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Saturday, August 12, 2006

Kim Gevaert and Tia Hellebaut both won their finals last night in Gothenburg at the European Championships in Athletics. For Gevaert, who already won the 100m sprint three days ago and held third place in the world ranking, 22.68 seconds in the 200 metres was enough to haul in a second golden medal. Russians Yuliya Gushchina (22.93) and Natalya Ruskova (23.09) had to settle for silver and bronze. Hellebaut jumped over 2.01 metres and then only needed one attempt to cross 2.03 metres, unexpectedly winning the high jump event. Favourite Kajsa Bergqvist only finished third, after Venelina Veneva from Bulgaria, who also made 2.03 metres but needed two jumps to succeed.

As Gevaert crossed the finish line cheering, Hellebaut came to congratulate her carrying a Belgian flag. Indeed, the victory of the two 28-year old Belgian women was historical: while Hellebaut bettered the Belgian record, Gevaert was the first Belgian athlete ever to win two golden medals at the European championships. The last women to crown herself in both sprint events was Russian Irina Privalova in 1994. Francis Obikwelu also brought in a sprint double victory for Portugal on Thursday.

Gevaert credited her victory partly to Hellebaut’s medal: “I screamed when my friend Tia won the high jump,” Gevaert told the gathered European press. “Seeing her gave me so much motivation two minutes before my own start.” And she continued: “I wonder what is going on right now in Belgium with three gold medals. It is wonderful for such a small country.” Hellebaut admitted that her achievement was “…beyond all expectations.”

Gevaert succeeds Muriel Hurtis as European Champion. Hurtis didn’t make it past the semi-finals. Four years ago, it was Hurtis who held off Gevaert, who had to settle for silver then. “I was a lot better than four years ago in Munich, when I was four years younger and much more nervous,” Gevaert explained.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

American golfer Orville Moody died yesterday aged 74. He was the winner of the 1969 U.S open.

A former U.S army sergeant Moody gave up the military in 1967 to play a trail run on the PGA Tour, he earned almost $300,000 in one year. After 15 months of joining Moody was named PGA Player of the Year. Moody won the U.S open by only one strike with a 72-hole score of 281. Deane Beman, Al Geiberger and Bob Rosburg all finished the tournament with a score of 282. In 1989, he became only the fourth man to win both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open.

No cause of death has been giving so far. Moody had a triple bypass heart surgery in 1995.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Three Australian citizens and a New Zealander died when the chartered light aircraft in which they were travelling crashed on Misima Island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The plane, a Cessna Citation with five people on board, is said by locals to have overshot the runway in poor weather, before crashing into trees and bursting into flames.

The fifth person, a New Zealander believed to be one of the pilots, is undergoing treatment for heavy bruising. The crash was confirmed by the Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, who said that officials of the Australian Consulate would be travelling to the crash site on Wednesday. The presence of the 2 New Zealanders on board was confirmed by the New Zealand High Commission in Port Moresby.

Jerome Peniasi, The acting Chief Executive of PNG Ports said the Australians on the plane were working with a company called Australian Reef Pilots near Misima Island. “We are aware of the accident, but we still don’t have much information as communication has been difficult”, he said. The Managing Director of Australian Reef Pilots, Craig Southerwood confirmed that one of the dead was a 61-year old marine pilot working for the agency.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

“Five singers, one drummer. No guitars, no bass, no keyboards but nevertheless an unbelievable melodic metal experience.”

That’s how the official website of van Canto describes the band. Hailing from Germany, van Canto are what is called an a capella metal band, the pioneers of this new genre.

The band released their debut, A Storm to Come, in December 2006. Exactly a year later, van Canto announced a global signing to Gun Records/Sony BMG, and their debut was released worldwide on December 14.

Van Canto are now experiencing considerable success. They recently provided support for Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish, as well as receiving a slot at the internationally famous Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. The prestigious event sees them sharing the bill with acts such as Hatebreed, Sonata Arctica, As I Lay Dying, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Lordi and headline act Iron Maiden.

Van Canto’s second album will be recorded across this month and next, with famed producer Charlie Bauerfeind, although no release date has yet been confirmed.

In light of recent events, van Canto member and founder Stefan Schmidt has given the band’s first interview in English, all previous interviews being in German or Italian. Wikinews now exclusively brings you that interview below.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Local caterers get ready for big business, as almost three thousand fans converge on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center over the Independence Day weekend for the world’s largest ever furry convention, Anthrocon 2007.

Many hope to renew acquaintances, or meet new friends. Others look to buy from dealers and artists, or show off new artwork or costumes. Some attend to make money, or even learn a thing or two. But one thing unites them: They’re all there to have fun.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

US doctors are to interview 12 patients with a view to performing the first ever transplant of a human face.

The Cleveland Clinic will choose between seven women and five men to find the person most suited for the experimental procedure, which is a radical and controversial solution to extreme facial scarring or disfigurement.

Having practiced the procedure on bodies donated for medical research, the Cleveland Clinic team believe they have a 50% chance of success. The procedure will not live up to science-fiction predictions and give the recipient the appearance of the donor; the underlying bone structure is the deciding factor in the final appearance. The new face will end up resembling neither the donor nor recipient.

Surgeons in several other countries have announced being ready to perform this procedure in the past. However, the risk and non life-threatening nature of disfigurement have meant that gaining approval for the groundbreaking surgery has been difficult. Like many other transplant operations, the recipient would be required to take drugs to prevent tissue rejection for the remainder of their life. These drugs can have side effects and carry their own risks involving the patient’s immune system.

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).

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Seeking to stave off the forest fires that have blanketed five Southeast Asian countries with choking haze for the past two years, Indonesian environmental and forestry officials said yesterday they would be able to reduce the number of hot spots this year by more than half.

Meeting in Jambi, Sumatra, cabinet ministers from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand heard what Indonesia plans to do this year to combat the illegal forest fires, which start each year during the August-November dry season.

“We are targeting a drop of about 50 percent in forest fires but we are entering the dry season between July and August so we have to increase our alertness,” Indonesian deputy environment minister Masnellyarti Hilman was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. “We explained the efforts that we’ve taken to prevent a repeat of the choking haze…and they praised our efforts,” he said.

A statement issued by the ministers after the meeting said Indonesia’s efforts would reduce the number of hot spots by 58 percent from the previous year.

Caused by slash-and-burn cultivation on palm oil and timber plantations on Borneo and Sumatra, the haze has covered parts of the affected countries for the past two years. It was first problematic in 1997, due to the El Niño weather pattern.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Belgian authorities have confirmed that at least eighteen people died in a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the suburbs of Brussels. Other reports suggest that the death toll could be as high as 25. More than 125 passengers are reported injured, 11 of them “very seriously”. Rescuers were still trying to free bodies from the wreckage of the trains more than eight hours after the crash, which occurred in snowy conditions at 08:28 local time (0728 UTC) near the station of Buizingen in the municipality of Halle, about 15 kilometres southwest of the Belgian capital.

One of the trains involved was travelling from Quiévrain to Liège, while the other was travelling from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte. The collision saw the first two carriages of one train being forced upwards into the air over the first carriage of the second train. Eyewitnesses described the collision as “brutal”, with passengers being thrown “violently” around the carriages.

Television footage showed the two smashed locomotives forced up in the air, with passenger cars strewn over a wide area and dazed survivors wandering at the crash site. Train speed at the time of the crash was not immediately known. There are reports that one of the trains ran a stop signal.

Initial reports suggest that the Leuven–Braine-le-Comte train was on the wrong line. It is not known if the train went through a red signal or if there was a problem with the signalling. A “well informed source” quoted by French-language daily Le Soir suggested that there might have been an electrical failure in the signalling system.

The collision occurred on one of the main access lines to Brussels-South station, about 14 kilometres (9 miles) from the Belgian capital. It caused “major damage” to overhead power cables, especially on the Brussels–Mons and Brussels–Tournai lines, and high speed rail services between Brussels and France and the UK have been suspended. Thalys services were temporarily halted due to the accident, with four of its trains in the region being diverted to alternative stations. Thalys services between Brussels and Cologne have now resumed, but services to Amsterdam and Paris are still suspended.

One passenger on board, Christian Wampach, described conditions on board the train, “It was a nightmare. We were thrown about for about 15 seconds. There were a number of people injured in my car but I think all the dead were in the first car.” Wampach was in the third car.

Another passenger, Patricia Lallemand, said, “When we came out we saw dead bodies lying next to the tracks, some mutilated.”