group of vandals had covered the shrine with offensive graffiti. Sergent Andrew Holand from Bathurst police said “Police arrived a short time later and observed that they had painted approximately one metre high, [beige coloured] slogans all the way around the exteriors of the war memorial using words such as “ANZAC murderers” and “Aussies don’t fight” along with peace symbols”.

“They’ve then taken the remnants of the four-litre paint cans and splashed these on the doors and external steps of the war memorial,” he said.

When police located the group of five teenagers some were still covered in paint. All were taken to Bathurst Police Station where the 16 year-old girl was charged with maliciously damaging a shrine or war memorial and malicious damage to police property. It is alleged after she was arrested she damaged a police cell.

The four other girls involved, all aged 15 will be cautioned under the state’s Youth Offenders Act.

Jim McFerran from the Bathurst Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) said he was humbled by efforts to clean up the graffiti. He said an effort involving RSL members, local army personnel, council workers, volunteer firefighters and a group of young men on their way home after a night out.

“We had about a dozen young fellas that were going home from the pub, they sort of stopped and said: ‘What’s going on here?’,” said Mr McFerran.

“When they got told, they sort of walked over, bloody downed their things, grabbed … pads and rags and starting getting in there with the rest of us.”

NSW Premier Morris Iemma condemned the vandalism, saying “They need a history lesson and a good kick up the backside as well.”