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Thursday, April 23, 2009

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, yesterday announced the 2009 budget. The budget is an annual audit of the nation’s finances, and decides what should be done with taxpayers’ money.

The chancellor fell under scorn for his GDP growth forecasts, which are considered to be too optimistic in predicting that Britain will bounce back from its weakest economic performance since the end of the second world war. Darling forecast GDP growth of 3.5% in 2011, even after he was made to downgrade his predictions. He expects a record expansion of 1.25% next year, but chief UK economist Howard Archer disagrees, calling Darling’s predictions “mildly optimistic in the near term and much more optimistic in the long term.”

His plans for savers and pensioners, however, were commended by many, though was also criticised by a large portion of the populace. In the budget, Darling increased the amount that savers can put into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) from £7,200 to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. These increased limits will be available only to people aged over 50 from 6 October this year, and will not be available to everyone until 6 April next year. A number of financial experts described the move as being “too little, too late”, and Rumina Hassam, of price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: “The government’s decision to increase the cash ISA limit by £1,500 to £5,100 for the over 50’s is a just another kick in the teeth for the majority of savers as they will have to wait even longer to benefit. There is no doubt that savers have been sacrificed as a result of the plummeting base rate, bringing savings rates to an all time low.”

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

India have beaten England by seven wickets in the second Test cricket match of the Indian tour of England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England.

Despite the loss of three wickets on the final day, the Indian batsmen comfortably reached the 73 run target set by England.

India lead the three-match series 1-0 after the first Test ended in a draw, and England must win the final Test at The Oval to avoid their first home Test series defeat since 2001.

The start of play was delayed on the first day as the outfield was wet following heavy rain. Before play finally got underway after lunch on Friday, India won the toss and captain Rahul Dravid chose to field first.

Zaheer Khan made two breakthroughs early in the England innings to dismiss Andrew Strauss and captain Michael Vaughan. R P Singh then trapped Kevin Pietersen lbw to reduce England to 47-3. Although Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook shared a partnership of 54, India’s bowlers found some swing and reduced England to 169-7 at the close of day one.

On the second day England were soon bowled out for just 198, with Zaheer Khan leading the bowling attack with 4-59. In response, the England bowlers did little to trouble the Indian batsmen, and Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer soon reached half centuries. The breakthrough came just before Tea when Jaffer was caught off Tremlett’s bowling, while Karthik followed just after the interval. India soon surpassed England’s first innings total, and Sachin Tendulkar scored a fifty and his 11,000th run in Test cricket. A partnership of 97 was brought to an end when Rahul Dravid was caught by Ian Bell, and bad weather forced the close of play soon afterwards with India on 254-3.

England struggled in the field on day three as India’s lead passed 100. Sourav Ganguly scored fifty and shared a partnership of 96 with Sachin Tendulkar. After lunch, Tendulkar was dismissed by a controversial lbw decision, nine runs short of his century. After V. V. S. Laxman was dismissed for 54, India’s tail-enders did not add much to their total and they were eventually bowled out for 481, leading England by 283 runs. Monty Panesar took 4-101 and Chris Tremlett took 3-80. Play ended for the day sixteen overs into England’s second innings, with England still 240 runs behind on 43-0.

Michael Vaughan scored 124 runs on day four and shared a 112 run stand with Paul Collingwood (63), and Andrew Strauss scored 55. However England’s last seven wickets fell for just 68 runs with Zaheer Khan taking 5-75. England were all out for 355, leaving India to chase a target of just 73 in their second innings. Three overs of India’s second innings were played before the close of play on day four, with India on 10-0, needing just 63 runs for victory.

Indian bowler Sreesanth was fined half of his match fee for colliding with England batsman Michael Vaughan during the fourth day’s play, breaking the ICC Code of Conduct which prohibits “Inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players during play”. The match was also marred by incidents of sledging.

On the final day India were hardly troubled in reaching their target although Chris Tremlett took three wickets, including that of Sachin Tendulkar for just one run.

England: A J Strauss, A N Cook, M P Vaughan (capt), K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, I R Bell, M J Prior (wkt), C T Tremlett, R J Sidebottom, M S Panesar, J M Anderson

India: W Jaffer, K D Karthik, R Dravid (capt), S R Tendulkar, S C Ganguly, V V S Laxman, M S Dhoni (wkt), A Kumble, Z Khan, R P Singh, S Sreesanth

Man of the Match: Z Khan (India)

Umpires: I L Howell (South Africa) and S J A Taufel (Australia)TV umpire: N J LlongMatch referee: R S Madugalle (Sri Lanka)Reserve umpire: N A Mallender

Sunday, July 1, 2018

On Friday, Madhya Pradesh police arrested the second person accused of gang-raping a minor girl in the Mandsaur district. According to varying reports, the rape victim was seven or eight years old.

According to police inspector Jitendra Singh Yadav of Mandsaur Kotwali police, they arrested 24-year-old construction worker Asif on Friday. Another accused, 20-year-old Irfan, was arrested on Wednesday, one day after both of them allegedly kidnapped the girl after school, raped her, and slit her throat. According to the police statement, one of the accused was seen with the girl in CCTV footage. Police inspector Yadav said, “We questioned Irfan and he confessed about Asif’s involvement”.

Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “The accused has already been arrested and there is evidence against him. We will ensure though fast-track courts that he will get capital punishment at the earliest”. Calling those rapists “a burden on the society”, Chouhan said, “We want that people who did such heinous crime should be hanged to death. Human rights are for humans, not for the devils.”

Last year, Madhya Pradesh assembly passed a bill approving capital punishment for those convicted for raping girls below the age of twelve. Indian Ministers of the Union Cabinet also approved an ordinance in April approving fast-track courts for rapes of minors and death penalty for those convicted for raping girls under the age of twelve.

The girl was taken to a hospital in Indore and after performing two operations, the doctors said on Friday that she was stable.

Asif and Irfan are booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for kidnapping and raping the minor.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

A University of Calgary research team developed a new method for extracting carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from the air — a fundamental shift in carbon capture technology enabling capture of the most common greenhouse gas from so-called diffuse sources like aircraft, trucks and automobiles that represent half of the greenhouse gases emitted globally.

Professor David Keith, Director of University of Calgary’s (UofC) Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy (ISEEE) and a team of researchers from UofC’s Energy and Environmental Systems Group built and operated a prototype system this summer producing results that compared favourably with commercial carbon capture systems. Two ‘provisional’ patents have been filed on the technology but Keith warns there are still “many pitfalls along the path to commercialization.”

Using a process adapted from the pulp-and-paper industry that halves the cost of CO₂ air capture in their custom-built tower, Professor Keith and his team captured the equivalent of about 20 tonnes per year of CO₂ (approximately equal to the yearly output of one person in North America) directly from the air with less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide on a single square metre of scrubbing material.

“This means that if you used electricity from a coal-fired power plant, for every unit of electricity you used to operate the capture machine, you’d be capturing 10 times as much CO₂ as the power plant emitted making that much electricity,” explains Professor Keith.

A report co-authored by Keith in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology explains “nearly all current research on carbon capture and storage (CCS) focuses on capturing CO₂ from large, stationary sources such as power plants. Such plans usually entail separating CO₂ from flue gas, compressing it, and transporting it via pipeline to be [stored] underground.”

Using CO₂ air capture technology, “a company could, in principle, contract with an oil sands plant near Fort McMurray to remove CO₂ from the air and could build its air capture plant wherever it’s cheapest — China, for example — and the same amount of CO₂ would be removed,” says Professor Keith in a UofC press release.

“While it’s important to get started doing things we know how to do, like wind power, nuclear power, and ‘regular’ carbon capture and storage,” Professor Keith continues, “it’s also vital to start thinking about radical new ideas and approaches to solving this problem.”

ISEEE’s Executive Director David Layzell points out that “energy-efficient and cost-effective air capture could play a valuable role in complementing other approaches for reducing emissions from the transportation sector, such as biofuels or electric vehicles.”

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Polish Prime Minister Jaros?aw Kaczy?ski has ordered the pharmaceutical company Jelfa to halt production following revelations that Jelfa had placed mislabelled medication on the market, whose use could be potentially fatal.

Jelfa distributed vials labelled as Corhydron, a hydrocortisone used to treat allergies and inflammation, but in fact containing Suxamethonium chloride, a drug normally used to cause muscle paralysis during emergency surgery.

The Health Ministry has appealed to people suffering from asthma or allergies to check their medication and return any Corhydron ampoules they possess to the pharmacy.

Polskie Radio reports that the mislabelling was discovered a month ago, but Jelfa and the Polish Health ministry did not inform of the problem.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski ordered Jelfa to halt production until it can assure the Polish Government that it can properly manage its production.

The Polish Outlook reports that that drug companies in Poland were operating unregulated since December, 2005 as the regulations has expired. The government was putting in place new regulations.

The owner of Jelfa is AB Sanitas, the largest drug producer in neighbouring Lithuania. The shut-down has been questioned by the Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas, who expressed concern over the situation and said that he wants to try to settle the issue diplomatically.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

24-year-old Aman Kassaye, of no fixed abode, is to face a charge of attempted murder for his alleged role in an armed robbery that netted £40 million ($65 million) worth of jewelry from a London store.

Kassaye is the seventh man to be charged, and is also facing prosecution for conspiracy to rob the Graff store in New Bond Street, false imprisonment, and using a handgun to resist arrest. He will appear at Wimbledon magistrates court on Monday.

The other six men have already been remanded in custody until October 23, when they will appear at Kingston Crown Court. All are facing charges of conspiracy to rob, and two of them are also charged with a firearms offense.

43 diamond rings, watches, and bracelets were taken from the store. The theft occurred when two armed and suited men walked in and took an employee hostage. It has been reported they used prosthetic masks made from liquid latex but police have not confirmed this. Amateur footage also shows a shot was fired. No-one was injured.

The robbery is one of the biggest the United Kingdom has seen. After the crime a string of getaway vehicles was used, with police believing several more offenders assisted with this stage of the plan. Although The Telegraph claims no stolen property has yet been recovered, this is also unconfirmed by police.

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is being criticized for misallocation of personnel in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. FEMA representatives said they requested volunteers from fire departments around the U.S., to handle its community relations campaign. However, a document FEMA sent to local fire departments asked for firefighters with very specific skills and who were capable of working in “austere conditions”. Fire departments around the nation responded by sending crews to the FEMA staging ground in Atlanta. Some of these crews were unaware that they were only going to be used for public relations work. Others, however, merely hoped that FEMA would allocate them to rescue and damage control operations once it saw their qualifications.

The firefighter’s objections are particularly poignant as one of FEMA public relations training seminars coincided with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin plea for firefighters on national television, to relieve his own exhausted crews. It is unclear if FEMA’s request for firefighters prevented any municipalities from responding to Mayor Nagin’s request.

Some firefighters have objected to their use as FEMA public relations officers because their municipalities must bear the cost of their salaries, as well as endure reduced firefighting capacity. FEMA has stated that it sought to use firefighters to avoid background checks required of federal employees.

Firefighters began receiving their assignments Monday, September 5th. Among these was a crew of 50 assigned to tour the devastated areas with President Bush and the press.