Monday, July 4, 2016

On Friday, Neymar Jr agreed to a five-year contract extension with FC Barcelona, Zlatan Ibrahimovi? to a one-year contract with Manchester United F.C. as a free agent, and Nolito joined Manchester City F.C. from Celta de Vigo for a four-year term.

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Actor Nicolas Cage was seen around various Washington, D.C.-area monuments this week by Wikinews contributor Patrick Mannion, filming the sequel to 2004’s National Treasure. He was seen on March 28 outside on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, sitting in his chair talking with a director. Cage has also been seen in the company of costars from the earlier film. The Memorial was closed to the public by police and park rangers while filming took place.

The sequel to the 2004 film, entitled National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, is currently filming through April 16. In addition to the Lincoln Memorial, crews were also spotted along the Capitol’s small Reflecting Pool, outside the White House, and in Layfette Square.

The District of Columbia hopes to see a large economic return on the film by granting the long-term filming rights and a financial incentive to keep filming in Washington on-location, instead of doing principal photography and then moving to another city where production costs are cheaper.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The European Space Agency (ESA) Council approved a cooperation agreement on March 17 between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the ESA for India’s Chandrayan-1 moon satellite mission. The Chandrayan-1 will be India’s first moon mission attempt.

Europe will, under the agreement, provide and support three instruments for the lunar explorer: CIXS-2, Chandrayan-1 Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer; SARA; a Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer, and SIR-2, a Near-Infrared Spectrometer. Europe will support hardware for the HEX, High-Energy X-ray Spectrometer. Data from these instruments will be turned over to the ESA for distribution to ESA member states. These instruments are the same as the ones carried onboard ESA’s SMART-1 moon exploration spacecraft.

ISRO plans to launch the half-ton Chandrayan sometime before 2008 for a two year mission to study the solar system and the Moon. The satellite will be boosted by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The ISRO has been placing satellites in Earth orbit since 1975 and has developed its own launch vehicles and satellites for telecommunications and weather forecasting. A manned mission had been previously considered but was deemed too costly to carry through[1].

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an Ohio based investment group and Telesto Ventures have indicated separately that they are interested in purchasing the Saturn auto brand from General Motors (GM).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nissan–Renault is interested in purchasing Saturn. Bloomberg, however, indicated that Nissan-Renault may be a partner of Penske’s potential bid. If Penske acquired the brand, they would distribute Saturn vehicles and outsource the assembly.

GM revealed that the Saturn brand along with Saab and Hummer were up for sale when unveiling their restructuring plans to Congress for governmental loans. While the Pontiac brand was originally to be a niche brand, GM had changed their plans recently and decided to eliminate the brand.

Telesto Ventures is an investment group that includes private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC of Oklahoma City and several Saturn dealerships. Initially, Telesto will purchase Saturn branded cars from GM then act as a general retailer for foreign brands. Telesto is in talks with several foreign manufacturers.

The Ohio group includes many former senior auto company managers plus private financial backers, chemists and engineers who live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. This group plans to initially purchase cars from GM then purchase existing but closed plants due to automaker restructuring. Additionally, one of the partners indicated a willingness to accept some “legacy” cost in relation to the United Auto Workers. The Ohio group is also pursuing possible loans or other support from national and state governments.

GM is reviewing several offers for Saturn. GM has contracted with S.J. Girsky & Co. to advise them on the sale.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Eric Bogosian is one of America’s great multi-dimensional talents. “There’s sort of three different careers, and any one of them could exist by itself, on its own two feet. There was that solo stuff, and then I started writing plays in the late seventies.” Although his work has spanned genres, most readers will recognize Bogosian for his acting, which has included a memorable performance in Woody Allen‘s Deconstructing Harry to co-writing and starring in the Oliver Stone movie Talk Radio (based upon his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play) to playing the bad guy in Under Siege 2 to his current role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Danny Ross. They may not know, however, that he had collaborated with Frank Zappa on a album, worked with Sonic Youth, and was a voice on Mike Judge‘s Beavis & Butthead Do America. He started one of New York City’s largest dance companies, The Kitchen, which is still in existence. He starred alongside Val Kilmer in Wonderland and his play Talk Radio was recently revived on Broadway with Liev Schreiber in the role Bogosian wrote and made famous.

Currently at work on his third novel, tentatively titled The Artist, Bogosian spoke with David Shankbone about the craft of writing and his life as a creative.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Heavy June rainfall has forced China to evacuate more than 550,000 people from their homes. Massive floods have devastated the central and southern parts of the country, causing rivers to overflow their banks and triggering mudslides. The rains follow the worst drought in China in over 50 years, which has decimated crop yields.

Overall, 40 rivers have risen above safe limits, stressing dykes and dams including those on China’s largest waterway, the Yangtze River, which is flooding downstream while experiencing a severe drought near its source in the north.

China’s disaster level has been raised to four, the highest on the scale. In a statement on its website on Friday, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said, “Since June 13, the damage caused by the rainstorms has led to … the emergency evacuation of 671,200 people to safety.”

The current round of heavy rains began in early June. Since then, more than a million and a half people have been displaced in the central and southern regions of the country and at least 168 deaths have been reported. Meteorologists in Beijing are predicting more heavy rain in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang this weekend.

The government has mobilized its forces to aid in the massive evacuations. According to Reuters, local authorities are distributing a box of instant noodles and a carton of bottled water to those affected by the flood. But villagers have reported that survival is difficult, especially for those still trapped by the flood waters in small villages, and distribution of aid is slow, with some not receiving any.

A villager was quoted by Reuters: “To be frank, those rescue boats cannot go through those narrow lanes inside the village. A lot of them depend on their relatives rowing small wooden boats to get to them… It is hard to help these people inside there.” Another villager, Shou Pengfei said, “Some did not even get any relief items. There is no electricity and you get bitten by mosquitoes all the time.”

According to the Beijing Climate Centre, weather trends have shifted drastically. Currently the rain is coming in shorter but fiercer bursts, with protracted periods of drought in between the torrential rain.

The heavy rainfall is not likely to reduce the crop failure caused by months of drought, especially in the north, the heart of China’s grain-growing bread basket, where many rivers have dried up. According to reports, the northern countryside has been left devastated by the droughts. Huge dams hundreds of meters wide are now small, muddy pools. Large cities such as Beijing are draining the underground water sources and China is facing a long-term water crisis.

Meanwhile, China is engaged in a huge multi-year engineering project designed to move water to the parched north and away from the flooded south. The North-South water project is a massive series of canals and pipes designed to carry water from the Yangtze and Yellow rivers to Beijing.

It is likely, analysts predict, that Chinese crop shortages will increase food prices worldwide. Even before the latest flooding, the severe drought in the north caused a shortfall in China’s crop yields that will likely affect the price of wheat and may propel a price increase in global markets.