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Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Thursday, April 7, 2005

At an information technology conference in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia vowed to offer universal Internet connectivity in the country within three years. The government is working with a United States technology company Cisco Systems to fulfill this promise.

The government will invest US$40 million in the venture, which will lay nearly 10,000 km of fibre optic cable. Ethiopia currently ranks low in Internet penetration, with just 30,000 connections available for its 71 million inhabitants. Part of the program is the installation of Internet access at 450 secondary schools throughout the country.

Zenawi explained the change of heart that led to the decision to invest in this infrastructure project. “Not long ago many of us felt that we were too poor to seriously invest in information and communication technology,” he said at the conference. “We were convinced that we should invest every penny we have on securing the next meal for our people. We did not believe serious investment in ICT had anything to do with facing the challenges of poverty that kills. Now I think we know better,” he explained to the delegates.

Not everyone thinks that the government knows better. Giovani Peri, Assistant Professor of Economics at University of California, Davis, specializes in macroeconomics and growth theory. Peri believes that the Ethiopian government may be misguided in its direct investment in the build-up of information technology, and should instead create incentives for the private sector to build such infrastructure.

Professor Peri likened the Internet access project to previous failed attempts by African governments to stimulate growth via large-scale projects. “[African governments] in the past tried to build airports … in the middle of desolation.” — but people need to know that the environment is right for business, he said, not just a good airport. He said that the investment in Internet access might be too early for that country, and that before it is built, the country needs a good educational system to get the scientific community involved in the process of building technology infrastructure.

Ethiopia’s population is mostly rural, and over half of the population is illiterate. The country’s GDP per capita is US$560.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

American and European scientists say the upgraded Hubble space telescope has spotted the oldest galaxies ever seen. The images were taken with the telescope’s new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in August this year.

The galaxies are about 13 billion light years from Earth, meaning they formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang — the cosmological model of the initial conditions and subsequent development of the universe.

WFC3 was installed in May this year, during a mission by the space shuttle Atlantis to repair and upgrade Hubble. Experts say the new instrument will let them peer even further back in time, to when the universe was in its infancy. The more distant a galaxy is, the more its light is “redshifted” due to expansion of the universe. Light from the furthest galaxies is shifted to infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye, but WFC3 can detect these.

The new image was taken in August, in the same region as a 2004 visible light image known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The 2004 photo previously showed the most distant galaxies, but the new infrared pictures from the WFC3 allow even more remote galaxies to be seen.

Capturing the image took four days, and the total exposure lasted 173,000 seconds. In the three months since, twelve scientific papers have been submitted on it. On Tuesday one of these confirmed the galaxies as the furthest ever seen.

They are also the oldest, with the light from them having taken around 13 billion years to reach Earth.

“At these distances, you’re really looking back in time, like you have a time machine,” said Ray Villard, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “Those things don’t exist anymore.”

The photo could be one of the ultimate achievements of the Hubble telescope, now almost twenty years old.

“These new observations are likely to be the most sensitive images Hubble will ever take,” said Professor Jim Dunlop of the University of Edinburgh.

The servicing mission in May extended the telescope’s life by around five years, but it is scheduled to be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2014. This will use infrared imaging and have a greater collecting area than Hubble, and it is thought that it may be able make out objects from just 100 million years after the Big Bang.

“We’ve really pushed Hubble to its limits,” said Villard, “and we need a bigger space telescope to go back even farther. It shows us there are really exciting things to look for with the Webb telescope.”

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Five civilian contractors have been injured after an explosion and fire onboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf at 9:25 a.m. today.

A large explosion erupted from the ship’s berthing area where welding work was being conducted during a stop in Norfolk, Virginia. A fire broke out two decks below main deck, but was quickly extinguished. The injured were taken to Norfolk General Hospital for treatment to injuries not believed to be life-threatening, according to John Kowalczyk, a spokesman for BAE Systems Ship Repair, who were conducting the work.

He added that the fire appeared to be an isolated incident. The ship has been laid up for repairs and modernizing since May.

Friday, May 6, 2005

Romania’s new road traffic laws have been approved by the Senate, with the laws being in accordance with European Union legislation and updating a previous law from 1999. Romania is currently going through the process of aligning its legislation with EU standards, as it is set to become a member of the European Union on January 1, 2007. The Senate approved the law with several amendments from the original draft drawn up by the government and approved by the Chamber of Deputies.

The new traffic laws include many important changes. Firstly, car drivers with a concentration of 0.80 grams or more of alcohol per litre of blood can receive penalties of between one to five years in jail. In the case of public transport drivers, the punishment can increase to seven years in jail. Additionally, constructions of any kind will be banned on sidewalks, and traders will not be allowed on roads and parking lots.

Another important change is that pedestrians injured while crossing the street in an unauthorised manner, such as at a red light, will “bear full responsibility” for their actions, according to the law.

Before being implemented, the law must be approved by the President, Traian B?sescu.

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Friday, February 1, 2013

British Prime Minister David Cameron made an unannounced visit to the Libyan capital city of Tripoli yesterday after visiting Algeria earlier in the day.

David Cameron pledged that Britain would help in training Libya’s security forces. He said in a joint press conference held with Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan that “the British people want to stand with you and help you deliver the greater security that Libya needs”. Cameron also reiterated his support for the French-backed intervention in Mali, denying suggestions put to him that foreign intervention in Islamic countries would lead to a backlash against Western nations by al-Qaeda.

The security was tight during his walkabout in the Martyrs’ Square, where police attempted to hold back the locals as a police helicopter flew overhead. His visit to Tripoli comes in the aftermath of recent threats to the British embassy and just a week after British citizens were urged to leave the second largest city of Benghazi due to a “specific and imminent” threat to Westerners.

Police officers investigating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing from the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary have been granted access to new information to help them with their inquiries. In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 2009 on compassionate health grounds and died last year.

Monday, November 5, 2018

On Friday, a storm caused a building to partially collapse in the Amazon Fulfillment Center at the warehouse of Amazon.com, a US-based online retailer, in south-east Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The storm removed the roof of the building, causing a 50 foot (about 15 m) concrete wall 8 inches (about 20 cm) thick to collapse. At least two people died, and as of Saturday one person reportedly remained missing.

Meg McNamara from the National Weather Service tweeted that the severe weather included two EF-1 tornadoes. The weather service said the tornadoes touched down at 8:20 p.m. and 9:42 p.m. local time, the second in Baltimore City impacting the Amazon warehouse.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Fire Department said in a tweet that they identified the victims as Israel Espana Argote and 54-year-old Andrew Lindsay. The Fire Department had conducted a search and rescue operation for bodies in the debris, involving heavy equipment.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Animal rights activists have complained after officials from the Wimbledon tennis tournament shot down pigeons, allegedly because they were an inconvenience to players. This move was possibly illegal under Animal Welfare Act 2006, which prevents using lethal force unless it is used as a last resort.

File:BruceFriedrich1.jpg

Wikinews spoke to Bruce Friedrich, Vice President of PETA, which has campaigned against the move. He said that “killing animals so quickly and for such frivolous reasons is cruel, illegal, and won’t work.”

Wikinews has also been told by Friedrich that “the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club should still be prosecuted for cruelty to animals, since they broke the law and should be held accountable.”

Violation of the Animal Welfare act carries a maximum sentence of “imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks” or a fine “not exceeding £20,000”

Wikinews has also been given a copy of the letter sent to Wimbledon officials. Below is the text of the first paragraph:

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (which runs the Wimbledon Championships) has not yet released a statement regarding the incident, although The Independent has reported that one will be made after the tournament.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

After “Taiwan Orbis & Standard Chartered Bank Charity Walking” last week at Guandu Nature Park, the main organizer Alcon Taiwan held a hiking activity with “Love Your Eyes Without Computing” topic at Taipei Municipal Fude Elementary School and Tiger Mountain Trail in Taipei City, Taiwan. This is the third year Alcon Taiwan held a similar activity after hiking last year and 5KM running around Taipei City Hall two years ago.

At the Press Conference two weeks ago, Alcon Taiwan announced a questionnaire about “Acknowledgment on Eye-Caring and Eyes for PC Screen in Taiwan”. According to the questionnaire, lots of people especially younger people watched PC screen more than seven hours and caused a bad phenomenon in Taiwan. That’s why Alcon Taiwan named this hiking activity slogan as “Love Your Eyes Without Computing”. Alcon Taiwan hoped people in Taiwan can reduce computing hours and rest appropriately.

The main organizer invited Taiwanese famous entertainer Sun Peng and Di Ying supporting and named as “Eye-Caring Ambassadors”. Sun mentioned on restrictions and policies with his family to keep a good eyesight at their family. He hoped his children have a bright future with a good eyesight.

“With a serious condition on red-eye symptom in Taiwan, lots of people may have a worse result without correct treatments and acknowledgments, if anyone affected this symptom, that one should go to hospital for the treatment with medical professionals”, Sheng-mou Ho (Minister of Department of Health, Executive Yuan of R.O.C., Taiwan) remarked. “The ages of nearsightedness people is progressively decreasing, it caused diopters of younger people increasing progressively. Parents should tell their children about correct acknowledgments on eye-caring for their future.”

After the hiking activity, organizers and sponsors set gaming and eye checking-up booths for participants and also held seminars to provide the how-to with good eyesight keeping. In the main stage, not only shows and performances, the organizer also held a creative modeling show to encourage participants absorbing good nutritions for a good eyesight.