Friday, July 15, 2005

About 200 cars were burned by young people on the night of July 13 in Île-de-France, the metropolitan area of Paris. As the police cars arrived, youths began to pelt the vehicles with rocks, firecrackers and bottles. Rioters broke store windows at Argenteuil. Police used flash-balls and smoke grenades. The riots ended with 70 men being arrested. A police officer was wounded by a rocket and was taken to hospital. Shop windows were broken at Argenteuil. It is not the first time vehicles have been attacked on 13-14 July in France.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, has chosen to step down from his post as CEO of the company. The former Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook will be succeeding Jobs as CEO. Jobs resigned in a letter to Apple’s board of directors stating, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” In that same letter, Jobs stated that his desire was to remain as chairman of the board.

Steve Jobs has been fighting pancreatic cancer since 2004 and has been on medical leave since January of this year. This was Jobs’ third period of medical leave. He briefly made an appearance in March and June to unveil the iPad 2 and the iCloud, an online cloud computing service. In part of his resignation, Jobs left this farewell, “I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

Tim Cook was personally recommended by Jobs to take over as CEO and has been serving as interim CEO since the beginning of Jobs’ medical leave. Before his post at Apple, Cook held positions at IBM and Compaq. He is known for staying out of the spotlight. Due to an operational overhaul by Cook, he is credited with the success of the iPad and MacBook Air. He also stood in Steve Jobs’ place while the CEO underwent liver transplant surgery. He received $59 million for his performance in the position.

Analyst Charles Golvin predicts that the resignation will not begin to affect Apple performance for 1.5 to 2 years. Many of the new products are already under development and Jobs will continue to steer the company from his position as chairman of the board. Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and a member of the board, adds, “Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration”. A contrary view is offered by Charles O’Reilly, a management expert at Stanford University, who stated, “Great companies rarely go from strength to strength”. Richard Doherty attributes Steve Jobs’ success as the ability to hold off on a product until it is perfect. He states “A lot of products could have gotten to market earlier, but he wanted it better.”

In light of the revelation, Apple shares (AAPL) slid $19.37 in after hours trading—a drop of over 5%. Since market open, Apple shares rose to $373.72, a drop of only $2.46 since Wednesday’s close.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Israel has purchased two more Dolphin class submarines which have the capacity to carry nuclear warheads. Israel already has three older nuclear weapons-capable Dolphin submarines but the new Dolphins have propulsion systems that allow them to remain submerged for longer periods of time, according to the Jerusalem Post, making it harder for them to be tracked by satellite. Experts view the purchase as a clear signal to Iran that Israel can retaliate if subjected to a nuclear attack.

“The Iranians would be very foolish if they attacked Israel,” said Paul Beaver, a British based defence analyst, speaking to the Washington Post. According to Beaver, the submarines would provide Israel with both first strike and second strike capability.

Israel already has land-based nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in the form of the Jericho I and II missiles.

German officials confirm that the contracts for the new submarines was signed July 6. The Jerusalem Post reports that they will be operational shortly.

Israel has never confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons but is believed to have the world’s sixth largest stockpile of the devices, with most outside estimates putting their stockpile in the low hundreds. Israel’s possession of nuclear arms has often been a locus of bitter controversy in the Middle East, especially among countries who believe that the world community, and especially the United States, is hypocritical in its tolerance of Israeli nuclear arms while decrying the efforts of other Middle Eastern nations to develop their own nuclear capabilities.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reports there is a growing mood among Israel’s defence establishment that the country will have to act independently to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons as the United States is unlikely to do so.

“America is stuck in Iraq and cannot go after Iran militarily right now,” according to an unnamed official quoted by the paper.

A report by the US House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee released on Wednesday asserts that if Iran arms itself with nuclear weapons, Israel would be pressed to respond militarily. “A nuclear armed Iran would likely exacerbate regional tensions. Israel would find it hard to live with a nuclear armed Iran and could take military action against Iranian nuclear facilities,” the report states. Iran has continually maintained that it seeks only to develop nuclear technology for the production of electrical power, though this has been disputed by many nations.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

File:President Gotabaya Rajapaksa official photograph.jpg

On Monday, the Sri Lankan 26-minister cabinet resigned except for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as the government faced backlash from the public over the ongoing economic crisis.

Earlier, the President requested all political parties unite to form a national unity government. The proposal was rejected by two political parties, Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) and Janatha Vinukthi Peramuna (JVP) who wanted the president to resign.

After the Cabinet resigned, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Ajith Nivard Cabraal also announced his resignation.

The economic crisis drove the government to block imports in March 2020 in an attempt to preserve its foreign exchange reserves. Sri Lanka had only about USD2 billion in reserve as of February, down 70% in the last two years. Sri Lanka needed USD7 billion to finance its USD51 billion debt this year.

In the last few weeks, the country has seen an acute shortage of fuel, particularly diesel, leading to protests and empty fuel stations.

In March, the Sri Lankan inflation rate reached 18.7% and food prices rose by 30.1%. Its currency, the rupee, has lost 30% of its value against the US dollar since it was devalued last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Over twenty five nations have offered aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In particular, France has offered the use of its resources in the Caribbean sea, including 2 navy ships, 1 navy hospital, 8 planes, 600 tents, 1000 beds, and rescuers. President George W. Bush has refused such material aid to the hurricane’s victims, although cash donations will be accepted. He explained his reasons to ABC News:

I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it. You know, we would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed. And there’s no doubt in my mind, as I sit here talking to you, that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city.

A few of these nations, such as Venezuela and Cuba, are disliked by the administration, but the majority are considered allies of the United States. Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp. pledged a $1 million donation for hurricane aid. Cuba refused U.S. aid following Hurricane Dennis. In order to reduce the side effects of hurricane Katrina, Japan, Venezuela, and most EU countries offer to provide oil reserves to the U.S.

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Media reported Wednesday that biologists from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida reported having captured a Burmese python (Python bivittatus) measuring nearly 18 feet (5 m) in length and 215 pounds (97 kg) in weight in the state’s Everglades wetlands.

It may be the largest member of its species ever found outside its natural range in Southeast Asia. Another Burmese python measuring 18 feet and 9 inches (5.7 m) was found in 2020, but it only weighed 104 pounds (47.2 kilograms).

In a search documented by National Geographic, the team captured the current snake in December 2021 by tagging a male “scout snake” named Dionysius with a GPS tracking device and releasing it into the western Everglades.

“How do you find the needle in the haystack? You could use a magnet, and in a similar way our male scout snakes are attracted to the biggest females around,” said wildlife expert Ian Bartoszek, the team’s project manager.

Pythons are an invasive species in Florida. Removing female snakes from the environment before they lay their eggs is the Conservancy’s preferred strategy for limiting python breeding. When the team saw that Dionysius was spending several weeks in one area, they concluded he’d found a sexually mature female and set off to retrieve him.

It took twenty minutes of wrestling and three adult humans to carry the snake to a vehicle, in which it was taken to a laboratory in Naples, Florida and euthanized. Upon necropsy, it was found to contain over 122 healthy but unfertilized egg follicles.

Pythons were introduced to Florida in the 1970s, probably by being sold as pets. While there is a history of individual pet owners illegally releasing exotic animals into the wild after they grow larger than expected, the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 also allowed animals from a serpent center to escape to the Everglades and other habitats, where they reproduced in great numbers.

Since then, they have disrupted the food chain by eating local animals, including endangered animals: the stomach of this snake contained the remains of a white-tailed deer.

The state of Florida considers Burmese pythons a threat to native wildlife and sponsors an annual python hunt with USD2,500 as first prize.