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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

At least 21,000 gallons of crude oil has spilled into the Gulf of Mexico near the United States mainland coast, about 30 miles off the shore of Galveston, Texas. The U.S. Coast Guard says that oil is still leaking at a rate of 80 to 400 gallons a day.

The High Island Pipeline began to leak on Sunday and was immediately shut down when a pressure loss was detected. The pipeline is owned by Plains All American Pipeline who state that the incident is “under investigation” and that officials are working to “minimize the impact of the incident.”

“A medium crude oil pipeline ruptured 30 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, and leaked approximately 21,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, December 24,” said a press release by Coast Guard.

“There’s a 60-yard-wide oil sheen that extends for about half a mile. It is still leaking slowly, about 80 to 400 gallons a day,” added the Coast Guard.

Reports say that the oil is traveling away from any shoreline and that remaining oil is being suctioned out of the pipeline. Ships in the area have not been diverted.

“All appropriate agencies have been notified. Plains, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Texas General Land Office are working within a unified command system consisting of Federal and state agencies and oil spill response organizations to manage and mitigate this incident. In addition, Plains has activated its spill response plan to contain and clean up the spill. At present, Plains has mobilized Airborne Support, Inc., Clean Gulf Associates and other additional resources in an effort to minimize the consequences of the incident,” said a press release by the Plains oil company.

So far, no injuries have been reported.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

After the success of Taiwan Photovoltaic Forum 2006, the organizer Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) held PV Taiwan 2007 Forum and Exhibition at Taipei International Convention Center on October 11 and 12. This forum and exhibitions attracted 74 companies participating with 110 exhibition booths at TICC 1F and 2F, and is mainly focused on photovoltaic materials/modules/products, electrical system transformation products, system appliances.

According to TAITRA, with the environment topic on global warming, increasing of oil prices, environment awareness, and greenhouse effect, solar energy is a very important energy source from now. The production value is currently increasing world-wide, with the help of semiconductor industry, the photovoltaic industry will play a suitable role at energy and environment industry in Taiwan.

In the exhibition, lots of exhibitors showed their solutions and products on solar energy modules and photovoltaic products with lots of unique functions such as waterproof, long-time usage, and industry integration. One of the exhibitors – Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) also held a seminar and “Jinyi Award” for nominated participants and college students on photovoltaic industry.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

U.S. authorities have charged Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with trying to blow up a plane on its descent into the city of Detroit, Michigan on Friday. The man, who comes from a prominent Nigerian family, was read the charges in a hospital Saturday, where he is being treated for burns.

The charges were read by United States District Judge Paul Borman while Abdulmutallab was being held at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Abdulmutallab was asked if he understood the charges against him, and he answered in English that he did. Witnesses reported he was in a wheelchair with a blanket over his lap.

The U.S. government accuses the Nigerian national of bringing an explosive device onto Friday’s Northwest Airlines Flight 253 plane from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. A preliminary analysis by federal authorities indicates he used a syringe to detonate a highly explosive substance, identified as PETN. Abdulmutallab said he got the explosives in Yemen from an Al Qaeda bomb maker who sewed the device into his underwear.

Passengers have told investigators the man went into the bathroom for 20 minutes before landing and complained about stomach problems before pulling a blanket on himself.

Just as the plane was getting ready to land, they heard a pop, smelled smoke and then saw the man on fire. A Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, jumped on the Nigerian to subdue him, and a fire extinguisher was used to put out the fire.

The House Committee on Homeland Security chairman, Bennie Thompson, said it was a very close call. “We’re just fortunate nothing happened. This was a serious situation,” he said. Thompson said Congress will look into the matter soon. “As soon as we reconvene from the holiday recess, we will start looking into the circumstances around the Northwest flight incident.”

Nigeria’s acting ambassador to the United States, Babagana Wakil, immediately issued a statement, which he read to the Voice of America over the phone. “Expectedly, the embassy is already in contact with relevant U.S. authorities over the incident to facilitate any preliminary investigations to get to the bottom of this unfortunate development. Officers from the embassy have already flown to Michigan to gain consular access to the individual under investigation, and to offer the mission’s cooperation to federal and local authorities,” he said.

The suspect’s family members in Nigeria said they were shocked. The suspect’s father, an accountant and businessman, was previously a very well known banker in Africa’s most populous nation. Friends and family said Adbulmutallab had studied in Togo and London, and that he had recently made several trips to Yemen. His father had, apparently, made concerns with his son’s extremist connections known to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.

Adbulmutallab told the FBI he met with a radical Yemeni cleric he corresponded with online. The cleric is not believed to be Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Imam connected to Major Nidal Malik Hasan who carried out the Fort Hood shooting last month.

Friday, the White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism. U.S. media reports say the suspect told interrogators he had affiliations with Al Qaeda.

The charges that were read against him Saturday carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, security screening measures have upgraded in the wake of the foiled attack, including only allowing one carry-on bag for international passengers, banning anyone from moving around the airplane during the last hour of the flight and additional “unpredictable” measures that will vary from airport to airport.

Thursday, May 6, 2021

On Saturday, in the round 5 of Australia’s Sunshine Coast Rugby Union, Maroochydore picked up their first win of the season with a 27 points to 15 win over University of the Sunshine Coast.

“Definitely as a club we needed a win,” said Maroochydore coach Ben Radmall. “The first couple of weeks you know they’re tough on the field there and we had a pretty bad loss to Wynnum last week which we sort of expecting to win. So it’s good to get the monkey off the back now. As you can tell the boys are pretty excited but you know we’ve still got a lot to improve on that’s what’s exciting, I guess.”

Maroochydore took a 10 point lead into half time having scored one converted try and a penalty goal. They did not lose the lead despite conceding three tries.

“I think the boys probably just realized that they were in the fight,” Radmall said. “They had a bit of belief in that second half which was excellent.”

University coach Brand Tronc lamented key messages not sinking in during the game.

“We tried to play a different style, it doesn’t suit us.” Tronc said. “We just got to turn up and do the work. We just got to be prepared to go in the trenches with teams. We can’t have it all our own way. [The] boys [have] just got to battle harden themselves and be ready for what teams throw at us.”

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Russia has requested Iceland give them more details of the island nation’s plan to rescue the banking sector and thus the entire national economy before granting them a loan.

Two weeks ago, Iceland’s banking sector collapsed and was largely nationalised. Icelandic banks are in significantly more debt than the country can afford, and the nation may seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund. A decision on whether to involve the IMF is due within a week.

As for Russia, a senior Russian government source is reported by Reuters as having said “At the current moment, we do not yet have enough reasons to give them credit. We did not refuse. We are continuing the talks.” Forbes quoted him as having also said “‘We asked them to collect more information and present a rescue plan for the banking system.”

Meanwhile, there is some optimism in Iceland over the economy. It is hoped by authorities that the lower exchange rate for the króna means that more tourists will be attracted. Bars and restaurants are also doing well. The manager of one bar explained: “Actually, when people get depressed they drink more.”

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Wikinews spoke to the Global Communications Director at Bebo to have a look at the popular social networking site. Sarah Gavin spoke via email to Wikinews’ Gabriel Pollard exclusively.

Bebo – its full name being Blog Early Blog Often – started off life with its name being adopted from a suggestion a journalist made, as well as the memorable nature of the name. Ms Gavin said, “The reality is that the name was chosen for more practical reasons… it was memorable, translated well and most importantly it was available.”

Founded in 2005 by husband and wife team, Michael Birch and Xochi Birch, Bebo was an online community for Internet users to talk to one another online, write blog posts and generally post pictures. Now in 2008, “Bebo allows users to find and communicate with friends as well as discovering, experiencing and sharing professional and user-generated content including video, music, books and other forms of entertainment,” Ms Gavin said. 2005 was the year when at least another two social networking sites entered the market with Friendster and Ringo.com, which was set up by the same people who created Bebo. Ringo was later sold on to Monster.com.

Not only does Bebo facilitate the aforementioned activities on it’s site, but also has access to professional content produced by broadcasters, such as TVNZ in New Zealand, and producers. This is done through its Open Media platform which claims to have over 400 media partners signed up.

Ms Gavin said, “Bebo offers many of the same features found on other sites, but unlike most social networks that limit their scope to communications and utility platforms, Bebo has opened its doors to all media companies, bringing the richness of the media world to its fast-growing community of users.”

Bebo even has its own television series it hosts on its website. KateModern, produced by those who made the popular Lonelygirl15 web-series, is a series exclusive to the Internet and was commissioned by Bebo in April, 2007. Bebo boasts that KateModern is the most popular television show on the Internet and saw it attain over 35 million views in the first season alone.

In early December 2007, Bebo announced its Open Application Platform, compatible with Facebook’s F8 and Google’s OpenSocial platforms. This new platform opens up its API so developers such as NBC Universal and Last.fm can build applications for use on Bebo. 1,300 applications have already been made for Bebo.

With over 40 million members internationally, Bebo has become the only “global Social Media Network” in existence today. Each month its demographic users aged between 16 and 24-years of age inclusive spend a combined total of 2.14 billion minutes a month surfing the highly popular site; or 40 minutes a day per user. The majority of its membership are from English-speaking nations such as United States, Australia and New Zealand where it experiences high popularity.

In the United Kingdom alone, Bebo has more than 11.4 million users, with 1.3 million located just in Ireland; 80% of Irish members are over 18-years-old. Ms Gavin spoke further on the popularity experienced in the world, “It is the number one social networking site in New Zealand, the number two site in Australia, and the number three site in the US and Canada.”

Bebo experiences a gender balance with a virtual “50:50” split between female and male users “in each territory”.

There is also a local version catered for the Polish community as well as there being plans to migrate into a local French and Spanish site.

Bebo also experiences higher usage than rival social networking site, MySpace, and video sharing website, YouTube, combined. “Bebo users are the most engaged and view an average of 92 pages per usage day,” Ms Gavin said.

Ms Gavin said, “Only 10 months after its inception, Bebo was voted Best Social Networking Web Site by more than 300,000 voters in the annual People’s Voice awards, in May 2006. Bebo won the People’s Choice award in the Social Networking category at the 2006 Webby awards and was named as the number one search term in the Year-End Google Zeitgeist 2006.”

Recently it has emerged that youth in Wales have been committing suicide to gain attention, such as having a memorial page on the networking site. In response Bebo have set up their own service called “Be Well” to help make Bebo a “safe and secure environment.” Ms Gavin said, “We are actively working with mental health and social care organisations – including Samaritans – to provide support and advice for our members.

“Bebo recognizes the potential dangers of online and takes proactive measures to promote safe use of its network. Bebo works in collaboration with law enforcement agencies from across the globe… [and] features a ‘report abuse’ button on every page.”

The “Be Well” service has recently expanded its offerings to the Australian and New Zealand markets too.

When asked to comment on any possible offers to buy Bebo by such companies as Google, Ms Gavin said that it was against policy to comment on “rumour and speculation”. However, after the interview, it was revealed that Time Warner’s AOL Internet division is set to buy up Bebo for US$850 million.