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Sunday, April 6, 2008

Another nine games took place in the English Premier League this past weekend. Arsenal welcomed Liverpool to Emirates for round-two of their triple header, while fellow title-chasers Chelsea traveled to Manchester to take on Manchester City. In battle at the bottom of the table, Wigan and Birmingham faced off at the JJB, Newcastle welcomed Reading, and Sunderland visited Craven Cottage to play Fulham. In other matches Aston Villa took on Bolton, and Blackburn played host to Tottenham.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Many media outlets traditionally deliberately spread hoaxes on April Fools’ Day, including notable quality sources such as National Geographic and Science.

The popular British tabloid The Sun wrote that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to undergo stretch surgery to make him taller than his wife, Italian artist and model Carla Bruni. The report claimed the 5 foot 5 inch leader would be made 5 inches taller in one year using a method by Israeli professor Ura Schmuck. The Sun noted that during his visit to Britain last week, Sarkozy had high-heel shoes while his wife wore a pair of flat pumps.

The Guardian on the other hand ran an article that suggested that Carla would head an initiative by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to bring more glamour, good taste and sophistication to the U.K. general population. This would involve collaboration with Marks & Spencer for high-street fashion and Jamie Oliver for meals and wine.

BBC News had real-looking footage of flying penguins fronted by documentary host Terry Jones, which were actually an advertisement for its new iPlayer.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The bestselling US novelist Tom Clancy died yesterday in a hospital in Baltimore, according to his publisher. The sixty-six year old is best known for a series of novels themed around espionage, military affairs and geopolitical intrigue, many of which have been adapted into movies and video games.

The Hunt for Red October, Clancy’s first novel, sold over five million copies and was made into a movie with Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. President Ronald Reagan described the novel as a “perfect yarn”. The protagonist of Red October, CIA analyst Jack Ryan, starred in a series of Clancy adventures featuring wars, terrorist attacks and international political power games. Ryan has been played by Harrison Ford and later Ben Affleck.

Seventeen of his twenty novels have reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2002, Forbes magazine estimated Clancy’s earnings at US$47.8m. His final novel, Command Authority, is to be published in December.

Friday, January 13, 2006

The Turkish government has come under fire from officials in Dogubayazit, where three siblings died from the H5N1 strain of Bird Flu, for not sending enough resources and not responding quickly enough in the region.

The mayor of Dogubayazit, Mukkades Kubilay, claims that the Turkish government sent only three doctors and that there were not enough workers to destroy poultry.

The government has been accused of doing too little, too late. H5N1 was discovered in Turkish poultry in December, 2005.

Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker dismissed the claim, saying that culling of infected poultry began immediately following the discovery of H5N1 on December 15, 2005.

Questions about whether the government acted aggressively enough early in the outbreak emerged as officials tried to contain the disease, which Eker said had been confirmed in 11 of Turkey’s 81 provinces and was suspected in 14 others.

The number of confirmed human cases of H5N1 in Turkey is 18. Three of those have died from the virus.

Several others with the virus have shown few symptoms or are in a stable condition. Authorities suggest that the strain may not be as deadly as first thought. Of those who contracted the virus in Asia, half died.

An eight-year-old child who became infected after playing with dying chickens has been released from hospital.

Nationwide, 355,000 birds have been slaughtered in an attempt to slow the outbreak.

The Agricultural ministry is complaining that it has only 24 workers in Dogubayazit, a city of 56,000, and culling could take up to a month to complete.

Experts are still warning of a possible pandemic, prompting the world bank to release US$500 million in aid to assist countries combat H5N1.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Temperatures as high as 111°F (48°C) have hit the United States today, a continuation of Monday’s triple-digit (Fahrenheit) record highs in some areas.

High energy costs have many elderly and low income citizens keeping the air conditioning off, fixed incomes being blamed in many cases. In response to this, cities such as Chicago and New York have turned some public facilities into “cooling areas” for the duration. Buildings being converted include homeless shelters, senior centers, libraries and shopping malls. State agencies are urging anyone experiencing heat related symptoms to get to one of these places as soon as possible.

Early reports are attributing at least three dead from heat related complications in Philadelphia, Arkansas, and Indiana

The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag warnings for six states, warning that the heat could easily lead to forest fires. Much of the northeast corridor and central plains states have been issued heat warnings.

Relief is in sight for the northeast, with storms bringing cooler weather from the Ohio Valley through New England; however the central part of the US won’t see a break in the heat until the weekend.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

US stock markets dropped to twelve-year lows on Thursday, amidst falling confidence in the financial sector and worries over whether the US automobile manufacturer General Motors will be able to keep operating.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 4.08%, or 280.52 points, at the closing bell, reaching a level of 6595.32, a new 12-year low. The Nasdaq Composite lost 54.15 points, or 4%, to 1299.59, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 plunged by 30.27 points, or 4.25%, closing at 682.60.

Every stock in the Dow Jones, other than Wal-Mart, either lost ground or remained even, and all stocks in the S&P 500 index lost ground.

General Motors’ shares lost 15.5% after the auto firm announced that its auditors had “substantial doubt” over whether it would be able to keep operating.

Shares of financial companies were lower by nine percent, with Bank of America losing 11.7% and Citigroup falling by 9.7%.

“What’s most worrisome is that we haven’t hit the crescendo yet,” said Bill Groeneveld, the head trader for vFinance Investments. “Asset-management divisions are getting calls to just liquidate everything, and we haven’t seen the big players come back in at all.”

“This is one of the worst bear markets in the last 100 years; it started out with the credit crisis and the subprime [loans], but it is like a forest fire that has raced across the clearing and ignited other parts: Autos, auto parts, the insurance companies have been hit very hard. The credit crisis is causing an unraveling of industry after industry because the banks don’t lend,” said David Dreman, the chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management.

European markets were also lower today, with the London’s FTSE index losing 3.2% and the DAX index of Germany falling by five percent.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The 2009 Man Booker Prize has been awarded to British author Hilary Mantel for her historical novel Wolf Hall. 57 other authors were short-listed, including former winners AS Byatt and JM Coetzee, as well as Sarah Waters, whose book, The Little Stranger, has sold more copies than Wolf Hall.

The winning novel tells the tale of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Tudor king Henry VIII. In her acceptance speech, Mantel said “I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air.”

Mantel was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006, 21 years after her first novel, Every Day is Mother’s Day, was published in 1985. Wolf Hall was the longest book on the list.

The decision was not unanimous, but all 5 judges were happy to award Mantel the trophy £50,000 prize at the London Guildhall. The judges assert that, despite differing opinions, the decision was not a compromise. James Naughtie said, “When we gathered this morning none of us knew which book was going to win. I think we all felt exhausted at the end of the process but there was real feeling that we had found a book that was worthy of the prize.”

The judges this year were Lucasta Miller, a biographer and critic; Professor John Mullan; James Naughtie, the chairman of judges; Sue Perkins, a comedian, journalist, and broadcaster; and Michael Prodger, the literary editor of The Sunday Telegraph;.

According to Ladbrokes bookmakers, the novel was the clear favourite, with 80% of people betting on it. Some thought this backing would go against the book, since the last time the bookmakers’ favourite won was in 2002, when the prize was given to Yann Martel‘s The Life of Pi.