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Monday, July 14, 2008

Sulpicio Lines has named the companies hired to conduct salvage operations for MV Princess of the Stars, the Philippines ferry that sank on June 21 during Typhoon Fengshen, leaving over 800 passengers dead.

The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) had already set a deadline of this Tuesday to name the contractor who would recover the ship. Another important aspect is the separate recovery of chemicals on board, primarily the fuel and a 10-tonne shipment of the dangerous pesticide endosulfan by Del Monte.

The ship had also been carrying a number of other chemicals in smaller quantities, including metamedopus, carbofuran, niclosemide, and proptineb. All of the chemicals must be removed by order of the DOTC before the vessel is recovered. The chemical recovery is to be performed by Titan Salvage, an international firm owned by Florida’s Crowley Maritime Corporation and specialising in sunken and capsized ship recovery. Titan will co-operate with both Sulpicio and the DOTC, and expect the project to be completed within 60 days of the contract being signed.

Once the chemicals on board are removed then the ship itself can be recovered. Sulpicio has also named its contractor for this: Malayan Towage and Salvage Corporation (Salvtug). Salvtug has accepted the contract, but warned that its estimated operation cost is PHP2.25 billion to P4.5 billion, which is roughly equivalent to US$50 million to $100 million. Sulpicio had previously estimated that this exercise would cost P600 million.

The high cost is a potential problem as it is unclear who will pay. Sulpicio’s insurance does not cover salvage. Had Sulpicio been covered with protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance this would have been covered, but this is not required in the Philippines and so Sulpicio’s insurance agreement with Oriental Assurance Corporation only covered the hull, machinery and third-party injuries and damage.

It is likely that Sulpicio will pay for the recovery of the ferry, which has a gross weight of 23,824 tons, but as the ship poses a potential environmental hazard it has been suggested that the government should pay the costs initially to ensure work is done quickly, with Sulpicio to be charged later for this. However, for now it is unclear who will pay for the vessel’s recovery.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

US President Barack Obama today announced a revamp of a policy that dictates the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used by the United States.

The Nuclear Posture Review, which was published on Tuesday, now completely rules out the use of nuclear weapons by the US in response to an attack using chemical, biological, or conventional weapons. The new document says that the US will use nuclear weapons only in “extreme circumstances,” although it did not specify what those circumstances would be. It also commits the US to not develop new nuclear warheads, although the country’s arsenal of conventional (non-nuclear) weapons will be maintained.

The document does, however, contain two major caveats. Only countries that comply with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty are subject to the new limitations, meaning that India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan would be exempt from the limitations, as these countries are non-parties to the treaty, and Iran would be except while in violation of the treaty. Also, the new strategy will maintain the option of reconsidering the pledge not to use nuclear weapons in retaliation to a biological attack, but only if it was judged that such technology had reached a point where the US was vulnerable to such an attack.

The revised strategy is expected to be controversial among both conservatives and liberals, who have, respectively, argued against reducing the power of nuclear weapons and advocated for a pledge to never initiate nuclear warfare. Obama called the new plan one that would enable the US to “move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons” and that would “make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances.”

Obama held an interview at the White House about the new plans, in which he called the new strategy “a series of graded options.” He also said that “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure.”

Sunday, March 13, 2011

At least fourteen people have died after a chartered bus crashed in The Bronx, New York. According to authorities, the tour bus accident also injured eighteen other people, amongst which five were critically injured.

The vehicle was travelling from Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to the village of Uncasville, also located in Connecticut. When the crash occurred on Interstate 95 at approximately 0535 EST (1035 UTC) on Sunday, there were at least thirty-one passengers present.

40-year-old Ophadell Williams, the driver of the bus, reported to the police that the vehicle came into contact with a semi-trailer truck, which was veering across the interstate. He said that he attempted to move out of the way of this vehicle, causing the bus itself to swerve, overturn and scrape the side of a railing for one hundred yards before impacting with a highway sign’s upholding bar.

Captain James Ellson, of the fire service, described the scene as “a pile of humans, either still in their seats or on the floor, wrapped in the metal”. Jose Hernandez, one of the survivors of the bus crash, said that “[w]e tried to help people, but there was twisted metal in the way”.

The semi-trailer truck driver failed to stop after the accident. Police are currently attempting to detect this driver. Raymond Kelly, the current New York City Police Commissioner, stated that the truck was moving on a lane to the bus’ nearside, although whether the vehicles came into contact with each other or not is yet to be confirmed. Both vehicles were travelling at “a significant rate of speed”, according to Kelly.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was resented on Wednesday for the first time) – Apple Inc. – and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose – Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Friday, April 3, 2009

Quiznos, a fast food restaurant chain that specializes in selling submarine sandwiches, has aired a controversial television commercial, with an extended version only appearing in the late-night lineups. The commercial is a promotion for the company’s new sandwich, the ‘Toasty Torpedo’. Bob Sassone, a writer for TVSquad.com, argues that it is homosexually themed and compares it to pornography.

The commercial begins with a toaster oven talking to Scott, a Quiznos sandwich maker, in a male voice. “Scott, I want you to do something,” says the toaster to Scott. As he takes a bite of a Torpedo and appears to look in the direction of his genitals, Scott says to the toaster, “[sic] not doing that again. That burned.” The toaster replies, “We both enjoyed that.”

Later in the commercial, the toaster asks Scott to make one of the sandwiches and says the price of it is “sexy” and then “sexier.” Scott grins and does so. The toaster then asks Scott to “stick it in me”. The sandwich just happens to be 12 inches long, giving the appearance of a special relationship between Scott and the toaster oven.

Quiznos published a press release on March 24 announcing the new line of sandwiches. They stated that their price of US$4 helps to ease the economic pinch. In a statement to Wikinews Quiznos stated that their commercials are within the company’s character and they were designed to get people talking.

“We developed our new ads to be consistent with the Quiznos brand and to get people excited about our new Toasty Torpedoes. Some of the ads are edgy and provocative, but they’re well within the confines of the Quiznos brand character,” said Rebecca Steinfort, chief marketing officer for Quiznos to Wikinews.

“Since Quiznos has a broad range of consumers that eat at its more than 4,500 restaurants nationwide, we tailor our commercials to be relevant and appeal to our diverse customers – all of whom are watching different kinds of programming. The new ads are fun and entertaining, and the edginess and innuendo of the ads are designed to get people talking about our new Toasty Torpedoes, and that’s exactly what we want: people to talk and taste our new sandwiches,” added Steinfort.

Bob Sassone a writer for TVSquad.com, one of the Internet’s top television weblogs, compared the commercial to a pornography film.

“The new Quizno’s commercial is probably the closest we’ll get to a gay porn flick in a mainstream sub shop ad,” Sassone wrote.

In 2007, the company made another controversial commercial. It featured people on the street eating samples of a Quiznos ‘Prime Rib Dinner’ sandwich. They promoted it as having a lot of “meat” and near the end it featured two women eating a sandwich saying, “It’s not lacking any meat. And that’s what real women need”.

“Nevertheless, Quiznos remains committed to providing its customers with high-quality ingredients at everyday lower prices, all with excellent service. As such, we encourage consumers to give feedback on the commercials to our corporate marketing department through the website,” said Steinfort.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

West Mercia Police have made the announcement that a five-year-old girl that was physically involved in a crash involving a car going into a river has died in Birmingham Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom. The child has been identified as Gabrielle Grady. She was also known as Gabby.

Gabrielle was involved in a vehicle crash on Thursday when the car she was in crashed into the River Avon in the town of Evesham in Worcestershire, England. There were three occupants in the Vauxhall Vectra, including Gabrielle, her six-year-old brother Ryan, and her 41-year-old father Chris Grady, who was driving the vehicle. It took 12 minutes for divers to free Gabrielle from the car, which was partially underwater.

West Mercia Police announced on Sunday that Gabby had died in Birmingham Children’s Hospital at approximately 1330 (1:30 pm) GMT that day. From the time of her entry into the hospital, she was considered to be in a critical condition. Her family was with her at the time of her death. West Mercia Police also commented that Ryan was still recovering in the hospital.

This incident is currently being treated as suspicious, with Chris Grady being remanded in custody for offences of attempted murder. The police have stated that this incident is currently being handled as a murder investigation.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Despite the hopes of many University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) students, The Onion was not named after their student center. “People always ask questions about where the name The Onion came from,” said President Sean Mills in an interview with David Shankbone, “and when I recently asked Tim Keck, who was one of the founders, he told me the name—I’ve never heard this story about ‘see you at the un-yun’—he said it was literally that his Uncle said he should call it The Onion when he saw him and Chris Johnson eating an onion sandwich. They had literally just cut up the onion and put it on bread.” According to Editorial Manager Chet Clem, their food budget was so low when they started the paper that they were down to white bread and onions.

Long before The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Heck and Johnson envisioned a publication that would parody the news—and news reporting—when they were students at UW in 1988. Since its inception, The Onion has become a veritable news parody empire, with a print edition, a website that drew 5,000,000 unique visitors in the month of October, personal ads, a 24 hour news network, podcasts, and a recently launched world atlas called Our Dumb World. Al Gore and General Tommy Franks casually rattle off their favorite headlines (Gore’s was when The Onion reported he and Tipper were having the best sex of their lives after his 2000 Electoral College defeat). Many of their writers have gone on to wield great influence on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert‘s news parody shows.

And we are sorry to break the news to all you amateur headline writers: your submissions do not even get read.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Chet Clem and Sean Mills about the news empire that has become The Onion.