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Thursday, August 10, 2006

A Chinese government official convicted of working for the Taiwanese government has been executed, and thousands of civil workers viewed the taped trial for “educational purposes” on Monday. The prisoner’s name was Tong Daning and was in his mid-50’s and held a rank just under “Assistant-Minister” before he was found guilty of espionage. According to the anonymous sources, Daning had been selling state sources for over 15 years, making a profit of about US$250,000.

Daning is the highest ranking person executed in China since 1999, when a Major General and Senior Colonel were executed for selling state secrets. China and Taiwan have been spying on each other ever since 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was officially created, but that has not stopped over 1 million Taiwanese citizens from working and investing over 100 billion USD in China. There have been many cases of espionage within the last few years, with all but two resulting in a death sentence.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Thai-Japanese Bangkok Youth Center, Bangkok —Wikinews interviewed Caitlin de Wit, of the Australia women’s national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders. The Gliders are in Bangkok, Thailand, for the Asia–Oceania Zone Wheelchair Basketball Championships, which are being held at the Thai-Japanese Bangkok Youth Center. Wikinews caught up with her on Tuesday, before the Gliders’ match against China.

((Wikinews)) Where were you born?

Caitlin de Wit: In Cape Town in South Africa.

((WN)) When did you come to Australia?

Caitlin de Wit: When I was six.

((WN)) And then you moved to whereabouts?

Caitlin de Wit: And I grew up on the Central Coast.

((WN)) A I believe you had a horse riding accident?

Caitlin de Wit: I had a horse riding accident in Wagga.

((WN)) What sort of horse riding were you doing?

Caitlin de Wit: I was just riding with friends. We were just like out on a ride.

((WN)) And you fell off.

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah.

((WN)) And you were at uni[versity] at the time?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah, I was at uni in Wagga and that’s where I had my accident. And I went obviously to hospital for a little while and rehab and then I moved back to Wagga to finish my degree.

((WN)) What was the degree in?

Caitlin de Wit: Equine studies. Horses.

((WN)) And you played sport before then?

Caitlin de Wit: I ran a little bit, and I rode horses. They were my sports. And then in my first year of uni I started soccer. That was my first team sport that I played.

((WN)) So what made you take up basketball?

Caitlin de Wit: I suppose when I lefty hospital I was a bit bored. I wanted something to do. Keep me fit and occupied. So.

((WN)) So which team did you join?

Caitlin de Wit: I just joined the local Wagga team.

((WN)) There’s a local Wagga team?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah, there was. I don’t know if its still there. And then I joined… and then Sarah Stewart saw me at a juniors’ camp. And I joined what was then the Hills Hornets in the women’s league.

((WN)) So you played with the Hills Hornets.

Caitlin de Wit: mmm hmm

((WN)) And when was that?

Caitlin de Wit: My first season was 2007.

((WN)) Did they win the championships that year?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah.

((WN)) They won for a series of years straight…

Caitlin de Wit: They won straight up until 2011. We had one win as the Flames.

((WN)) And you joined the junior Australian women’s team?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah, the under 25s.

((WN)) And where did you go with them?

Caitlin de Wit: We went to Canada for the under 25 World Championships.

((WN)) When was that?

Caitlin de Wit: 2011.

((WN)) And you’re still playing with the Flames in Sydney. And you played for the Gliders at the Osaka Cup?

Caitlin de Wit: Yep.

((WN)) And that was in January this year?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah. February maybe? January-February?

((WN)) And that was your first trip overseas with the senior side

Caitlin de Wit: Yes.

((WN)) And now this is therefore your second trip with the Gliders?

Caitlin de Wit: Yes.

((WN)) Been overseas much before then?

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah. Been overseas a little bit. Not with basketball.

((WN)) Being from South Africa.

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah. My family traveled a little bit as a kid, so… yeah.

((WN)) Have you played anywhere overseas with any other teams?

Caitlin de Wit: No.

((WN)) So how are you enjoying it here in Bangkok?

Caitlin de Wit: Good. It’s been a really great experience.

((WN)) I keep worrying about whether they are going to blockade the airport when we need to get out of here.

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah, it should be fine.

((WN)) Okay, so enjoy it!

Caitlin de Wit: Yeah!

[edit]

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The automobile manufacturer Toyota has said that it will recall up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, after a problem with the accelerator pedal was discovered.

According to the firm, eight models were affected by the problem — AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis, and RAV4 — after it was discovered that the accelerator may become stuck in a depressed position, resulting in uncontrollable speeding.

On Thursday, Toyota said it would recall 1.1 million cars in the US; a day previous, it had suspended eight models from sales. Last week, 2.3 million cars in the US were recalled due to the pedal issues.

The chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe commented on the recall. “We understand that the current situation is creating concerns and we deeply regret it,” said Tadashi Arashima. The firm, however, noted that it wasn’t aware of any accidents resulted by the malfunctioning accelerator pedals, and not many pedal problem incidents were reported in Europe. “The potential accelerator pedal issue only occurs in very rare circumstances,” Arashima added.

The National Automobile Dealers Association, meanwhile, commented that Toyota showrooms could lose as much as US$2.47 billion worth of revenue due to the incident.

“Toyota veterans will likely hear the news with disbelief and keep faith in the brand, but new customers could definitely be scared off,” remarked Robert Rademacher, who is the president of the trade group ZDK, as quoted by Business Week. “This recall has a dimension which we’ve never seen before.”

There are concerns that the problem may result in reduced consumer trust in Toyota. Hans-Peter Wodniok, an analyst for Fairesearch GmbH & Co. in Germany, noted: “If this is a one-time event, huge as it is, Toyota may be forgiven. But if something happens again in the next months and years, they will have gambled away customer trust in Europe as well.”

Analysts for Morgan Stanley, however, said they believed Toyota would not suffer much from the incident. “The company’s actions to correct the situation are timely enough to avoid major brand damage,” they remarked in a note to investors.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Mr Alexander Litvinenko, reputed to have been an Ex-Russian spy who had defected to Britain, died last night in mysterious circumstances. He had alleged many associations between people in high places and organised international crime, implying that President Putin and Romano Prodi among others had been involved personally. He had sought political asylum in UK in 2000 and became a naturalised citizen in October this year, just weeks before his death.

Mr Litvinenko was said to have been investigating the shooting of Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known critic of Russian activities in Chechnya, in her apartment in Moscow October 7, 2006. It is reported that he had met two Russians in a hotel room, one said to be former member of the KGB in connection with the affair and he went on to meet Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar in Piccadilly where some papers were exchanged. Some hours after this he was taken ill.

Mr Litvinenko was admitted to Barnet General Hospital, north London on November 1, 2006 complaining of feeling sick. By November 11, he was said to be suffering from serious poisoning. A week later he was transferred to University College Hospital in central London. A week later he was said to have been poisoned by ingesting thallium, once used in rat poison, but, in the opinion of some doctors, there were signs of radioactive poisoning, including loss of weight and shedding of hair. Various explanations of his condition were offered. Last night he suffered a heart attack, after having left a message blaming President Putin for having him killed.

The radioactive isotope polonium-210 was found in his blood and urine as reported by the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency. The post-mortem was cancelled. Subsequently the Agency examined conditions in the hospitals in which Mr Litvinenko has been treated. Police visited the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, his home in Muswell Hill and the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square where the meeting on November 1 had been held. Traces of radiocactivity were found in all three places. It is speculated that the polonium was probably eaten by Litvinenko as a substance that could be combined with a salt-like substance, such as polonium nitrate.

It was reported that a meeting had been held in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (COBRA) used for high level emergency planning and control, to consider the implications of these events. The Foreign Office asked Moscow for a response to the accusation of Russian involvement and President Putin himself dismissed the allegations saying (before the cause of death had been established) that there was no proof of an unnatural death and that the case was being used as a “political provocation”.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Stock indexes worldwide rose on Friday, after US bank chief Ben Bernanke said that the US economy was starting to recover from the recession.

Addressing a conference in Wyoming, the bank chief said that “the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good.”

He added, however, that “the economic recovery is likely to be relatively slow at first, with unemployment declining only gradually from high levels.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 155.91 points, or 1.67%, to end the day at 9505.96. The Nasdaq reached 2020.90 points after gaining 1.59%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, meanwhile, struck a ten-month high, reaching a level of 1,026.13 at the closing bell, up 1.9%.

The British FTSE index rose about two percent, closing at 4,851. The French Cac index gained 3.1% and the German Dax 2.8%.

“Bernanke was a little bit more bullish than most people were expecting. He’s saying that the global economy is starting to emerge from the recession and that the fears of a financial collapse have receded substantially,” said Jacob Oubina, the currency strategist of Forex.com.

“I think the market is just taking those headlines as extreme positives for the outlook.”

Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, warned that talk of a complete recovery might be premature. “I am a little bit uneasy when I see that, because we have some green shoots here and there, we are already saying, ‘well, after all, we are close to back to normal,’ ” he said.

Friday, July 15, 2011

On Tuesday, the Euro fell to a new record low in relation to the Swiss Franc, and to multi-month lows against the U.S. Dollar and Japanese yen; all considered by investors to be safe currencies during times of economic turmoil.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that recent comments from the newly installed head of the International Monetary Fund, France’s Christine Lagarde, resulted in a sell-off of the Euro. At a roundtable discussion in Washington, Lagarde noted that the IMF had not yet reached discussion of terms and conditions of a second Greek bailout plan. In fact, a representative from the IMF is currently meeting with Eurozone policymakers to draft such a new proposal. The yield differential between Italian bonds and German bonds has spread to more than 300 basis points, something not seen in over a decade and evidence of investors’ concern.

Adding to the Euro’s woes is the upcoming release of the bank stress tests on Friday. The European Bankers Association said that they expect the data release to shed new light on the Eurozone’s banking situation. Representatives of several of the Eurozone’s governments, including Germany, have requested that the association consider releasing fewer specific details for fear that investor panic will ensue. The inadequacy of the capitalization rates has been an issue with the European Central Bank, whose president recently called upon Eurozone banks to make every effort to put their balance sheets in order.

For the time being at least, an unsubstantiated rumor reported by the Wall Street Journal states that the Eurozone’s central banks’ purchase of periphery debt has helped to quell the downward momentum of the Euro.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of the US state of Illinois, was indicted on Thursday on charges of corruption for allegedly planning to “sell” Barack Obama’s Senate seat when the latter vacated it to become President.

Five of his advisers, including Blagojevich’s brother Robert, were also indicted. The others are former fundraiser, Christopher Kelly, former chief of staff John Harris, former aide Lon Monk, and the lobbyist William Cellini.

A jury indicted Blagojevich on sixteen felony counts, among them wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, and racketeering conspiracy. The indictment states that if convicted, the ex-governor could face over three hundred years in prison, as well as US$4 million worth of fines, including restitution.

The governor insists that he did nothing illegal, and claims that he was the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt. He pledged to fight his charges in court.

“I’m saddened and hurt but I am not surprised by the indictment. I am innocent,” read a statement released by Blagojevich. “I now will fight in the courts to clear my name. I would ask the good people of Illinois to wait for the trial and afford me the presumption of innocence that they would give to all their friends and neighbors.”

Blagojevich, a governor serving his second term, was arrested on December 9 of last year on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Shortly thereafter, the Illinois House impeached him before the Senate, which nearly unanimously convicted him and expelled him from office.