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Friday, August 27, 2010

Apple Inc. will hold a music-centered event in San Francisco, California on September 1. It has been widely speculated that the company will introduce an updated line of iPod portable music players and a new Apple TV.

The company e-mailed invitations for the event to various media organizations on Wednesday. The message included a picture of a guitar and the time of the event. Apple did not release any information about what products would be involved.

Apple has released new iPods through previous similar events in September in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. This year, Apple may unveil a new iPod Touch with two cameras, similar to their recent iPhone 4 design. It will likely also update the iTunes music store and software.

Speculation about a new Apple TV is mixed. While many blogs are reporting that a refresh of the device will be announced, analysts say that it is unlikely to happen during next Wednesday’s event. According to Reuters, sources are saying that Apple is negotiating with major television networks, including ABC and NBC, in order to provide shows for purchase on iTunes. However, they also reported that the deal has not been completed, and none of the companies involved have commented on the rumors.

It has also been rumored that Apple will introduce a new online music service. In 2009, Apple took over a company that allowed users to stream music online rather than download individual songs. Apple has not confirmed the rumors.

Last September’s media event saw the return of Apple CEO Steve Jobs after he took a break to undergo a liver transplant. This year, the event will be held in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, previously used by Apple in April for the unveiling of the iPad.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that his country is prepared to have a standoff with the United States.

The move comes as the U.S. decided to send another aircraft carrier to the Middle East.

According to the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the USS Stennis was dispatched to the region to “impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable.”

In response to the deployment of additional troops, Ahmadinejad said that Iran was prepared for any possibility in the standoff with the West over its nuclear activities.

“Today, with the grace of God, we have gone through the arduous passes and we are ready for anything in this path. Their aim is to frighten Iran and weaken the resistance of the Iranian nation but they will not succeed,” stated Ahmadinejad.

Iran has stated that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but the United Nations disagrees and imposed limited sanctions on the nation last year.

“Unfortunately, some inside the country try to fabricate news and portray a bad image of the great achievement of the Iranian nation […] prescribe compromise, repeat the words of the enemy. Of course, this will have no effect,” added Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement comes as Iran announces that the country is prepared to begin the installation of nearly 3,000 centrifuges at its nuclear facility, the Natanz uranium-enrichment complex.

According to an unknown European diplomat, “everything has been prepared for assembling [and installing] the centrifuges at Natanz for the beginning of the industrial phase of enrichment. The hardware is now in place.”

Ahmadinejad also said that enrichment of uranium will begin at the Natanz facility “very soon” and “bit by bit.”

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced to a shocked House of Commons today that two password-protected — but not encrypted — computer disks containing the entire Child Benefit database have been lost in transit between the offices of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in Washington, Tyne & Wear and the National Audit Office (NAO) in London, in what has been described as “one of the world’s biggest ID protection failures”.

The database contains details of all families in the UK who receive Child Benefit — all families with children up to 16 years of age, plus those with children up to 20 years old if they are in full-time education or training — estimated to contain 25 million individuals in 7.25 million families. Among other items of information, the database contains names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and National Insurance numbers, and where appropriate, bank or building society account details.

The discs were created by a junior official at the HMRC in response to a request for information by the NAO, and were sent unregistered and unrecorded on 18 October using the courier company TNT — which operates the HMRC’s internal mail system. When it was found that the discs had not arrived for audit at the NAO, a further copy of this data was made and sent — this time by registered mail — and this package did arrive. HMRC were not informed that the original discs had been lost until 8 November, and Darling himself was informed on 10 November.

The violation of data protection laws involved in the creation of the discs has led to strong attacks on the government’s competence to establish the proposed National Identity Register, when all UK residents will have an identity card. Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne described the loss of data as “catastrophic” and said “They [the government] simply cannot be trusted with people’s personal information”.

The Chairman of HMRC, Paul Gray, has resigned over the affair, and critics are calling for Darling to do likewise.

This is the third data embarrassment for HMRC in recent weeks — earlier this month it was reported that the details of over 15,000 Standard Life customers had been put on disk, and then lost en route from HMRC in Newcastle to Standard Life in Edinburgh — and last month a laptop containing the data of 400 people with high-value ISAs was stolen from the boot of a car belonging to a HMRC official who had been carrying out a routine audit.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

A fire on Sunday night in the seven-storey carpark for the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England destroyed almost all the vehicles parked inside and led to cancellation of the final evening of the Liverpool International Horse Show and evacuation of nearby blocks of flats. The blaze reportedly started with a parked Range Rover Discovery.

Investigators with the fire brigade stated that they believe the fire began with an accidental engine fire in the Range Rover at about 4.30 pm. The first call was made at 4.42 and firefighters arrived eight minutes after that. Ultimately twelve engines and 85 firefighters were involved in combatting the blaze. Aerial appliances were used and also three high-volume pumps. Fed by the fuel in vehicles parked inside, the temperature of the fire in the carpark is believed to have reached as high as 1,000°C. It was too hot to be extinguished with water from hydrants, so a high-volume pump was used to draw water from the River Mersey, and two more were brought from other fire brigades in the region.

The carpark has seven storeys and a capacity of 1,600 vehicles, and approximately 1,300 were parked in it when the fire broke out. According to Dan Stephens, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, almost all of them were destroyed, with the exception of a few parked on the top level and at corners. “With these very high temperatures, you were never going to put the fire out without the whole building taking hold. The speed at which the fire spreads means you simply aren’t going to put it out,” said Stephens.

The carpark itself was severely damaged; according to Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool. It is not in danger of collapsing but will have to be demolished, which will be difficult with the many burned-out cars still inside it, Anderson told the BBC.

According to Stephens, there were no serious injuries: one woman injured her hand, and two people were treated for smoke inhalation. A spokesman for the Echo Arena also stated that all animals were safe. All horses were successfully evacuated from the carpark and then removed from the stables after smoke spread to them. Six dogs were also rescued unharmed, two on a lower level in the early stages of the fire and four that had been left in a car on the top level, freed by firefighters on Monday after the fire was put out.

The final evening of the four-day Liverpool International Horse Show had been scheduled to begin at 7.30, and had to be cancelled. Many attendees were stranded in the city on New Year’s Eve night. Merseyside police directed people to the Pullman Hotel, where Red Cross assistance was available, and the Liverpool City Council set up an assistance centre at the Lifestyles Gym. A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers has said that insurance companies will “move very quickly” to reimburse owners whose vehicles were destroyed.

Nearby blocks of flats were evacuated because of the smoke. Eyewitnesses reported hearing what they at first thought were firecrackers, then “multiple explosions”, “bangs and popping”, “the bangs of car windows exploding”. People reported leaving everything in their cars, including their cellphones, and running for their lives.

Mayor Anderson tweeted that cuts to fire services over the last two years made it significantly harder to fight the fire and might have caused it not to be controllable. He also suggested that fire safety in multi-storey carparks had not been sufficiently considered and that installing sprinklers in them might help stop future fires before they become unmanageable, in a letter to Nick Hurd, a member of Parliament.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Nigerian airplane crashed in the city of Port Harcourt yesterday, resulting in several minor injuries.

The plane was supposed to be taking part in a mock rescue exercise, and was carrying 30 members from the National Emergency Management Agency and other emergency workers, when it slid off the runway and into some bushes after landing at Port Harcourt International Airport.

The rescue workers on the ground, intended to participate in the emergency drill, instead had to deal with a real emergency; however, only a few people on board the aircraft sustained minor wounds.

A spokeswoman for the police, Rita Inoma-Abbey, commented today that “[n]o life was lost, but the aircraft was severely damaged.”

Monday, October 19, 2009

Pakistani officials say the military has launched its much anticipated ground offensive against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan tribal region. Fierce fighting has broken out and dozens of casualties are reported on both sides.

This mountainous district forms part of the Afghan border, which United States officials call the most dangerous place in the world. It is considered to be a stronghold for the Taliban. An attack by US drones on this area killed the former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and it shelters the new leader Hakimullah Mehsud. It is also has training camps for suicide bombers. The US has put pressure on the Pakistani government to deal with militancy in the area.

30,000 troops which had been moved into the area over the past few months moved out of their bases in and around South Waziristan on Saturday, hours after top military and political leaders were briefed by army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayanimain in the capital, Islamabad. The troops advanced north towards the Mehsud stronghold of Makeen, west towards Kunigaram, Saam and Baddar, and east towards Kotkai, Spinkai Raghzai.

Pakistan has experienced a wave of terror attacks, including suicide blasts targeting international and security organizations, coordinated attacks around the country’s cultural center, Lahore, and an assault on the army’s headquarters near Islamabad. Some 175 people have died in the past two weeks. The government has blamed the Pakistani Taliban, which is based in South Waziristan, for the violence.

“The recent upsurge of terror incidents in the country were condemned and it was agreed that these elements pose a serious threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the state […] In the given circumstances, the national consensus is reaffirmed to establish and maintain the writ of the state to weed out these elements,” said Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Hours ahead of Saturday’s offensive, Pakistani authorities imposed a curfew and turned off mobile phone service in parts of South Waziristan in the district of Wana, as well as in Shakai and Tiarza.

Despite the military’s superiority in numbers, former security chief of the tribal regions, Mahmood Shah, told the Voice of America (VOA) news agency it would not be an easy battle. “This 30,000 against 10,000 is a conventional battle,” he said. “The militants do not fight conventional battles.” He also said he expects the military will face an enemy deeply entrenched in the mountainous and remote region. He also cautions that militants will likely launch suicide attacks elsewhere.

Top army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has stated that the offensive could last up to two months, but that because of impending climatic conditions they would try to complete the attack by snowfall. A formal announcement on the start of the operation is expected by Prime Minister Gilani.

Officials have said that four soldiers were wounded during clashes and that remote-controlled bomb attacks killed two soldiers in North Waziristan and one in South Waziristan. The three soldiers’ bodies have been taken to Ramzak. There are also unconfirmed reports of militant deaths.

A senior military official has said that initially the objective is to establish footholds, but that they would mobilise three divisions of the military, paramilitary and police, with the final total rising up to 60,000 troops. According to a senior government official in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, the objective is to remove all militants from the area. He also said that “[t]his has been in the works for a long time. It was only a question of timing and the timing was decided. Troops were in place and they moved in.”

This is not the first time the military has launched an offensive in the tribal region. But those previous operations were not successful, mainly because militants killed sympathetic tribal leaders and opposition political parties refused to offer their support.

Experts estimate the number of militants between 10,000 and 12,000 from the Tehreek-e-Taliban movement in South Waziristan and up to 25,000 across Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, with up to 5,000 Uzbek fighters supporting the Taliban.

For the past several months since the anti-Taliban offensive in and around Swat Valley, the military has built up its forces around South Waziristan.

Manuel Bessler, head of the United Nations’s Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, told Voice of America that many civilians have fled the area. “We had IDPs, internally displaced people, since May about 77,000, up to 80,000,” he said. “Now with this more intense fighting and military operation inside [South] Waziristan, we have a daily outflow of 70 to 100 families from the area.” Official figures put at 90,000 the people displaced from South Waziristan since August.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

On Sunday, US television station CBS aired “The Vulcan Hello”, the premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The episode is slated to be the only one of the series broadcast on conventional television, with future installments exclusive to streaming platform CBS All Access. Discovery continues the long-running Star Trek franchise with the first series in the franchise to feature a black female lead.

The airing follows several months of development and delays, as the series was retooled by veteran television producers including Bryan Fuller and Akiva Goldsman. Initially announced in 2015 to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th anniversary the following year, the series has been plagued by setbacks, including departure of Bryan Fuller as showrunner in late 2016, collectively pushing its release date to move from January to September of this year.

Only Canadian station Space is to air the series on traditional television. In all other non-US countries, Netflix has the rights.

The series is the newest installment of the Star Trek media franchise. Discovery is a prequel program set before the 1960s original series, set to explore the relationship between the Earth-based Federation made up of several benign alien species who explore the universe to find new life, and the war-like Klingons who have been villains of the various films and television installments. Veteran US television actress Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, first officer of starship USS Shenzou.

The series has earned praise and controversy for its decision to cast the lead as a black woman. Creators say this inclusivity is consistent with the franchise’s history, which has featured black male and white female leads. All casts have been multi-racial, starting with the original series, which included the black female character Uhura portrayed by Nichelle Nichols.

Discovery also marks a key part of CBS’s strategy for streaming its streaming video service All Access. Launched in 2014, the platform has a library of several thousand episodes from the network’s past programming as well as debuting two spin-off series: Big Brother: Over the Top, from the reality television franchise Big Brother, and the legal procedural The Good Fight, from The Good Wife. The CBS Corporation is using this drama as an incentive for signing up to their service, which competes with industry giants Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. Hulu is a joint venture including many of the broadcast networks in the United States but CBS only began sharing selected programming on this platform earlier this year. CBS claimed the debut resulted in their biggest surge in membership, without offering hard numbers.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

On Monday, German football club FC Bayern Munich completed the signing of Mats Hummels, who captained Bayern’s rivals Borussia Dortmund this past season. 27-year-old defender Hummels, who was an academy player at Bayern before moving to play for Borussia Dortmund, agreed to a five-year deal.

Hummels underwent medical tests on Monday before signing the contract. Bayern’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said “We’re delighted to welcome Mats back to FC Bayern, […] Not only are we strengthening our squad with a world-class centre-back, but also with a player who accepts responsibility and who is our own youth product. First of all we wish him a successful Euro 2016.”^{((de))German language: Wir freuen uns, Mats zurück beim FC Bayern begrüßen zu dürfen […] Mit ihm bereichern wir unsere Mannschaft nicht nur um einen Innenverteidiger von Weltklasse-Format, sondern auch um einen Spieler, der Verantwortung nicht scheut und noch dazu aus unserer Jugend stammt. Jetzt wünschen wir ihm erst einmal eine erfolgreiche Europameisterschaft.}

Hummels joined the Bavarians in 1995 when he was six years old. He played only one Bundesliga match for the Reds before he was loaned to Dortmund and later signed for them. He played his last game for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in the DFB-Pokal Cup final, which Bayern won 4–3 on penalties.

After the signing was completed, he said “Saying goodbye to Dortmund was difficult for me of course. It was similar to 2008, when it was the other way around […] Now I’m looking forward to everything that awaits me at FC Bayern. I’m very excited.”^{((de))German language: Der Abschied aus Dortmund ist mir natürlich schwergefallen. 2008 ging es mir ähnlich, als ich den Weg in die andere Richtung gemacht habe […] jetzt freue ich mich einfach auf alles, was mich beim FC Bayern erwartet. Ich bin sehr gespannt.}