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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota signed a bill into law on Thursday that requires the state to generate a significant amount of its energy needs from renewable sources.

The amount of power generated by wind turbines in the state stands now at 895 megawatts. An additional 5,000 megawatts of energy from renewable sources will need to be added to Minnesota’s electricity resources, which is roughly eight times more than the amount that currently comes from renewables.

The bill signed by the Governor requires energy companies to provide 25 percent of power from renewable sources by 2025.

Xcel Energy, which supplies approximately half of the electricity in the state, is required to provide 30 percent from renewable sources by 2020.

Monday, February 16, 2009

In the 1970s, she was one of the most popular female vocalists in France, and became well-known internationally. Anne Marie David, from Arles in the south of France, parlayed her initial success from playing Mary Magdalene in the French production of Jesus Christ Superstar into taking home the “grand prix” at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973. Her winning song, “Tu te reconnaîtras” (You will recognize yourself), became a Europe-wide hit that spring.

At the height of her popularity, David perfomed world tours, and even lived abroad in Turkey for a time. In 1979, she tried once again to win the Eurovision, and placed a respectable third. Her song “Je suis l’enfant soleil” (I’m a child of the sun) became similarly popular across France and in the Francophone nations.

As time went on, however, her place in the French music scene became less certain. Touring the world had taken a personal toll, and David decided to retire from music completely in 1987. However, with the help of her fan base, she was coaxed out of retirement in 2003 and is returning to a part of her life that she tried to leave, but never left her. Celebrating four decades in the music scene, David is looking forward to adventurous new projects and a newfound zest for life.

Anne Marie David corresponded with Wikinews’ Mike Halterman about her eventful career, her personal anecdotes regarding living abroad, her successes in past Eurovision contests and her grievances with the way the show is produced today. This is the second in a series of interviews with past Eurovision contestants, which will be published sporadically in the lead-up to mid-May’s next contest in Moscow.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Fears of contaminated bone and skin grafts are being felt by unsuspecting patients following the revelation that funeral homes may have been looting corpses.

Janet Evans of Marion Ohio was told by her surgeon, “The bone grafts you got might have been contaminated”. She reacted with shock, “I was flabbergasted because I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I didn’t know I got a bone graft until I got this call. I just thought they put in screws and rods.”

The body of Alistair Cooke, the former host of “Masterpiece Theatre,” was supposedly looted along with more than 1,000 others, according to two law enforcement officials close to the case. The tissue taken was typically skin, bone and tendon, which was then sold for use in procedures such as dental implants and hip replacements. According to authorities, millions of dollars were made by selling the body parts to companies for use in operations done at hospitals and clinics in the United States and Canada.

A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, has reportedly been taking body parts from funeral homes across Brooklyn, New York. According to ABC News, they set up rooms like a “surgical suite.” After they took the bones, they replaced them with PVC pipe. This was purportedly done by stealth, without approval of the deceased person or the next of kin. 1,077 bodies were involved, say prosecuters.

Investagators say a former dentist, Michael Mastromarino, is behind the operation. Biomedical was considered one of the “hottest procurement companies in the country,” raking in close to $5 million. Eventually, people became worried: “Can the donors be trusted?” A tissue processing company called LifeCell answered no, and issued a recall on all their tissue.

Cooke’s daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, said, “To know his bones were sold was one thing, but to see him standing truncated before me is another entirely.” Now thousands of people around the country are receiving letters warning that they should be tested for infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis. On February 23, the Brooklyn District Attorney indicted Mastromarino and three others. They are charged with 122 felony counts, including forgery and bodysnatching.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has given his strongest indication yet that Australians may choose to change their head of state beyond Queen Elizabeth II‘s reign. The comments are the first from Mr Howard, a proud monarchist, casting doubt over the future of the monarchy in Australia.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Howard said that he did not believe Australia would become a republic while Queen Elizabeth II is on the throne, but he conceded that he did not know what would happen after Elizabeth II’s reign ends.

“I do not believe this country would become a republic while the Queen is on the throne; beyond that I don’t know,” Mr Howard told the BBC.

In a separate interview with British broadcaster ITV, Mr Howard refused to predict whether he thought Prince Charles would become King of Australia and indicated that it would be for the Australian people to decide.

“Well, that is a matter for the Australian people, and I believe in democracy,” he said.

“If the Australian people want to change the system, they will. But if they don’t, they won’t. The only prediction that I make is that I do not believe that this country will become a republic while the Queen is on the throne.”

Republicans have seen significance in Mr Howard’s comments. Ted O’Brien, Chair of the Australian Republican Movement said Mr Howard has provided some recognition for a possible Australian head of state.

“Mr Howard’s recognition that it is very unlikely that the country will become a republic while the present Queen is on the throne indicates quite clearly that this may not be the case when Prince Charles takes over,” he said.

“Mr Howard is an astute reader of the mood of the Australian people, and this change in language, if not in sentiment, is clearly some recognition of the likelihood of a future Australian head of state,” added Allison Henry, ARM national director.

Monarchists are urging people not to make too much from Mr Howard’s comments. Professor David Flint from Australians for Constitutional Monarchy said that to think Australia will become a republic based on Mr Howard’s comments would be grasping at straws.

“He’s just saying that he doesn’t know the future, he can’t tell the future, none of us can,” he said.

“It would be grasping at straws for the republicans to say that this means Australia will become a republic or that the Prime Minister says that.”

Tony Abbott, Australia’s health minister and staunch monarchist said he did not believe Australia would become a republic after Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Mr Abbott told ABC that he believes the person on the throne is irrelevant: it is the institution that Australians admire.

“It’s the institution, not the individual which really counts,” he said.

“I am quite confident that were the Queen to pass on and her successor to occupy the throne that there would be the same magic and same personal affection between even Australians and our monarch.”

Monday, January 19, 2009

Officials say that a French military helicopter with 10 French soldiers, including four crew members and six Special Forces paratroopers, has crashed off the coast of Gabon in west central Africa.

The Eurocopter AS 532 Cougar ditched shortly into the Atlantic Ocean after leaving a French naval ship, about 50 kilometres off the coast. Seven French soldiers were killed, two were rescued, and one is still missing, according to a statement issued by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office.

“Today, the wreckage of the helicopter was located at a depth of 35 metres and searched. Unfortunately, we must report the deaths of five other soldiers. A final soldier remains missing. Searches are continuing,” the statement explained.

According to Libreville Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Carpentier, the ill-fated helicopter crashed Saturday night at 8:08 p.m. (1908 GMT) into Atlantic waters off Nyonie, a small town located between Gabon’s capital Libreville and the town of Port-Gentil. It was taking off from the amphibious assault ship La Foudre’s naval landing craft transporter cruising 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Gabonese coast, during a joint training exercise, said Lieutenant Colonel Francois-Marie Gougeon, spokesman for the general staff.

The ship “set off the alert and arrived at the crash site with rescuers who picked up the injured crew within half an hour. The sea was calm and the wind low at the time of the crash but the night was very dark,” Lieutenant Gougeon explained, adding that “search operations will naturally continue all night.” La Foudre, two helicopters and oil giant Total S.A.’s three vessels, including its sonar and underwater robot joined the rescue effort of the salvage team.

“Divers were deployed to locate the wreckage,” said Captain Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the army general staff. “At daybreak we will deploy all our means, planes, helicopters, boats… to take part in the search,” said Gabon’s Interior Minister André Mba Obame.

Meanwhile French President Nicolas Sarkozy directed Defence Minister Hervé Morin to travel to the crash site. Sarkozy had “asked that all available means in the area be immediately deployed to find the soldiers who were aboard.”Morin later announced there would be two probes, a judicial one and another by the French defence ministry, with the assistance of French gendarmes and an air accident expert.

Minister Morin arrived in Libreville on Sunday and met with President Omar Bongo to discuss rescue efforts for the missing body of one of the seven soldiers. “The cause of this tragedy remains unknown. It may be natural or human, or a combination of both.” Morin said. “Divers were inspecting the Cougar, which was in water 35 meters (about 115 feet) deep. We will do everything we can to find the last person missing,” he added.

Morin viewed rescue efforts on La Foudre, and visited friends and relatives of the missing at Camp DeGaulle. The French soldiers were “permanent personnel in Gabon who knew the region well,” said General Claude Reglat, Gabon commander of French forces. “The six others were commandos who had arrived from the French army’s elite 13th Regiment of Dragon Paratroopers. We have expressed our compassion and solidarity to the families,” he added.“This type of helicopter does not have a black box. So the flight was not recorded, nor were the voices in the cockpit. So some elements will remain unknown,” Claude Reglat also noted.

The January 17-21 bilateral manoeuvres called ‘Operation N’Gari’ involved 600 French soldiers and 120 Gabonese troops maneuvering in the military drill known as Baptise Ngeri. The soldiers were backed by Cougar and Fennec helicopters to coordinate maritime safety operations with UN peacekeepers at Bouna airport, in the Ivory Coast. In the joint exercise soldiers were to be parachuted onto predetermined targets including Nyonie.

Gabon, a former French colony, hosts one of four permanent French bases in Africa. Gabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. According the FFG which has around 1,000 troops in Gabon, the French Forces in Gabon (FFG)’s role is “to assure the safety of the 12,000 French residents in the country in case of threat, and carry out aid missions.”

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Torbjorn Zetterlund is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Willowdale riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Scientists at NASA say that new satellite images of Saturn‘s moon Enceladus taken in 2005, has shown that the moon has begun to spew geysers which contain liquid water, and that the internal heat produced by the moon’s core may be able to host life below the icy surface, but scientists also stress that life has not yet been found on the moon.

Scientists say that the heat source producing the geysers is “organic” and that the material used to spew them is caused by the decaying of radioactive material from inside the moon.

“Deep inside Enceladus, our model indicates we’ve got an organic brew, a heat source and liquid water, all key ingredients for life. And while no one is claiming that we have found life by any means, we probably have evidence for a place that might be hospitable to life,” said Dennis Matson, a scientist for the Cassini project.

In a new model created by NASA scientists, data shows that Enceladus might have been created by aluminum and iron isotopes which have begun to decay causing large amounts of heat to build up in the moon and over billions of years later, the icy mass has began to melt near the moon’s core, causing the water to spew into outer space.

“Enceladus is a very small body, and it’s made almost entirely of ice and rock. The puzzle is how the moon developed a warm core. The only way to achieve such high temperatures at Enceladus is through the very rapid decay of some radioactive species,” said Dr. Julie Castillo, the lead scientist developing the new model at the Jet Propulsion laboratory or JPL.

“The decomposition of those isotopes – over a period of about 7 million years – would produce enormous amounts of heat. This would result in the consolidation of rocky material at the core surrounded by a shell of ice. According to the theory, the remaining, more slowly decaying radioactivity in the core could continue to warm and melt the moon’s interior for billions of years, along with tidal forces from Saturn’s gravitational tug,” said a statement on NASA”s website.

Data from Cassini’s ion and neutral mass spectrometer further shows that the natural building blocks of life are also present within Enceladus. The results show that carbon dioxide, acetylene, methane, propane and nitrogen, the basic building blocks for life, are all present within the moon.

“The team concludes that so far, all the findings and the hot start model indicate that a warm, organic-rich mixture was produced below the surface of Enceladus and might still be present today, making the moon a promising kitchen for the cooking of primordial soup,” added the statement.

Cassini will make a flyby on Enceladus in march of 2008. The mission will “measure the gas emanating from the plume,” ended the statement.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The FBI have arrested a man and charged him with interstate stalking over allegations he was responsible for nude videos of United States sports news presenter Erin Andrews. The videos appeared on the Internet earlier this year.

The FBI believes seven videos of Andrews were made in Nashville, Tennessee in September last year while another one was made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is believed that the suspect, Michael David Barrett, 48, stayed each time in a room next to Andrews and modified her room’s peephole with a hacksaw in order to take the videos with his mobile phone.

Barrett was returning from a trip to Buffalo, New York on Friday when he was arrested at Chicago‘s O’Hare International Airport. He has been held over the weekend and made an initial court appearance in Chicago on Saturday.

It is alleged that Barrett tried to sell the videos to celebrity website TMZ.com, but one of their employees told Andrews’ lawyer. He faces the charge in Los Angeles where TMZ is based and tomorrow a judge will decide whether to send him there or release him on bail. He faces a fine of $250,000 and five years imprisonment if convicted.

Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University has been identified as the location most of the videos were taken but the hotel involved in the one thought to be taken in Milwaukee remains a mystery. A room Andres used at Milwaukee’s Ramada Conference Center had similar damage to its peephole but the room did not match the video and Barrett is not thought to have checked in there, although it is claimed he did reserve a room beside Andrews. It is also claimed he made a similar request when booking his room at the Marriott.

Andrews has reviewed several of the videos in an effort to assist authorities with their enquiries. “For my part, I will make every effort to strengthen the laws on a state and federal level to better protect victims of criminal stalking,” she said in a statement that thanked the FBI and federal prosecutors. She has topped a Playboy poll for sexiest sportscaster for the last two years running.

People who know Barrett have expressed surprise. “I don’t think he’s even had a traffic ticket… He’s as regular a guy as you’ll ever meet — a great friend,” said his lawyer, Rick Beuke. Barrett’s father Frank said the allegations “[do] not match the Mike I know.” “He’s always been an upstanding, hardworking guy,” according to Frank.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The bodies of 46 Afghan illegal immigrants who suffocated to death in a container truck Saturday near Quetta, Pakistan, returned home Tuesday.

The Edhi Foundation placed the victim’s bodies into coffins to transport them back to Chaman. Funeral prayers were said before victims left Quetta hospital. “We are taking these dead bodies to Spin Boldak and later these will be flown to Kabul by helicopter. We are thankful to Pakistan government for every help,” said Afghan consul general Daud Mohsini.

Afghan officials received the bodies from The Edhi ambulances and Pakistan police escorts at the Pak-Afghan border Bab-e-Dosti (Friendship Gate). Security was high and traffic was backed up at the border crossing. The bodies were taken to Kandahar then to Kabul before they were laid to rest in their home towns.

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan dispatched aircraft to Pakistan to bring home the 46 victims. Poor weather grounded the planes, and the bodies were driven back across the border.

Pakistan police found a locked truck packed with approximately 111 Afghan illegal immigrants around 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Quetta on Saturday. The driver had fled the scene where 62 people were initially pronounced dead. Police said that from the strong smell emanating from the truck, the victims may have died days before they were discovered.

45 other people were found unconscious and taken directly to the hospital. At hospital two more migrants died. “The death toll is 46,” said Ghulam Dastagir, a police official.

Wazir Khan Nasir, a senior police official said, “We have been able to talk to some of the people, who were trapped in the container. They were all Afghans in the container and the container was going to Iran, When the condition of people inside the container deteriorated, the driver fled, leaving the container.”

Survivors have reported that a human smuggling racket locked 64 Kabul residents and 37 Spin Boldak residents in the truck container Friday afternoon. The truck’s air conditioning unit stopped working causing the locked passengers to cry out for help which was unheeded by the truck’s driver, and they fell unconscious. However, the loud ruckus caused by the trapped people inside did alert police and local residents to their plight.

The trip had cost each illegal immigrant US$4,000 to 8,000 for the trip. Gul Zameen, a survivor said, “We are all poor and wanted to find jobs in Quetta and Iran.”

The survivors have been charged under the Foreigners Act and some have been detained. Karzai has ordered an investigation and “demanded people avoid dangerous illegal migration and not be deceived by smugglers.” “We’ll go to Pakistan and talk to the survivors to find out what had exactly happened. The culprits will be brought to justice,” said Moheeddin Baluch head of the investigating delegation.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is also investigating. Five suspects believed to be involved in running the human smuggling racket have been arrested.