Monday, June 7, 2010

Access to search engine Google has been limited and most of Google’s online services cannot be accessed in Turkey. The access limitation happened due to the blocking of an IP set that belongs to Google. These IP addresses were shared between YouTube and other Google services.

The Turkish news site Hürriyet Daily News reports that Turkey’s Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TCP) (a government agency that manages Turkish ISPs) indefinitely shut off access to several Google services. The shut-off came after the banning of YouTube for alleged insults against Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. TCP released an official statement Friday, saying it had blocked access to some Google IP addresses “because of legal reasons”. Under Turkish law, it is an offence to “insult Turkishness.”

Softpedia states that the limited access to Google could be a result of the government trying to block specific DNS addresses that relate to Google, as part of its ongoing attempts to block YouTube. Since Google services share common software and IP addresses, the search engine itself suffers from access restrictions. Turkish citizens are concerned that this move of the governmental agency was another step towards a complete ban on Google, as exists in China.

Several Internet sites have been banned in Turkey in recent years, and although some of them were subsequently unbanned, most of them remain inaccessible. Engelli Web, a website listing banned sites reports that currently YouTube (since May 2008), Last.fm (since June 26, 2009), and Spanish newspaper El Mundo (since May 14, 2010) are among the banned sites in Turkey. MySpace and WordPress were also among banned sites for a period of time. Websites will be blocked following a court decision or if TCP decides to block on its behalf.

RetweetToday reports that Turkish citizens on Twitter have also reported access problems. Comments about the blockage are being shared using hashtags such as TurkeyCensorGoogle and TurkeyGoogleBan, as well as NoGoogleNoWeb.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

A new version of Canada’s Food Guide was announced by Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement on Feb. 5, 2007. The guide has helped Canadians with healthy eating habits since 1942 but was last updated in 1992. It is the Canadian government’s most-requested publication after income tax forms.

Changes to the Food Guide include:

• a first-time recommendation to include a small amount of unsaturated fat in regular diets;
• physical activity to complement healthy eating;
• advice for some people to take vitamin supplements;
• an advisory to limit foods with excess salt, sugar, fat and calories, which is considered an unprecedented caution regarding junk food.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

On Sunday, in Spanish LaLiga’s El Clásico clash, FC Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3–2, with Lionel Messi scoring two goals at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Messi scored his 500th goal in the Catalonian colours, in the ending moments of the game, becoming the top scorer of the El Clásico in the league with sixteen goals surpassing Alfredo Di Stéfano’s fourteen.

Messi was left on the ground, bleeding after Marcelo’s elbow hit his face in a clash. The Argentine was taken off-pitch, and later continued the game with a tissue paper in his mouth to stop bleeding. Just before the thirty minute mark, Los Blancos captain Sergio Ramos hit the woodwork from Marcelo’s freekick, but the deflection was converted into a 1–0 lead by Casemiro. Five minutes later, Messi levelled for Barcelona dribbling against two Madrid defenders from Rakiti?’s assist.

Messi had not scored in the last six Clásicos. In the 39th minute, Welsh forward Gareth Bale, who became the third Briton to reach 100 appearances landmark in La Liga, was substituted following an injury. Marco Asensio replaced the Briton. Bale was out for the last two matches due to injury. David Beckham and Gary Lineker, former forwards of Madrid and Barcelona respectively, previously made over 100 appearances in La Liga. At half time, Madrid had six attempts on target, as compared to Barça’s one.

Madrid striker Karim Benzema missed a chance to score in the 52nd minute when Barcelona’s shot-stopper Marc-André ter Stegen played a goal kick to Benzema. A minute later, ter Stegen stopped Benzema’s six yard header from finding the nets. Ronaldo missed a chance to put Madrid in front in the 67th minute from Asensio’s assist. Minutes later, Casemiro was subbed off for Mateo Kova?i?. Barcelona brought on André Gomes for Paco Alcácer. Casemiro was booked early in the match for bringing down Messi. He later fouled the Argentine in the 45th minute, but got away without receiving a second yellow.

Minutes later Toni Kroos lost mark of Rakiti? as the Croatian faked a shot and scored a 20-yard goal from his left foot, putting the Blaugrana in the lead. In the 77th minute, Ramos was shown a straight red card for bringing down Messi. Barça defender Gerard Piqué missed a chance to make it 3–1 from Gomes’ pass. James Rodríguez was brought on for Benzema, and four minutes later, the Colombian scored from Marcelo’s assist.

With only two minutes added for the injury time, Sergi Roberto’s run from Barcelona’s half was later converted to the match winning goal by Messi from Jordi Alba’s assist scoring his 23rd goal in El Clásico. ter Stegen made twelve saves in the entire match, the most in the league since 2003–2004. Messi was booked for removing his jersey celebrating his 500th goal for Barcelona. He leads the race for the Spanish Golden Boot — Pichichi Trophy — which he last won in 2013.

After the match, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane said, “We can not be happy. We made a lot [of chances] during the whole game. We had many goalscoring chances, but couldn’t bring the game under control. When you don’t kill the game off, this can happen, and it did. We are disappointed with the result, when you get back to 2-2 with 10 men you have to think a little more and defend together.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?No podemos estar contentos. Hicimos mucho, durante todo el partido. Tuvimos muchas ocasiones de gol, para llevar el partido a nuestro lado. Cuando tú no matas el partido puede pasar esto y pasó. Estamos decepcionados con el resultado. Cuando logras el 2-2 con diez hay que tener un poco más de cabeza y estar juntos para defender}

The Court of Arbitration for Sports turned down Barcelona’s appeal to play Neymar for El Clásico, who received a three-match ban after sarcastically applauding an official after a red card against Málaga CF in a previous La Liga match. Luis Enrique said, “I am prepared to play the match with Neymar or without him. You will have to wait for the game to see if I risk putting him.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Estoy preparado para jugar el partido con Neymar o sin él. Tendréis que esperar al partido para ver si me arriesgo a ponerlo.}

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell announced Tuesday morning that a deal had been struck between state and local officials and the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise. The Penguins organization will formally announce the deal tonight, prior to the Penguins game against the Buffalo Sabres at the Mellon Arena. The deal will ensure that the Penguins will remain in the city with a 30 year lease on a new arena to be built in downtown Pittsburgh. The framework of the deal was constructed in an emergency meeting last Thursday in Philadelphia, when both government and franchise officials indicated that progress had been made, with the details laid out over the weekend. With the new deal, the Penguins organization would be expected to pay $3.8 million per year, as well as $7.5 million per year from both Don Barden, owner of Majestic Star Casino, and the state economic development fund. The Penguins organization has also been given the option of building a parking garage on property of the Pittsburgh Sports Authority between Centre and Fifth avenues, by contributing $500,000 per year.

The new arena is expected to cost approximately $290 million, and should be completed and ready to host hockey games by 2009. The Penguins will sign a temporary lease to keep the team at Mellon Arena until the new building is finished.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 crashed 1,750km (1,100 miles) north-west of Rio de Janeiro killing all people onboard, on Friday September 29. National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has confirmed that the crashed Brazilian airplane did crash into a smaller aircraft. Rescue workers and air force personnel are searching the wreckage for bodies

Monday, September 23, 2013

Over the past week, diplomatic actions have averted — or, at least delayed — military strikes on Syria by the United States. Wikinews sought input from a range of international experts on the situation; and, the tensions caused by Russia’s support for the al-Assad regime despite its apparent use of chemical weapons.

File:Ghouta chemical attack map.svg

Tensions in the country increased dramatically, late August when it was reported between 100 and 1,300 people were killed in an alleged chemical attack. Many of those killed appeared to be children, with some of the pictures and video coming out of the country showing — according to witnesses — those who died from apparent suffocation; some foaming at the mouth, others having convulsions.

Amongst Syria’s few remaining allies, Iran, China, and Russia continue to oppose calls for military intervention. In an effort to provide a better-understanding of the reasoning behind their ongoing support, the following people were posed a range of questions.