Saturday, June 11, 2011

The government of Eritrea has accused four British men who were detained last December of espionage and terrorism. The men were working for Protection Vessels International (PVI), a maritime security company, when they disappeared on December 24, 2010. According to the company, the group was forced to make an unscheduled stop at the port of Massawa due to rough weather, refuelling and equipment repairs.

A statement made on television by the Eritrean authorities said that the men had a variety of weapons, including 18 sniper rifles and “1,700 bullets.” The statement also claimed that “there is high possibility that such military hardware is intended for perpetrating acts of terrorism and sabotage.” PVI hit back at the claims, saying that the weapons were “standard issue for antipiracy operations.”

Paul Gibbins, a spokesman for PVI, spoke to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, saying “[t]his is a gross misunderstanding and we regret the situation that we find ourselves in. We will continue to work very hard for the men’s release and we welcome any dialogue with the Eritrean authorities.”

Two of the four men being held are former Royal Marines. Three of the men have been named as Adrian Troy, Christopher Collison, and Alun Sims.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced a recall of foods containing banned dyes which increase the risk of cancer. The food products were sold at the Tesco, Waitrose, and Somerfield supermarkets.

A Bristol company called “Barts Spices” found the illegal Para Red substance in their Barts Ground Paprika, which was sold in 48g and 46g jars with a “Co-op” label. The batch codes on the affected products are 5032 and 5089 (expiration Dec 2007), and 5075 (expiration February 2007).

Tesco also found that their 130g package of BBQ rice cakes (expiration November and December 2005) contained both Para Red and Sudan I.

“It would be very prudent to assume that it could be a genotoxic carcinogen,” FSA scientific advisers told reporters.

“As a company committed to supplying only the very finest quality food ingredients, we took the immediate decision to withdraw our ground paprika spice from all outlets selling the product and advertised a product recall in the national press,” a Barts Spices spokesman said in a statement.

Sudan I is only authorized for industrial use to colorize petroleum products, such as shoe polish. Para Red and Sudan I are banned under the British Colours in Food Regulations of 1995.

Britain last went through a major food recall in February, when Worcester Sauce was found to contain chili powder dyed with Sudan 1.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Chicago White Sox scored a narrow 5–4 victory Monday against the Detroit Tigers after White Sox player A.J. Pierzynski scored a go-ahead run in extra innings. The go-ahead run gave the White Sox two extra runs.

“We’re just finding ways to win games. We’re battling. We’re not giving at-bats away,” Pierzynski, catacher for the White Sox, said after the game.

Though the White Sox led 3–2 in the fourth inning, Mark Kotsay got out at home plate when attempting to get the White Sox a fourth run. Later, Tiger Don Kelly scored a home run, pushing the Tigers up to a lead of 4–2. The homer had both Kelly and Miguel Cabrera scoring a run each. The White Sox also hit a run in the eighth inning.

Also notable was that rookie relief pitcher Chris Sale won his first game after pitching in the tenth inning. Sale, who is on the Sox, earned praise from Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen, who said “very, very pleasant surprise. Very, very nice.”

The White Sox are currently 3 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central Division in the MLB. The Sox currently has a record of 77 wins and 60 losses, and have won four games in a row. The Detroit Tigers are third in the Central Division with a record of 68–70, and are 13 games behind Minnesota.

The game was played in Comerica Park in Detroit. 32,924 people attended the game.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The family of murdered UK thirteen-year-old Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by journalists of the News of the World, have been offered £3 million compensation by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, in settlement negotiations currently under way.

UK newspaper The Guardian revealed the phone hacking earlier this year. After Dowler was reported missing in 2002, her voicemail messages were listened to and several deleted, creating the impression she might still be alive.

The £3 million on offer reportedly includes £1 million to charity. The rest would go directly to the family. The Guardian reports the Dowler’s lawyers were believed to be looking for about ?3.5 million.

News International stated they were “in advanced negotiations” and “hope to conclude the discussion as quickly as possible.”

Rupert Murdoch personally met with the Dowler family earlier in the year to offer them his apologies for the actions of his News of the World paper. News of the World ceased publishing after discovery of the Dowler hacking and other similar incidents.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Victory Park, Woombye, Queensland — Conversions were a rarity on Saturday as Noosa defeated Nambour in a four try to two round 18 Sunshine Coast Rugby Union match in Woombye, Australia. The final margin was eleven points in Noosa’s favour.

Monday, August 9, 2010

A faulty ammonia line fitting delayed repairs to a cooling pump on the International Space Station Saturday during an eight-hour spacewalk.

During the spacewalk, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were to repair a faulty cooling system, which failed on July 31. The faulty cooling unit was to be swapped with a new one that was previously in storage to solve the problem; however, an ammonia leak in the final line to be disconnected from the unit halted attempts for a repair.

Upon discovering the problem, the astronauts were instructed to reconnect the line and install a positioning device to maintain the proper pressure on the line.

Upon completing the spacewalk, Wheelock and Dyson spent additional time in the airlock to get rid of any ammonia particles that may have attached themselves to their spacesuits.

NASA officials are analyzing possible solutions to the issue to attempt during a planned spacewalk Wednesday. Wednesday’s spacewalk was previously intended to be second in the series to repair the cooling system by reattaching fluid and electrical lines.

Before Saturday’s spacewalk, NASA officials projected that up to three spacewalks may be needed to repair the cooling system.

Most of the space station’s non-critical scientific components have been temporarily shut-down in order to reduce heat generation with only one cooling loop available to the station.

NASA reports that the station’s crew, three Russians and three Americans, are not in any danger; however, it is in the best interests of the crew to restore systems to nominal condition as soon as possible.

The eight-hour spacewalk is reportedly the longest ISS-based spacewalk, and the sixth longest in the history of human spaceflight.

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Australian industral relations reform legislationmade up of 700 pages of bill legislation and 500 additional pages of explanatory memoranda was introduced into the Federal House of Representatives November 2, where the Opposition heatedly attempted to address their perceived problem of the Government’s lack of discussion and debate over the matter.

The first reading of the bill was the first order of the day, and when Kevin Andrews tried to do so, Opposition member Stephen Smith, responsible for workplace relations, immediately moved a motion deferring the bills to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation. The Leader of the House, Tony Abbott moved that Smith and the necessary supporter — viz., Julia Gillard — be not further heard (cloture). The Government’s majority in the House ensured that this would happen. However, Opposition members attempted to use House standing orders necessitating that copies of the bill to be “available to Members”, with argument arising whether “available to Members” meant all members or simply whether some copies should be available; this ended up in a dissent motion moved against the Speaker of the House.

Later, in a heated Question Time, where six members of the Opposition, (Kelly Hoare, Julia Irwin, Anthony Albanese, Bernard Ripoll, Catherine King, and Gavan O’Connor), were removed from the Chamber during Question Time under standing orders for disruption — Jill Hall quipped that she was “glad to be still here to ask [her] question” — nearly all questions to the Government put by the Opposition, the subsequent time for matters of public importance, and some members in the adjournment debate, was all on the topic of the industrial relations reform.

To implement and fund the legislation, the government will “spend an additional $486million on industrial relations changes over four years, or $121million a year. This spending would be in addition to the present annual budget of $86million.” said an unnamed government source for The Australian.

The government will need to use its corporation powers to remove the powers from the states to alter the award conditions and other employee employer related conditions. But the New South Wales premier Morris Iemma has received legal advice that the legislation maybe unconstitutional, the reason being its being used to end the role of the states and territories Australian States in the industrial relations system. “It is our view that the Commonwealth is misusing this law to achieve exactly what it was designed to prevent”, Iemma said. Mr Iemma will be challenging the changes in the high court with Peter Beattie Premier of Queensland supporting his challenge in the High Court.