Monday, October 22, 2007

At the 1st day of WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase & Conference, Ministry of Economic Affairs of R.O.C. Taiwan (MOEA Taiwan) not only set M-Taiwan Pavilion supervised by Industrial Development Bureau of MOEA Taiwan, but also signed MOUs with five world-class WiMAX companies to enhance the advance of networking industry in Taiwan especially in WiMAX environment.

In the contract-signing ceremony, MOEA Taiwan chose Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola Inc., Nokia-Siemens, Starent Networks, and Sprint-Nextel to sign MOUs with different technologies such as interoperability testing (IOT) to help companies in Taiwan with testing and purchasing WiMAX networking devices and develop solutions with high prime costs to expand the opportunity in global marketing.

“Governments and networking industry in Taiwan is still promoting on M-Taiwan project, the investment with WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan is the 2nd highest in the world, we estimate that by 2012, the production value of WiMAX will break NT$140 billion. With the MOUs signing, the industry development of WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan will be improved rapidly with product testing and lots ways of applications to ensure the prime position in the global WiMAX chain.” Steve Ruey-long Chen (Minister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan) remarked at the Ceremony.

According to MOEA Taiwan, this MOUs signing is the 2nd time after signing with world-class companies like Intel, NEC, Nortel, and Rohde & Schwarz Technology. With this MOUs signing, it will improve the networking industry and WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley East (Ward 33). One candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Zane Caplan, Shelley Carroll (incumbent), Jim Conlon, Sarah Tsang-Fahey, and Anderson Tung.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Stock markets around the world, particularly those in the United States, have fallen dramatically today. This is due to the ongoing events in the financial world, including the bailout of large insurance firm AIG by the US Federal Reserve.

The primary UK index, the FTSE 100, dropped in value by 2.36%, which is 118.40 points, to below the 5000 mark at 4907.20. The Dow Jones was down 2.62% at 16:08 UTC, a slight increase from earlier today. The Dow Jones currently has a value of 10769.00 points. The Nasdaq index has fallen by 3.16% to 2138.14, while the Dax was 1.75% lower than the start of the day as of 16:08 UTC.

The Japanese index the Nikkei was one of the few to rise in value over the day. It ended up 1.2%, although this follows a large fall in the value of the index when it hit an all time low yesterday.

Darren Winder, a market analyst from Cazenove, said that “I don’t think anyone has got any or much confidence in market direction for more than a few days.”

A lot of today’s activities in the market were related to the takeover of the American International Group (AIG) on Tuesday in an US$ 85 billion loan, in exchange for a 79.9% stake in the company.

The fact that AIG has thousands of divisions engaged in business across the globe sets them apart from the recent problems with other banks. AIG was built up over the last several years via the buyouts and mergers of many companies around the world, offering AIG’s stockholders a diverse base of income which allowed it to steadily increase profits.

In addition, the markets have also had difficulties during the past week after the refusal of the Federal Reserve to bail out Lehman Brothers, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy on Monday after Bank of America (BoA) and Barclays PLC pulled out of negotiations over the weekend.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

John Comparetto, a retired New York City Police Department lieutenant, was held at gunpoint on Friday morning by an armed nineteen year old in a hotel bathroom who demanded Comparetto’s money and cellphone.

Comparetto handed over both to the thief. When the criminal took off with the money, Comparetto drew his gun from an ankle holster and immediately chased after the robber. Comparetto asked the hotel desk clerk which way the suspect went, and told the clerk to alert officers at a police convention that a fellow policeman was “in need of assistance”.

A police officer’s convention was being held at the Holiday Inn near Harrisburg Friday for 300 narcotics police officers in attendance from Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The teen departed the scene in a taxi cab outside the hotel.

Comparetto said, “I stopped the cab at gunpoint. Ten other cops came running out and we arrested probably the dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania.”

Jerome Marquis Blanchett is being held at Dauphin County Prison following his arrest.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Scientists have uncovered the largest Neolithic settlement in the United Kingdom at the Durrington Walls and believe that the village was inhabited by the people who built the Stonehenge monument.

Scientists say that the village was built around 2,600 B.C., roughly when Stonehenge was believed to have been constructed, and housed over 100 people.

Inside the areas which would have been the interior of houses at the time, scientists also found outlines of what they think were beds and cupboards or dressers. Pieces of pottery and “filthy” rubbish around the site. Animal bones, arrowheads, stone tools and other relics were also discovered.

“We’ve never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint. In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said Sheffield University archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson.

So far, the dig has revealed at least 8 houses roughly 14-16 feet square, but scientists say that they think there may have been at least 25 altogether.

The site was likely to have been occupied only seasonally rather than year-round and evidence suggests that a lot of “partying” went on at the location.

“The animal bones are being thrown away half-eaten. It’s what we call a feasting assemblage. This is where they went to party – you could say it was the first free festival. The rubbish isn’t your average domestic debris. There’s a lack of craft-working equipment for cleaning animal hides and no evidence for crop-processing,” added Pearson.

The Durrington Walls are approximately 2 miles from the Stonehenge site.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

At least eight suicide bombers with the Taleban attacked Zaranj, a city in southwestern Afghanistan, earlier today, killing at least four people, according to officials.

Reports say the rebels blew themselves up near the governor’s compound. Witnesses also reported gun battles between rebels and officials in the area. The Taleban contacted the Reuters news service, confirming that they were responsible for the attack. Spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said: “We sent six suicide bombers and three other attackers. They have attacked several government buildings, including the governor’s office.”

Afghanistan’s interior ministry said the victims consisted of a provincial council minister, a civilian, and two policemen. Police say eleven others were injured as well.

“They came in a car packed with explosives. They tried to attack the building housing the provincial council and the court,” said the governor of the Nimroz province, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, adding that “police engaged with the attackers in five or six locations, including the provincial council and provincial court”. He said there were at least seven explosions.

Monday, May 5, 2008

No one was injured when one or more pipe bombs exploded outside the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse located in San Diego, California.

The bomb exploded around 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning on May 4, 2008 and was reported by guards patrolling the building. Debris from the blast was found across the street in the AT&T building eight stories above the lobby of the courthouse. Doors were blown out along with several windows, but there was no other damage.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is investigating the incident and evidence has been sent to an FBI laboratory in Virginia for analysis.

Video footage from surrounding cameras is being analyzed, but so far there are no suspects and no one has claimed responsibility for the blast. The courthouse did not receive any threats prior to the blast. Authorities swept the areas surrounding the courthouse, but no other explosive devices were found.

The courthouse will remain closed today to repair the damage and for authorities to finish the investigation.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Republican John McCain has conceded the election to Democrat Barack Obama. After two years of campaigning, today United States citizens went to the polls to vote for the Presidency and for numerous Senate, House, state and local races across the country. The District of Columbia and at least 32 states had early voting before election day. By October 31, over 23 million people had voted by mail or at early voting locations. Of the approximately 6 million people of known party affiliation who voted early, 58% were Democrats and 42% were Republicans.

Record numbers of voters were expected to the polls on election day. There were reports of technical problems and long lines across the country. Heavy turnouts were reported in Indiana, Ohio, and Wyoming, among other states.

By 11:45 A.M. EST Obama is projected to have won 349 electoral votes to McCain’s 163 votes. The popular vote at this time was 62,992,553 (52%) for Obama, 55,796,823 (46%) for McCain.