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Saturday, June 18, 2005

MasterCard International announced Friday that multiple instances of fraud have been tracked back to CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a company that processes credit card transactions and other payments. Customer names, banks, and account numbers of up to 40 million cardholders have been exposed, of which about 13.9 million are MasterCard-branded cards, the company said. Visa and American Express cards were also affected.

“The breach appears to be the largest yet involving financial data,” said David Sobel, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

CardSystems issued a statement late on Friday that said it learned of the potential breach 26 days ago, but that the FBI told the company not to advise the cardholders nor the public at large. CardSystems also said their statement had been vetted by the FBI.

A spokesperson for the FBI said that the agency had asked CardSystems not to disclose information that could compromise the investigation, but that it had not asked CardSystems to fail to disclose the breach at all.

Michael A. Brady, C.F.O. of CardSystems, told the Associated Press that “we’re absolutely blindsided by a press release by the association,” when speaking of MasterCard’s release. A MasterCard spokesperson said that the company was obligated to inform its customers of the breach.

MasterCard spokesperson Sharon Gamsin said that CardSystems was hit by a virus-like computer script that stole customer data for the purpose of fraud. She said MasterCard does not know how the script got into the CardSystem network.

Sobel said this theft “indicates that this is a shadowy industry where the consumer never really knows who is going to be handling and using their personal information. Presumably, the affected consumers thought they were dealing with MasterCard.” Having a third-party process credit card transactions is common practice in the industry.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Mount Stromlo, Canberra — This Easter weekend, elite mountain bike riders competed in the Australian 24-hour solo championships at Canberra’s Stromlo Forest Park. Jason English from Port MacQuarie rode 33 laps and won the men’s race. Liz Smith from Wollongong rode 25 laps and won the women’s race.

Races are won by riding the most laps. If two riders complete the same number of laps in 24-hours, the winner is the one who has ridden them in the shortest time.

Riders wear lights on their helmets and bicycles during night laps. Due to the time of year, there is roughly twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness each day.

The event is a curtain raiser for the WEMBO World Solo 24 hour Mountain Bike Championships, which will be held at Stromlo Forest Park on 12 and 13 October 2013. The race was for solo riders only.

The weekend before, the teams of riders took to the track at the Mont 24 hour race at Canberra’s Kowen forest. With over 3,000 riders participating, it is now Australia’s largest cycling race.

The team version of the race was favoured by the weekend warriors, but also attracted more than a few elite athletes. Laps were ridden in relay fashion: each rider handed over the baton (which looked like a credit card) to another member of the team after riding one or more laps.

The track was in excellent condition, running through the trees. Without steep climbs or overly difficult technical sections, it permitted fast lap times.

No injuries were reported.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Comply or Die, the racehorse who won the 2008 Grand National has died at the age of 17. His death was announced by his former trainer, David Pipe. He died over at the weekend in Gloucestershire, where he had been staying with jockey Timmy Murphy. He was cremated on Monday and his ashes will return to Murphy.

Murphy was the jockey in the saddle when Comply or Die won the 2008 Grand National. Speaking to the Press Association, he spoke about the horse’s death. He said, “He was part of the furniture at home so it’s very sad. He gave me the greatest day of my career, obviously that can never be taken away. He paraded at Cheltenham and Aintree and was getting ready to do some dressage in the summer. I’m not actually sure how he died, to be honest, but it wasn’t nice to come home to. He was cremated on Monday. He was a happy horse and he was also very clever.”

During his racing career he made £798,809 in prize-money after winning a total of eight races.

The 2008 Grand National victory was his greatest achievement and he almost matched it when he came second place in 2009. He retired in 2011 but remained active, often being paraded at race grounds such as Aintree and Cheltenham. He also participated in some hunting activities. Pipe said, “Since his retirement he had been a lead-horse at Timmy Murphy’s establishment before trying his hand at dressage, a discipline in which he had proven very successful”.

Tributes have been paid to Comply or Die on social media by horse racing fans with several tweeting their appreciation and memories.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, has undergone surgery for early pancreatic cancer today. The disease was spotted during a routine check-up. She is likely to be hospitalised for ten days.

“Justice Ginsburg had no symptoms prior to the incidental discovery of the lesion during a routine annual checkup in late January at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland,” the Supreme Court announced.

Ginsburg underwent sugery and had chemotherapy for colorectal cancer in 1999; her mother and husband also suffered from cancer.

She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and is considered to be on the liberal wing of the nine-member court.

A spokesman for President Barack Obama said that Obama’s thoughts and prayers are with Ginsburg.

According to the American Cancer Society, the one-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 24%, and the five-year survival rate is 5%.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

With an election coming up this Saturday in the Australian state of Queensland, Wikinews reporter Patrick Gillett previews the contesting parties.

The current distribution of seats has the Australian Labor Party with 58 of the 86 total, the Liberal National Party with 25, the Queensland Greens & One Nation with one each and independents holding four.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is currently in government and have been since 1998. Current premier and leader of the ALP Anna Bligh will be, if Labor wins, the first female to elected premier in Australian history. Ms Bligh became the third female premier in Australian history when Peter Beattie resigned in 2007.

The premier has received criticism from other parties for backflipping on its commitment to run a full term. “After 11 years in office, Ms Bligh only cares about one job: her own,” said Lawrence Springborg head of the Liberal National Party (LNP) and the Leader of the Opposition.

The Liberal National Party is currently in opposition. It is seen as a prototype for a national merger between the Liberal and National parties. The Opposition need to pick up at least twenty seats from the government to overcome the significant Labor majority and a number of independents.

The Queensland Greens are the states largest minor party. The Greens unveiled its policy to open two solar power stations on the weekend of January 31/February 1.

“We can tackle climate change and create long-term jobs, but Labor can’t see that because they are blinded by the interests of their big donors – the urban development and coal industries,” said Mt Coo-tha candidate Larrisa Waters.

The Greens main policies have been stated “Green collar jobs”, “managing where the money is going”, education and transport.

“The Greens want to give the community and the environment a voice back in State Parliament,” says Ms Waters.

The Socialist Alliance will run two candidates as independents because of what they call “restrictive rules for registration.”

Wikinews conducted an interview with the Socialist Alliance on March 2rd in which they said, “That choosing between “tweedledee” and “tweedledum” once every few years is not real democracy, and with the planet in peril, facing an economic meltdown, and all manner of social problems, we can’t afford to leave sociaety [sic] in the hands of the pro-corporate parties.”

The Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4EQ) party was set up in late 2008. DS4SEQ leader Jason Furze gave an interview to Wikinews in January. “DS4SEQ would like to gain a sizeable percentage of the primary vote and win a number of seats,” Mr furze said. Courier Mail writer Dennis Atkins wrote in today’s Courier Mail that DS4SEQ “will poll better than anyone expected – polling close to double figures in some seats around Brisbane and on the coasts.”

News Limited newspapers The West Australian and the Courier Mail reported that swing voters would decide the election.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.