Former WorldCom chief found guilty of all charges

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 A federal jury found Bernard Ebbers guilty on all nine counts in an indictment for fraud, conspiracy and false regulatory filings. The verdict was handed down by a New York jury after 8 days of deliberation on the former WorldCom CEO and mastermind behind the accounting scandal that brought down the telcom giant.

AP writer Erin McClam reported that when the verdict was announced, “Ebbers’ face reddened.”

Sentencing is set for the second Tuesday of next week when he could receive 85 years in prison for the conviction.

Ebbers who took the stand in his own defence, said he left the details of the company’s accounting to others and that he had no knowledge of shady practices. But Scott Sullivan, the ex-chief financial officer of the company and key prosecution witness, directly linked Ebbers to the fraud. Sullivan agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in the hopes of receiving a lenient sentence for his own involvement in the scandal.

The fall of WordCom sparked a massive class action law suit by investors. The plunge in WorldCom’s stock changed the capitalized value of the company in the range of $11 billion as the scandal unravelled. Secuities fraud cases stemming from the suits will probably break new legal ground where the involvement of investment banks and public accounting firms who would normally check company irregularities will be called into legal question.

Reasons To Hire Pool Service In Houston

byAlma Abell

Having a pool is a great thing, as any pool owner can tell you. However, what many perspective pool owners don’t realize is that they have to perform upkeep on that same pool year round. If you are the type that just doesn’t have time, or doesn’t feel that you will do the job right, when it comes to keeping up with cleaning and maintaining your pool, you might want to consider hiring Pool Service in Houston professionals to take care of the job for you instead. Companies like Cryer Pools and Spas Inc. can take care of cleaning, maintaining, and make sure that your pool is safe at all times for your family and friends.

Cleaning a pool takes much more than just fishing the trash out on occasion. If the PH levels in your pool aren’t kept at a certain level, then you will end up with everything from algae to gunk building up on the sides and the bottom of the pool, and turning it green over time.

Even when you get the algae out of the pool and it looks like it should be fine, you could end up with viruses and bacteria that can make your family sick, or even end in death if you aren’t careful. It’s better to hire a professional pool cleaning service than it is to take the chance of your family and friends getting sick because you don’t know how to handle the PH levels in your pool.

Besides who really has time to take care of a pool themselves. Taking care of a pool is a full-time job, which means that you will not being spending as much time with your family in the pool, as you will be spending your time cleaning it.

Take the easy way out, and spend the time in the pool, instead of maintaining it, and hire the pool professionals to do the job for you. They are trained to clean your pool, keep the levels where they are supposed to be, and to make sure that it’s sparkling clean and safe for you and your family to enjoy.

Al Sharpton speaks out on race, rights and what bothers him about his critics

Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”

Contents

  • 1 Sharpton’s beginnings in the movement
  • 2 James Brown: a father to Sharpton
  • 3 Criticism: Sharpton is always there
  • 4 Tawana Brawley to Megan Williams
  • 5 Sharpton and the African-American media
  • 6 Why the need for an Al Sharpton?
  • 7 Al Sharpton and Presidential Politics
  • 8 On Barack Obama
  • 9 The Iraq War
  • 10 Sharpton as a symbol
  • 11 Blacks and whites and talking about race
  • 12 Don Imus, Michael Richards and Dog The Bounty Hunter
  • 13 Sources

Andrea Muizelaar on fashion, anorexia, and life after ‘Top Model’

Monday, November 26, 2007

In the 18 months since Andrea Muizelaar was crowned winner of the reality TV series Canada’s Next Top Model, her life has been a complete whirlwind. From working in a dollar store in her hometown of Whitby, Ontario, to modeling haute couture in Toronto, she had reached her dream of becoming a true Top Model.

But at what cost? Unknown to casual television viewers, Muizelaar had been enveloped in the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which inevitably became too much for her to bear. She gave up modeling and moved back to Whitby, where she sought treatment for her disorder, re-entered college, and now works at a bank. Where is she now? Happy and healthy, she says.

Recently Andrea Muizelaar sat down with Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman in a candid interview that stretched to nearly two hours, as she told all about her hopes and aspirations, her battle with anorexia, and just what really happened on Canada’s Next Top Model.

Contents

  • 1 Andrea’s beginnings
  • 2 Andrea on her road to modeling, and America’s Next Top Model
  • 3 Experience on Canada’s Next Top Model
  • 4 The message she wrote to her fans on her facebook group
  • 5 Her brief modeling career
  • 6 “Happy and healthy”
  • 7 Source

Park Free Loaders

Park Free Loaders

by

Corey Planer

Before anybody looks down their nose for my self-created, stay-at-home-mom drama, allow me to say that I don t care what anybody says, and my silly drama is no more or less silly than the drama about the employee who never follows dress code, the boss who mispronounces his employee of ten years name or the gum clicker that sits in the adjacent cubicle. Now that I have that out of the way, I have a bone to pick with park freeloaders. Let me be specific and say that this is a grown up created problem and not a kid created problem; however, these toy mooching parents should not be shocked when their children are thirty and are still doing their grocery shopping in their parents pantry. And yes, on occasion I have done that very thing. But I am not thirty, and perhaps my mom didn t bring toys for me to play with at the playground.

Here is my beef. There are several parents and their children that regularly frequent the Monkey Boy s favorite park. The park is gorgeous. It has a majestic mountain backdrop, fabulous desert scenery and well laid out park equipment with ample shade. There are great bike paths and plenty of space to play a game of catch or for your child to run away from you at break neck speed chasing after a rogue bunny rabbit. Here is the thing, while all of these amenities sound fabulous to an adult, to a kid they can become rather blas . If you plan on spending a decent amount of time at the park, it is best to bring things from home for your kid to play with because they will undoubtedly want to play with something other than what is there in front of them; especially if they see other kids playing with toys. Any stay at home parent who relies on a weekly park trip to regain some peace and sanity knows that you have to BYOG (bring your own gear). Some parents, however, like to rely on other parents to put in the extra work. They are the freeloaders; probably the same people in college that did not take their own notes or bring their own beer.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZpz4lGiz9A[/youtube]

My son and I cringe when we see them coming, and for the record I do not tell my son that I find these people obnoxious in the same way that I find the Jersey Shore obnoxious. Their kids make a bee line for the sand box area, where most of the well prepared parents congregate. Their eyes are greedy, and I am pretty sure I have seen at least a few foam at the mouth. They walk over to the toys, well before their parents get there and start grabbing like it is Black Friday. Suddenly, children that have brought their own toys to enjoy and play with are put into a tailspin. They look at their parents with a mixture of fear and rage; fear that their favorite toy may be ruined or stolen and rage that these stinking freeloaders have shown up once again without bringing toys.

Finally, the parent freeloaders show up with their same tired story. Oh, ask if it is okay if you play with that toy, or I just can t seem to remember to bring your own toys. Liar! These people are not even trying to remember to wipe their kid s nose, let alone bring a stinking shovel and pail. I agree that children need to learn to share, but the idea of sharing is that to a certain extent it should benefit both participants in a symbiotic type of relationship. If a child wants to play with my son and his toys, then sharing is benefitting the both of them; however, if a child wants my kid s toy, and then runs off with it for the next half hour, my kid is getting the short end of the stick.

Most parents give in to the freeloaders. They demand their children to share against their will because they feel as though it is in some way going to make them well rounded or perhaps they feel intimidated, but I decided to take a stand. Instead of forcing my child to give up his favorite motorcycle to the pint sized moocher, I ask him if he wants to share. It is a choice, right? The freeloaders give me a confused look as though I have asked my son to recite the quadratic equation, but it doesn t bother me. Sometimes my child says no, and other times he says that the kid can only play with it next to him. My son understands that sharing is a nice thing to do, but that he doesn t have to go without during a time that is supposed to be fun just for the simple sake of sharing. He also understands that if somebody has a toy that he wants, that child has the right to share or not to share. To share or not to share, it is not a question, but rather a choice!

ConscienceParenting.com/

Online Parenting blog

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com

Airliner hijacker found working for British Airways

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A man who hijacked a domestic flight over Afghanistan has been found to be working for British Airways.

34-year-old Nazamuddin Mohammidy was one of nine men who forced the Ariana Airlines airliner to divert to the United Kingdom’s Stansted Airport in 2000. A standoff followed for the next 70 hours with the men, who had guns and hand grenades, threatening to kill all 160 on board unless asylum was granted to them. The men ultimately gave themselves up to police and SAS.

Mohammidy was jailed for 30 months but he and the other eight had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal, claiming the Taliban was subjecting them to “medieval and brutal tyranny” forcing them to flee. They went on to win a High Court case to prevent their deportation.

It has since emerged that British Airways have employed Mohammidy to clean their offices, including a training center one mile from Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. It came to light when police officers stopped him near Terminal 5 believing he may be an unlicensed taxi driver, but he was able to suppply a worker’s pass. He is now facing unrelated charges concerning an alleged assault on his landlord.

It would be an outrageous and potentially devastating breach of security if a former hijacker had access to British Airways property near the airport and a pass allowing him access to secure areas.

The Conservatives have used this as an opportunity to attack the current Labour government. Shadow home secretary David Davis said “It would be an outrageous and potentially devastating breach of security if a former hijacker had access to British Airways property near the airport and a pass allowing him access to secure areas. Days after it was revealed that foreign airside workers at our airports do not have to pass proper security checks it is clear the Government do not have a grip on airport security.”

British Airways say he did not have a pass to allow him onto the tarmac at Heathrow and did not work inside the airport, but he could get into some secure company areas.

38 miners killed in Russian mine explosion

Thursday, May 24, 2007

At least 38 miners are dead after methane exploded in an underground coal mine in Russia. 180 people made it out of the mine, and at least 7 of those were seriously injured. At least 217 miners were inside when the explosion occurred.

“Up to 45 people could have been at the epicenter of the blast. One hundred and eighty people have been brought out. Of these, five have life-threatening injuries. The fate of the other [trapped] miners is unknown. According to the (mining) company’s information, there were 194 workers and 23 engineering inspectors underground [when the mine exploded],” said a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Ministry.

The explosion occurred at the Yubileynaya (Jubilee) Mine located in Novokuznetsk, Russia in the Kemerovo Oblast at approximately 7:40 a.m. local time on Thursday [11:40 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday]. Yuzhkuzbassugol currently owns the mining facility.

The mine has already received several violations, and according to Russia’s industrial safety agency the mine would likely lose its license to operate. “Such a decision could be taken after an inquiry into all the circumstances of the accident at the Yubileinaya mine. Particularly since we have already found violations at Yuzhkuzbassugol mines.”

Matcon Ib Cs

byAlma Abell

In pharmaceutical industry, material handling has become one of the crucial parts of production process. Stringent regulations and inspections by FDA & other regulatory bodies have made material handling aspect important for the Indian pharmaceutical tablet manufacturer. Regulatory bodies are getting stringent on segregation, dusting, contamination, OEL levels etc. which have made pharmaceutical companies shift to closed systems which prevent such issues. In addition to this companies are looking for automated systems to reduce manpower & handling. Customers have started to look material handling system as a core part of the process instead of supporting equipment.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7vI5FqSUOg[/youtube]

This has made companies to shift from handling products in manual drums to IBC (Intermediate Bulk Containers) to transfer product from one process to another in powder as well as tablet making process right from Granulation to Coating. Matcon has been one of the leading suppliers of IBCs all over the world with its unique cone valve technology offering dust free product transfer and minimizes chances of segregation, ratholing, bridging. It also offers plastic bins for tableting which are light weight and easy to handle and store. Matcon IBCs are known for their large size bins for powder transfer of upto 3000L which reduces number of equipments and tracking of bins become easier with barcode & RFID identification.

Matcon’s IBCs can also be directly loaded onto the blender without any material transfer and after blending can be loaded on to the compression machine directly. These IBCs can be loaded on its discharge station for complete transfer of product without any dusting & spillage. The filling and discharging of IBC is closed and airtight and transfer of material only happens after connection is secured pneumatically through where gradual transfer of material prevents segregation as compared to traditional butterfly valve. Sticky materials can also be stimulated to flow through integral cone vibration where other systems fail.

Due to features Matcon IBCs are the most preferred solution in pharmaceutical industry making it the most reliable material transfer technology. To know more about Matcon’s IBCs, visit http://www.idexindia.in/matcon-overview/matcon-products/intermediate-bulk-containers-ibcs-powders-granules/. Alternatively you can call on 18002679955 or email on info.fmt@idexcorp.com

China loans Ethiopia US$349 million for construction of expressway

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

China has loaned Ethiopia US$349 million worth of funds for the construction of the the country’s first modern expressway, making Ethiopia among the first beneficiaries of the recently implemented China-Africa development funding plan.

The road is to be close to 80 kilometres long, and will connect Nazaret (also called Adama), the country’s second-largest city, with the capital, Addis Ababa.

Funds from the Export-Import Bank of China are to be used to give the loans, according to the agreement. The deal was signed by Li Ruogu, the president of China’s Export-Import Bank, and Ahmed Shide, the Ethiopian state minister of finance and economic development.

According to the Ethiopian News Agency, the motorway is to be completed by 2014. The country has also agreed to other financial deals with China, mainly in the telecommunications and energy sectors.

Guardiola to replace Pellegrini as Manchester City manager

Monday, February 1, 2016

Manchester-based football club Manchester City today announced their current manager Manuel Pellegrini will remain only to this season’s end. Former FC Barcelona and current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola is to replace the Chilean next season.

He is one of the best managers in the world, no doubt about this.

Pellegrini joined City in 2013 and under him they have won the Premier League and the League Cup. Guardiola, winner of two Bundesliga titles and one German Cup with the German giants Munich, and a two-time Champions League winner with Barcelona, has signed a three-year contract with Manchester City. Guardiola also won four La Liga titles with Barcelona, winning fourteen trophies with them in total in four years and making him their most successful manager. He has suffered just nineteen managerial defeats in 239 league matches.

Pellegrini has managed 64 victories out of 99 games in the Premier League — only José Mourinho has a better record from his first 99 Premier League matches. Manchester City are currently second in the league table and in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Pellegrini was, the announcement noted, in full support of announcing the change.

Former Manchester City player Trevor Sinclair, in remarks to BBC Radio, said “He’s the hottest manager out there. Every club would want him.” Liverpool F.C. manager Jürgen Klopp, who previously coached Munich rivals Borussia Dortmund, praised Guardiola saying “He is one of the best managers in the world, no doubt about this. […] Pep won everything in Spain, nearly everything in Germany, so I think he wants to win everything in England, that is clear.”

On December 20, Bayern Munich announced Guardiola would be replaced by former Real Madrid and Chelsea F.C. manager Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian has won three Champions League titles in his coaching career.