Thursday, December 11, 2008

A suicide bombing in Iraq has killed at least 55 people and injured at least 120 more, according to local police.The suicide bomber struck at a restaurant located about 2 miles north of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Thursday morning. The Abdullah restaurant, where the explosion took place, is popular among Kurdish officials. The attack comes on the Muslim religious holiday Eid al-Adha, known in English as the “Festival of Sacrifice”.

At the time the restaurant was struck, it was full of families marking the final day of Eid. Five women and three children were among the dead.

Kirkuk is the scene of ongoing ethnic tensions, although the reasons for this attack in particular are currently unknown.

Salam Abdullah, 45, was one of the people in the restaurant at the time of the attack. “I held my wife and led her outside the place. As we were leaving, I saw dead bodies soaked with blood and huge destruction,” he stated, commenting on his experiences. “We waited outside the restaurant for some minutes. Then an ambulance took us to the hospital.”

Awad al-Jubouri, who was injured in the incident, condemned the bombers. “I do not know how a group like al-Qaida claiming to be Islamic plans to attack and kill people on sacred days like Eid. We were only meeting to discuss our problems with the Kurds and trying to impose peace among Muslims in Kirkuk.” Jubouri is a tribal leader, who was attending a lunch that was intended to precede a meeting discussing was to lessen tensions between local communities.

Last July, an affiliated restaurant of the same name was the site of a suicide bombing which claimed the lives of six and wounded twenty five.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Renault driver Fernando Alonso won the FIA Formula-1 2006 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix on the Suzuka International Racing Course. Though Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher started the race from the first row, Alonso managed to overtake both Toyotas on the first part of the race and Massa after the pit stops. Then Alonso started to push on Michael Schumacher and closed the gap to about 5 seconds. An engine failure forced Schumacher to park his car after the tunnel on lap 36 and the Spaniard rushed to his seventh victory in this season.

Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando’s teammate, had a bad start, but burst through Toyota and finished on the back of the second-placed Filipe Massa. Toyota drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher lost even more positions, when Honda driver Jenson Button and McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Räikkönen slipped in front of them and finished on 4-th and 5-th place respectively.

The situation in the drivers’ championship became almost critical for Schumacher, who lost 10 points this week-end. Only one chance remains for Schumacher to win his eighth champion’s title – if he wins the final 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix and Alonso doesn’t score any points. “I have to say clearly I don’t really believe in the championship anymore,” was Schumacher’s reaction.

There remains a battle for the third place in drivers’ championship, where Massa has a one point lead ahead of Fisichella. In the constructor’s championship Renault is 9 points ahead of Ferrari.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

CEO of RadioShack Corp., David Edmondson resigned Friday after admitting to lying in the contents of his resume. Claiming to have two college degrees, a theology diploma called a ThG, and four years of education, Mr. Edmondson only attended two semesters at a college known now as Heartland Baptist Bible College (formerly known as Pacific Coast Baptist College). There are no records of any diplomas issued to Mr. Edmondson. These discrepancies caused Edmondson and the board to mutually agree to his resignation as president and CEO of RadioShack. Initially, RadioShack launched an internal investigation of Mr. Edmondson’s statements; however, this investigation has since been halted.

The company had recently suffered a drop of 62% of net income in its fourth-quarter, prompting restructuring plans and a closing of up to 10% of stores.

David Edmondson will receive a severance package valued at less than one million dollars in cash from RadioShack.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Alberto Granado Jiménez, the Argentinian biochemist who was Che Guevara’s companion on his transformative motorcycle trip through South America, died in Havana on Saturday, reported Cuban state television. He was 88 and died of natural causes.

The politically active Jiménez met Ernesto “Che” Guevara, then a medical student, in Hernando, Argentina where Guevara had gone to play rugby. Both were intellectually curious and interested in exploration. In 1951 they set out on an eight-month motorcycle trip through South American that exposed them to the poverty in which most South Americans lived. The pair worked in a leprosy colony and met wtih destitute miners and indigenous people. Both men kept diaries which served as the basis for the 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries, produced by Robert Redford and directed by Walter Salles.

According to the Guardian, “Their road trip awoke in Guevara a social consciousness and political convictions that would turn him into one of the iconic revolutionaries of the 20th century.” The trip is widely believed to have inspired Guevara to go to Cuba and join Fidel Castro in his 1959 revolt against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

By the time the two men met again eight years later, Guevara was a revolutionary hero and chief of Cuba’s central bank. Jiménez, who had remained in Argentina working in a clinic, accepted Guevara’s invitation to move to Cuba in 1961 and founded a medical facility in Santiago. Later he moved to Havana where he continued his medical work. The two remained friends although they did not always agree. Jiménez rejected Guevara’s belief that social reform in Latin America had to be accomplished through guerrilla warfare.

The book The Motorcycle Diaries was published in the 1990’s. Jiménez said of the book that it inspired the image of the young Che as a romantic figure.

Jiménez authored the book Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, published in 2003.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Glenn Crowe is running for the NDP in the Ontario provincial election, in the Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Crowe did not reply to various questions asked.

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.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The scientists behind the Mars Phoenix Lander project announced that the soil on Mars was more alkaline than expected and could sustain life.

Scientists at NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration claimed that they were “flabbergasted” by their discovery on the possibility that life could grow on Martian soil.

“It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. … It is very exciting for us,” said Sam Kounaves, the lead wet chemist at NASA.

The project did not elaborate any further if there was indeed life on Mars, down to the microbe level and instead stated that their discovery was only preliminary and more analysis will be needed.

There was still no evidence in the soil that “would preclude life,” and instead of an assumption of a toxic environment, Martian soil is actually, “very friendly.”

The discovery was made after the Mars Phoenix Lander scooped up Martian soil for analysis. The lander touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008 and has been conducting several survey projects.