Thursday, February 7, 2008

Croatia’s sea and transport ministry said the UND Adriyatik, a Turkish freight ship caught fire in the Adriatic Sea 13 nautical miles west of the town of Rovinj on the early morning hours of February 6, 2008. An SOS was launched at 4.04 local time. It said that the 193-metre long ship was sailing from Istanbul in Turkey to Trieste in Italy and was carrying 200 trucks and nine tons of dangerous material, in addition to between 100 and 200 tons of ship fuel, causing fears of environmental damage. An official said Croatian fire-fighting planes and ships were trying to extinguish the blaze. As the fire started inside the ship, there was no way of extinguishing it from the outside. The ship’s 22 crew members and nine passengers were rescued by the Greek ship Ikarus Palace that was sailing nearby and were on their way to Venice.

There were fears of an explosion if the fire was to reach the fuel tanks. Also, the water currents were pushing the ship towards the Croatian coast. However, reports said the fire was diminishing by the end of the day.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

On this Sunday, Sydney, Australia experienced its hottest March day in 35 years. Temperatures reached 40.5°C at Sydney Airport. This followed the two hottest March months in 1983 and 1965 whose maximum temperatures were 41.2°C and 41.1°C respectively, according to post-1940 climate data provided by Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). The hot temperatures were caused by north-westerly winds which brought heat from the inside of the continent.

At the beaches any sea breeze was countered by north-westerly winds, and beach-side areas experienced 39°C. BOM reported NQ and NNW winds 20km/h to 40km/h with 40-60km/h gusts.

BOM recorded maximum temperature of 40.5°C at Sydney Airport (AP) weather station, Weatherzone reported. Wikinews obtained data from BOM that contained maximums for every 10 minutes that confirmed the maximum between 15:30 and 15:40 on the day. Wikinews also observed the temperature of 40.7C via a weather station at a residential property at 17:50 Sunday afternoon.

The present record occurred on March 18, more than a week later than the 1965 and 1983 records that had happened on the March 6 and March 9 respectively, according to the climate data published online at the BOM website.

On the hot Sunday, an out-of-control bushfire took place in Tarraganda and Tathra near Bega, southeast New South Wales. The bushfire damaged “dozens” of homes and crossed the Bega river on Sunday afternoon, The Guardian reported. New South Wales Rescue Fire Service issued an emergency warning to residents in Tathra, advising people to seek shelter.

NSW Fire Rescue Service declared total fire bans and fire weather warnings in 11 areas of the state: Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Far South Coast, Monaro Alpine, Southern Ranges, Central Ranges, North Western, Lower Central W Plains, Sthn Slopes and the Eastern Riverina.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A former Marsh & McLennan Cos. executive has hit former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer with a $60 million defamation lawsuit over an online magazine article regarding an insurance bid-rigging scandal.

William Gilman, a former Marsh managing director, filed a complaint last Friday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, over allegations Mr. Spitzer defamed him in a Slate article published a year ago. A copy of the complaint was made public on Monday.

Gilman, who had a final insurance fraud charge dismissed in January, said Spitzer acted with “actual malice” by suggesting that he was guilty of crimes of which he was never accused.

Although he wasn’t named in the article, Mr. Gilman complained that Spitzer defamed him by writing that “Marsh’s behavior was a blatant abuse of law and market power: price-fixing, bid-rigging and kickbacks all designed to harm their customers and the market while Marsh and its employees pocketed the increased fees and kickbacks.”

“While Mr. Spitzer’s statements do not refer to Mr. Gilman by name, Mr. Gilman is readily identifiable as the subject of the defamatory comments,” said the complaint. “Mr. Spitzer was well aware of his own allegations as attorney general and the resolution of those allegations in favor of Mr. Gilman and yet, recklessly disregarded these facts.”

In 2004 Mr. Spizter, then the state’s Attorney General, announced an investigation into the practices at Marsh & McLennan, particularly fees paid by insures to brokers who place business with them. Gilman, who worked for the company at the time, was charged in 2005 with 37 counts of insurance fraud. Gilman’s final charge was dropped last January.

“I haven’t seen the lawsuit and so will not comment on it,” said Spitzer. “The illegalities rampant at Marsh & McLennan leading to their fine of $850 million and the multiple judicial findings of illegality are clear from the public record.”

Mr. Gilman is now seeking at least $10 million in compensatory damages; $20 million in general damages, including damage to his reputation; and $30 million in punitive damages.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Across Easter weekend Wellington, New Zealand was host to Rock2Wgtn, an international two-day hard rock festival. Large crowds showed up at Westpac Stadium to see the various acts. The world has never seen an event of this kind before, and New Zealand has never had any kind of major rock festival or multi-day music festival.

Day one featured three theatrical acts. Finnish band Lordi, known for their monster costumes, opened the night. They were followed by the US shock rocker Alice Cooper, whose themed set included the horror theatrics regularly associated with him and a hanging stunt he recently restarted after a gallows collapse nearly killed him two decades ago. The night was headlined by the distinctively costumed band KISS, complete with their famed black-and-white makeup.

The first major act on the stage on day two was the American hard rock/glam metal band Poison. After Poison, British act Whitesnake took to the stage and performed their set to the crowd. British-born American rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who, as well as a solo career, fronts the world-famous Black Sabbath, was the second night’s headline act.

The festival’s entertainment did not stop at the six main acts. There was also support performances from three New Zealand bands – The Symphony of Screams, The Valves and Sonic Altar. Their sets were accompanied by a special effects package from award-winning studio Weta Workshops, who are known for their work on movies such as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. This came in the form of ‘Drusila the Dragon’, which rose up to a height of six foot and wigspan and moved for the audience, shining lasers from its eyes and breathing red smoke. Flame Fire Productions were hired to put on a fire show featuring several dancers alongside the performers. Also performing were six local guitarists and a group of ‘zombie‘ cheerleaders.

Wikinews was able to secure two exclusive interviews with those responsible behind the scenes for putting on such a show. Weta Workshop’s Philip Sharpe, who supervised the project and Milly Bea, current manageress of Flame Fire Productions, discussed their roles. In the first installment, Milly Bea tells us about “a definite highlight” for Flame and lets us know everything from her thoughts on Gene Simmons’s tongue to just how much kerosene it takes to put on a fire show at a rock fest.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

In appearances before Congress on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a top military official are expected to underscore decreased violence in Iraq. But they are likely to face strong questioning from lawmakers about ongoing war costs.

When President George W. Bush‘s budget for the 2009 fiscal year was sent to Congress this week, Secretary Gates defended the $515 billion request from the Pentagon.

In the overall figure, he noted, are billions of dollars to support U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the administration’s global war on terrorism. “A $70 billion emergency bridge fund that would cover war costs into the next calendar year,” he said.

The story behind that figure is the ongoing struggle between President Bush and the Democratic-controlled United States Congress over war funding.

Last year, the president asked for about $190 billion in a supplemental request outside the regular defense budget for war costs in the current 2008 fiscal year. The amount approved by Congress, just over $86 billion, left a large gap.

When Gates and military Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen appear before the House and Senate armed services committees, they will be pressed for harder cost projections, as Congress continues to assess the impact for the U.S. economy of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

White House Budget Director Jim Nussle was asked this week if the Bush administration has a realistic hope it can obtain its Pentagon regular budget and supplemental war funding requests from an opposition Congress. “It’s worth whatever we need to spend and we have made, I think, a very careful determination of what that is. So, I don’t believe it is just a negotiation point. I think it is what it takes for us to be safe, and to be the kind of super power that can maintain that safety,” he said.

Asked why budget figures do not appear to reflect a reduction in costs because of the eventual withdrawal of about 30,000 troops from Iraq to pre-military surge levels, expected to be complete later this year, Nussle would only refer reporters to the Pentagon.

And while the question of troop levels will be a key topic for lawmakers, in the context of questioning on the overall Pentagon budget, Gates may not provide much in the way of enlightenment.

Media reports quoting testimony prepared for the House and Senate hearings say he will point to what he calls significant variables weighing against making any realistic estimate of how much Congress may be asked for in the final year of the Bush administration.

Based on numerous supplemental requests for Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, members of Congress expect the $70 billion bridge fund to be followed by additional requests to sustain U.S. forces.

As for the $100 billion or so in 2008 supplemental funds that has been held up by bickering between Capitol Hill and the White House, congressional Democrats are looking to testimony in April from the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

That will provide Congress with an update on progress by Iraqi forces toward shouldering more of the security burden, what that means for U.S. troop numbers, and what Americans can expect to be paying as President Bush leaves office and a new administration takes over in 2009.