Saturday, August 8, 2009

A small plane and a tourist helicopter have collided in mid-air over the Hudson River above Hoboken, New Jersey. At least six people were on the helicopter, and three people were on the plane. The collision occurred near Pier 40 in New York City at 11:53 a.m. (EDT), just before both crafts crashed into the water.

Earlier, authorities had reported that at least one survivor had been rescued from the river. Reports now say that all passengers on the plane and helicopter have been killed.

“This is not going to have a happy ending. This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission,” said the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. He added that the crash was “not survivable.”

The helicopter was a Eurocopter AS 350 and was owned by Liberty Tours. It was carrying five tourists from Italy and one pilot.

LCA Partnerships operated the plane which was carrying three people, including a child. Reports say it took off from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport after traveling from Pennsylvania. The plane was a Piper PA-32 single engine, fixed wing aircraft with the tail number of N71MC.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, but witnesses on the ground say the plane struck the helicopter from behind. The Associated Press says that a helicopter pilot on the ground, saw the plane on a collision course with the helicopter and tried to radio the two aircraft in an attempt to warn them.

The collision occurs just seven months after a US Airways, Airbus A320 carrying 155 people, crashed into the Hudson following a bird strike. All people on board the plane survived.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) co-chief executive and chairman, Jim Balsillie, has resigned voluntarily as chairman after an internal review revealed irregularities with how the company accounted for stock options.

The review was carried out over the past 7 months and indicates that, Canadian BlackBerry maker, RIM, will have to restate earnings for all of 2004, 2005, and 2006, and for the first quarter of 2007. The company will have to lower previously reported earnings by approximately US$250 million.

The review committee indicated that RIM “failed to maintain adequate internal and accounting controls with respect to the issuance of options in compliance with the Company’s stock option plan, both in terms of how options were granted and documented, and the measurement date used to account for certain option grants”.

Although the review finds that there was no deliberate misconduct, both Balsillie and co-chief executive, Michael Lazaridis, have agreed to pay, voluntarily, up to $5 million each to compensate the company for the costs of the review and restatement.

All RIM directors and C-level officers will have to pay back any monies received incorrectly as a result of the option irregularities.

Balsillie will retain his positions as co-chief executive and director. In a press release, the company stated that “consistent with current best practices in corporate governance, the roles of chairman and CEO are being separated”. Current RIM chief financial officer, Dennis Kavelman, will move to the position of chief operating officer.

RIM is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market and is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Pro Hart, the self-taught, internationally-acclaimed Australian artist, died at home in Broken Hill on March 28 after family members decided to cease his medication. The 77-year-old had been ill with motor neurone disease. Family members described his passing as peaceful. Hart is a household name in Australia.

Hart’s son, John Hart, says a State funeral is being organised for his father. He says his father lost the ability to paint about six months ago. Pro Hart’s son David today said the funeral for the “brushman of the bush” will be held in the far-western New South Wales mining city of Broken Hill next Tuesday. “It will be held next Tuesday”, he said, “probably in the town’s civic centre.”

Born Kevin Charles Hart in Broken Hill on May 30, 1928, his mining mates nicknamed him ‘Professor’ due to his passion for invention. He started painting “cheeky” pictures on the wooden beams of the mines he worked in. Hart went to few art classes and started painting full-time in 1958.

Since then, he has exhibited all over the world, including London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. He also illustrated several books. Hart’s preoccupation with art began as a teenager on his family’s sheep station near Menindee.

His work hangs in collections all over the world. Agent Amanda Phillips says Hart was one of Australia’s most renowned artists yet his paintings are not in the National Gallery of Australia. “He’s a great Australian, I mean he’s been given an MBE for his services to art, he’s been honoured all around the world, his work hangs in major collections around the world, why isn’t he displayed here in Australia? A spokeswoman for the National Gallery confirmed they had a “very limited collection” of Pro Hart’s works although no paintings.

Friday, November 24, 2006

According to a report released by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) for United Nation’s Development Plan, the per capita GNP in Eastern Turkey, an area predominantly inhabited by Kurdish people, is as low as seven percent of that of the European Union on average. The report analyzed a region of 21 cities in Eastern Turkey*. One of the cities included in the report, ??rnak, was reported to be as poor as Botswana, Southern Africa.

Other points highlighted in the report included:

• 60% of the population in the region was under the poverty line. If this situation persists, people may start to migrate to Northern Iraq.
• If 1% of the national income is spent on Eastern Turkey’s infrastructure and social investment for 7 years, the region will be enabled to finance itself. If the economic and social conditions in the region are fixed, the fragile relationship between the Turkish government and the Kurdish people of the region may improve.
• Access to health services is a primary human right. Without access to health services, one cannot expect that people of this region can live in confidence. Health institutions should employ nurses who speak Kurdish so the patients can communicate with the health services staff.
• The use of the private sector is not reliable as a solution. The government should act to remedy the lack of infrastructure in the region.

Oh hi mark

[edit]

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Rescue crews have called an end to the search for eight mountaineers who went missing on the French side of Mont Blanc after an avalanche that occurred on at 0100 GMT August 24. Eight other climbers were also injured. Five of the missing are said to be Austrian and three were from Switzerland.

“[There is] no longer any chance of finding someone alive,” stated the interior minister of France, Michele Alliot-Marie who also added that are more people trapped beneath the snow. “Thanks to technology, we know for certain there are people buried under the snow, but it’s impossible to be sure exactly how many.”

Rescuers feared that there would be more avalanches and decided to end the search for survivors in the late afternoon today. The avalanche started at an elevation of 3,600 meters and went down the mountainside for nearly 100 meters, leaving a trail 50 meters wide. Rescuers used helicopters and dogs to search for survivors for a day, but failed to find any.

“[I saw] a wall of ice coming towards us and then we were carried 200 metres,” said one of the survivors from Italy, Marco Delfini who also said he tried to help the others caught in the snow.

There have been many accidents in the Alps this summer, about one hundred climbers have perished since June 1 in France, Italy and Switzerland altogether, of whom about twenty have died on Mont Blanc.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

The parliament of Indonesia has approved government plans to make an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in three major state-owned firms, privatising them. They are steelmaker Krakatau Steel, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) and national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

The parliament has left the process fully in the hands of the government, and has set the maximum stake to be sold at 30% for BTN and Krakatau, and 40% for Garuda. Although Indonesia has been known to fund budget deficits with privatisation, the intention is for the funds from this scheme to go to the businesses themselves to allow expansion.

Krakatau expects 3.2 trillion Rupiah (IDR) from the sale, while the estimated price for their stock is between IDR3 and IDR4 trillion (321 – 428 million USD). Both ArcelorMittal SA, the biggest steelmaker in the world, and BlueScope Steel Ltd, the largest in Australia, have expressed an interest in the IPO. Krakatau will use the funds to help finance an expansion scheme which aims to have production doubled to five million tonnes in 2011.

BTN, which focuses on home owner loans, has set itself a target income of IDR36.12 trillion (3.86 billion USD) in 2010 compared to a projected IDR22.9 trillion ( 2.45 billion USD) this year. Net profit for this year is projected at IDR472 billion (50.5 million USD)and is hoped to rise to IDR1.39 trillion (148.7 million USD) in 2010. The bank’s loan to deposit ratio is predicted to rise from 105.05% this year to 144.93% in 2012. BTN hopes to conduct its IPO before the end of 2008.

Garuda is not quite 100% state-owned to start with, unlike the other two, but is very close with 95.44% of the company belonging to the government. Like all of Indonesia’s 51 airlines, Garuda is on the list of air carriers banned in the EU due to safety concerns raised after a string of air accidents in the nation. Garuda expects to raise IDR4.2 trillion (449.4 million USD) in funds from the IPO, and will use IDR2.5 trillion (267.5 million USD) to pay off its debts and invest IDR1.7 trillion (181.9 million USD) in new aircraft.

The government is still working to get a deal to make IPOs for architectural firm Yodya Karya and three plantation firms called Perkebunan Nusantara III, IV and VII.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Created by the Brampton Arts Council and the City of Brampton, the Studios of Brampton studio tour will allow residents a chance to view works by dozens of local artists at twelve locations.

The tour will run October 1 & 2 from 10 pm until 4 pm ET.

On the tour are the personal studios of watercolourist Jack Reid, sculpture Marion Bartlett, woodworker Rick Bino, ceramicist Eric Wong, calligrapher and fashion illustrator Rosemarie Gidvani, abstract painter Karen Darling, oil painter John Cutruzzola, stain-glass artist Darlene Robichaud, and watercolourist Gordon Stuart.

Also on the tour is the Art Gallery of Peel, which will be exhibiting Sydney Drum, a Canadian artist based in New York, and Kelly McNeil.

Visual Arts Brampton and Beaux-Arts Brampton will both have line-ups of local artist members. VAB has confirmed displays by William Band, Bridget Doughty, Betty Jean Evans, Marguerite Finlayson, Conrad Mieschke, Keith Moreau, Mary Noble, Olga Rudge, and Elizabeth Patrick.

Sample works representing each location on the tour will be shown at the Brampton City Hall’s Atrium Gallery.