chinese-ethnic-furniture.com

A compilation of brief news reports for Saturday, December 13, 2008.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee says it is “taking unprecedented steps to insure transparency in the public reporting of donors” by listing the names of individuals or organizations who donate over $200 towards President-Elect Barack Obama’s upcoming inaugural.

Logging onto http://www.pic2009.org/page/content/donors/ will show you a current list of over 169 current donors who have given at least that amount, and for most of the donors, much more. Donors include movie stars, real estate moguls, and sports stars, many of whom also contributed to Obama’s presidential campaign.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee states that it has raised almost $10 million dollars to cover the inaugural; and while that may seem like a large amount, the spending record for an inaugural is held by the current president, George W. Bush, with $42.8 million spent on his 2004 inaugural.

• Nikita Stewart. “Inaugural Donations to Be Listed Online” — The Washington Post, December 13, 2008
• Emily Cadei. “Obama Has Raised $10 million” — CQ Politics, December 12, 2008

American and German astronomers have detected and confirmed that there is a ‘super-massive’ black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It is approximately 27,000 light years from Earth, and four million times bigger than the Sun. Scientists say it plays a significant role in forming all galaxies.

The 16-year study was performed using two telescopes located in Chile. They discovered it by tracking the movement of over two dozen separate stars. The study will be published next month in The Astrophysical Journal.

Sources

• Matt Schofield. “Massive black hole confirmed at heart of our galaxy” — Kansas City Star, December 10, 2008
• Pallab Ghosh. “Black hole confirmed in Milky Way” — BBC News Online, December 9, 2008

An ally of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, has said that a cholera epidemic in the country, which killed hundreds of people, was caused by the United Kingdom.

Ndlovu said of the outbreak that it was a “genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British.” It was compared to a “serious biological chemical weapon”.

This comes just a day after President Mugabe announced that the cholera epidemic had been stopped, contradicting aid workers saying that the crisis was only getting worse.

Mugabe has already accused Western powers of planning to use the epidemic as a reason to oust him.

Sources

• “UK caused cholera, says Zimbabwe” — BBC News Online, December 12, 2008
• DPA. “Zimbabwe says Britain ‘planted’ cholera in ‘genocide’ bid – Summary” — The Earth Times, December 12, 2008

File:Dondiegomontoya.png

Diego Montoya, who is alleged to be one of the Colombia’s most powerful drug lords, has been handed over to the United States authorities by Colombia to face trial. Montoya will face 12 charges, including those of murder, money laundering, and the trafficking of drugs. If convicted, he will serve no less than twenty years in prison.

Montoya was the leader of the Norte del Valle cartel, which is reported to have exported 70% of all the cocaine sold in both the European Union and the United States at its height. He was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Top Ten” most wanted fugitives.

Sources

• “Colombia hands ‘drug lord’ to US” — BBC News, December 12, 2008
• “Colombia extradites top drug suspect Diego Montoya to US” — dailypress.com, December 12, 2008

Snow has started falling in some southern states of the US, including Louisiana and Mississippi. As much as eight inches of snow were recorded, and thousands of people were left without power – one of Louisiana’s largest power suppliers, Cleco Corporation, reported ten thousand outages. Forecasters warned of dangerous driving conditions, and some flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport, located near New Orleans, were affected.

In New Orleans, snow fell today for the first time in four years. The largest snowfall amount for the city ever recorded is about 5 inches, on December 30, 1963.

Sources

• “Southern US hit by rare snowfall” — BBC News, December 12, 2008
• “Rare snow covers south Louisiana, Miss.” — Netscape News, December 12, 2008

Bettie Page, a model who became famous for her pin-up photos, has died at the age of 85. Page died of complications from a heart attack on Thursday, December 11.

She was born Bettie Mae Page on April 22, 1923 in Nashville, Tennessee. She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.

Sources

• “50s pin-up queen Bettie Page dies” — BBC News Online, December 12, 2008
• “1950s pinup model Bettie Page dies in LA at 85” — Associated Press, December 12, 2008

The Parliament of Estonia has passed a law that will allow citizens to vote by mobile phone in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Voters will need free, authorized chips for their phones.

In last year’s elections, Estonians voted online. The country’s Reform Party proposed mobile voting in September 2007.

Sources

• Jari Tanner. “Estonia to vote by mobile phone in 2011” — Associated Press, December 12, 2008
• The Baltic Times staff and wire reports. “Lithuania ready for e-voting, but Estonia’s already onto m-voting” — The Baltic Times, September 27, 2007

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Fifteen deaths and over 680 injuries have resulted from clashes between Red shirt protesters and government forces in the Thai capital Bangkok.

The deaths of seventeen civilians, including a Japanese cameraman working for the Reuters agency, and four soldiers come after almost a month of protests. Since March 12 Red shirts, so called because of their wearing of red as an identifying symbol, have occupied public spaces and have held rallies and marches in Bangkok in an attempt to force fresh elections.

According to eye witness reports the deaths and injuries are as a result of the police use of rubber bullets and tear gas against the protesters. To which the protesters responded with missiles, pushing and shoving and it is alleged firearms and small bombs.

The current clashes follow an attempt by the security forces to clear key areas in the city. A move seen as an attempt to restore authority and dignity to the security forces lost when the Red Shirts succeeded breaking of a security cordon around the Thaicom satellite television station on Friday.

Despite the courts ruling that the occupation of public spaces as being illegal and the issuing of 27 arrest warrants for the movements leaders, the protests had until today hitherto been peaceful – if noisy – with Thai security forces showing restraint in the policing of the protests, reluctant to cause bloodshed.

The Red shirts consider the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration to be illegitimate having never won an election, and as an undemocratic one imposed on the nation after the Yellow Shirts toppled the elected government of now-fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, during the 2008–2009 Thai political crisis. Red Shirt leaders have called for Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, revered by both sides, to intervene and help end the stalemate.

In late 2009, the considerable continuing influence of the ex-PM saw him take a post with the Cambodian government. Despite being deposed in the 2006 coup, the ousted Thaksin has been in exile, mostly living in Dubai. He is still influential in Thailand, using protests by the Red Shirts, with the Thai government fearing Thaksin will use Cambodia as base to campaign.

However, Thaksin published a letter on his website last November indicating that he did not intend to “go to Cambodia to help Cambodia fight with Thailand […] As I travel to Cambodia to discuss poverty and the world economic situation, I will try to preserve Thai interests with our friends in Phnom Penh, despite the Thai government still hounding me wherever I go,” he stated.

Cambodia has made it clear that they will not extradite Thaksin. Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said that regarding the jail sentence they are “not concerned about these issues […] We already clarified this case because he is a political victim.”

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Canadian gold-medalist Myriam Bédard is facing a January 5 extradition hearing from the United States, after she was arrested and charged with abducting her 12-year old daughter Maude. The Biathalon athlete is arguing she should be allowed to return to Canada on her own.

Bédard had taken her daughter to Washington D.C. with her new husband, Nima Mazhari, on October 2, violating the terms of her divorce settlement from Biathalon coach Jean Paquet. Mazhari, who is a sculptor, was charged with the unrelated theft of $100,000 worth of paintings last year.

Paquet filed a report with the Sûreté du Québec on December 8, stating that Bédard had violated the divorce terms, and an international arrest warrant was issued.

On December 20, the case was brought to the attention of Interpol, and two days later the United States Marshals Service announced her arrest in Columbia, Maryland, at a hotel celebrating Maude’s 12th birthday. Maude was taken into the custody of the Marshals Service for three days, before being returned to her natural father.

Defence attorney John Pepper is arguing that the United States should be obligated to release Bédard on bail as she hasn’t been formally charged with any crime, pending her extradition to Canada, where she faces two charges, child abduction and violating a custody order.

Pepper is also arguing that the three-time Olympic medalist was seeking refuge from “bureaucratic terrorism” in Canada, a claim that Bédard made in a letter she sent to the International Olympic Committee, Kofi Annan and US ambassador David Wilkins explaining why she was leaving Canada.

Bédard gave testimony during the Sponsorship scandal, where she stunned the courts by alleging that advertising firms had been engaged in narcotics trafficking, that her current husband was responsible for the decision not to send the Canadian Forces to Iraq, and that Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve had been paid $12 million to wear a Canadian flag, claims that were not verified by other sources.

Bédard is facing growing doubts about her mental state, which her attorney says are attempts to “belittle” her, due to personal grudges and her role in the scandal.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Last night HBO premiered I Am An Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. Since its inception, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has made headlines and raised eyebrows. They are almost single-handedly responsible for the movement against animal testing and their efforts have raised the suffering animals experience in a broad spectrum of consumer goods production and food processing into a cause célèbre.

PETA first made headlines in the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Alex Pacheco, then a student at George Washington University, volunteered at a lab run by Edward Taub, who was testing neuroplasticity on live monkeys. Taub had cut sensory ganglia that supplied nerves to the monkeys’ fingers, hands, arms, legs; with some of the monkeys, he had severed the entire spinal column. He then tried to force the monkeys to use their limbs by exposing them to persistent electric shock, prolonged physical restraint of an intact arm or leg, and by withholding food. With footage obtained by Pacheco, Taub was convicted of six counts of animal cruelty—largely as a result of the monkeys’ reported living conditions—making them “the most famous lab animals in history,” according to psychiatrist Norman Doidge. Taub’s conviction was later overturned on appeal and the monkeys were eventually euthanized.

PETA was born.

In the subsequent decades they ran the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty against Europe’s largest animal-testing facility (footage showed staff punching beagle puppies in the face, shouting at them, and simulating sex acts while taking blood samples); against Covance, the United State’s largest importer of primates for laboratory research (evidence was found that they were dissecting monkeys at its Vienna, Virginia laboratory while the animals were still alive); against General Motors for using live animals in crash tests; against L’Oreal for testing cosmetics on animals; against the use of fur for fashion and fur farms; against Smithfield Foods for torturing Butterball turkeys; and against fast food chains, most recently against KFC through the launch of their website kentuckyfriedcruelty.com.

They have launched campaigns and engaged in stunts that are designed for media attention. In 1996, PETA activists famously threw a dead raccoon onto the table of Anna Wintour, the fur supporting editor-in-chief of Vogue, while she was dining at the Four Seasons in New York, and left bloody paw prints and the words “Fur Hag” on the steps of her home. They ran a campaign entitled Holocaust on your Plate that consisted of eight 60-square-foot panels, each juxtaposing images of the Holocaust with images of factory farming. Photographs of concentration camp inmates in wooden bunks were shown next to photographs of caged chickens, and piled bodies of Holocaust victims next to a pile of pig carcasses. In 2003 in Jerusalem, after a donkey was loaded with explosives and blown up in a terrorist attack, Newkirk sent a letter to then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat to keep animals out of the conflict. As the film shows, they also took over Jean-Paul Gaultier‘s Paris boutique and smeared blood on the windows to protest his use of fur in his clothing.

The group’s tactics have been criticized. Co-founder Pacheco, who is no longer with PETA, called them “stupid human tricks.” Some feminists criticize their campaigns featuring the Lettuce Ladies and “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads as objectifying women. Of their Holocaust on a Plate campaign, Anti-Defamation League Chairman Abraham Foxman said “The effort by PETA to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent.” (Newkirk later issued an apology for any hurt it caused). Perhaps most controversial amongst politicians, the public and even other animal rights organizations is PETA’s refusal to condemn the actions of the Animal Liberation Front, which in January 2005 was named as a terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

David Shankbone attended the pre-release screening of I Am An Animal at HBO’s offices in New York City on November 12, and the following day he sat down with Ingrid Newkirk to discuss her perspectives on PETA, animal rights, her responses to criticism lodged against her and to discuss her on-going life’s work to raise human awareness of animal suffering. Below is her interview.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

CNET reporter James Kim has been found dead in the southwestern Oregon wilderness after getting lost with his family on November 25. Kim, 35, was found at 12:00 noon Wednesday, half a mile away from the Rogue River.

His wife Kati Kim, 30-years-old, and her two young children were found alive on December 4 after they waved an umbrella to a private helicopter. Kati and her two children were airlifted out of the area and transferred by ambulance to Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass. Kati suffered frostbite on two toes, but it is expected that she will be in good condition.

The Kim family left San Francisco, California on November 17 on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. After, they planned to go back home to San Francisco but were stranded in a storm that led to their disappearance.

They stayed warm while they were stranded by using the car heater and then burned tires when they ran out of gas. Kim walked into the Oregon mountains Saturday to get help for his wife Kati and his children. Pieces of map and some clothing were found on the mountains Tuesday by rescuers. It is believed that Kim was marking his trail for them. The wet clothing included two gray sweat shirts, a red T-shirt, a sock, and a blue girl’s skirt.

“They were laid out in a well defined area, in a pattern,” Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Patrol said.

Fog caused the police to wait till midday. “This is frustrating. We are so close,” one rescuer said. “There are people pouring their heart and soul into this. We are not going to quit until we find him.”

Kim’s family is not yet available for comment.

Friday, April 3, 2009

General Motors (GM) and Chrysler will receive bridge loans from the government of Canada and the provincial government of Ontario, however no more will be forthcoming from either Canadian or US governments unless the companies can reinvent themselves.

“This is a regrettable but necessary step to protect the Canadian economy. We are doing this on the assumption that we obviously cannot afford either in the United States or Canada a catastrophic short-term collapse.” said Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada.

“We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish. This industry is, like no other, an emblem of the American spirit; a once and future symbol of America’s success,” said Barack Obama, President of the United States. “These companies – and this industry – must ultimately stand on their own, not as wards of the state.”File:Sinsheim quer.jpg

Chrysler will receive CA$1 billion and may in fact be eligible for as much as CA$4 billion. If Chrysler succeeds in the next 30 days with a restructuring plan it would be eligible for a US$6 billion loan. A part of Chrysler’s restructuring plan must include a partnership with Fiat within 30 days to appease the US administration. Fiat is a supplier of smaller fuel-efficient vehicles, and the merger will help Chrysler to be viable in the North American market. A Chrysler court bankruptcy would inevitably lead to it being sold off.

As a part of Chrysler’s restructuring plans, Tom LaSorda, the president of Chrysler announced that Canadian operations would fold if it does not receive both the US commitment of $2.3 billion of aid and a new Canadian Auto Workers CAW contract to reduce all-in costs by CA$19 per hour. As a result of this announcement Chrysler’s auto sales volume in Canada dropped 23% compared to March of 2008.

GM has until the end of May to restructure its company to receive up to CA$7.5 billion. As part of the companies restructuring, General Motor’s chief executive Rick Wagoner was replaced Sunday with Fritz Henderson, the current chief operating officer. Henderson spoke out on Tuesday that GM has submitted a restructuring plan which would close five plants, and this may be increased to meet the requirements for financial aid. He is in full compliance with Obama’s auto task force to seek bankruptcy if GM cannot negotiate with their unions, bondholders and others.

GM recently brought forward the “GM Total Confidence” program providing consumer purchase protection for customers who lose their job for economic reasons within the first two years from purchase. As a result of Chrysler’s restructuring announcement in Canada, GM’s Canadian vehicle sales volume fell only 17.3% compared to 2008, an increase from the previous month.

GM must reduce some of its legacy costs which include its pensions and union health care costs. A part of GM’s ailments arose from investing in supplying truck and SUVs during an economy of high gas prices when consumers were demanding fuel efficient vehicles.

Tony Clement, Canada’s Minister of Industry, is hoping that the CAW will support the restructuring process and re-negotiate their agreement. Whereas a United Auto Workers negotiator has said, “I don’t see how the UAW will do anything until they see what the bondholders will give up.”

The Obama administration is looking toward bankruptcy proceedings for the automakers, “as a mechanism to help them restructure quickly and emerge stronger. [It will] quickly clear away old debts that are weighing them down. What we are asking is difficult. It will require hard choices by companies. It will require unions and workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more. It will require creditors to recognise that they cannot hold out for the prospect of endless government bailouts.” said Obama.

The auto parts suppliers and IT software exporters in India have already been affected by the declining auto sales. GM and Chrysler software contracts provide US$300 to 350 million a year to vendors in India. As well these two major automakers usually award US$1 billion contracts to auto parts suppliers. “We are worried and closely watching the developments in the US to gauge the impact. The decline in auto sales in the US has already hit the order books of Indian suppliers,” said a Delhi auto parts supplier.

“Going forward, the industry will undoubtedly be smaller, but if our efforts are successful it will be viable and it will support good jobs for Canadians,” said Clements.

Betty Sutton, Ohio’s Congresswoman put forward the CARS act which provides a US$3,000 to 5,000 incentive for those who trade in their vehicle for a fuel-efficient car. “It clearly stimulates the economy, and it gets the consumer into the showroom and gets them buying again. But importantly — and this is what I particularly like about it — it really helps the environment quite a bit in two respects.” said William Clay Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor Company has not come forward with requests for assistance.

Since December GM and Chrysler have received US$17.4 billion government loans.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

On Wednesday, French sports clothing brand Lacoste announced producing a limited edition of polo shirts featuring top-ten endangered animal species as the logo, instead of the company’s usual crocodile logo, in a measure to protect those animals, partnering with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Lacoste announced partnering with IUCN at the Paris Fashion Week. Proceeds from the sale would be donated to the IUCN, online magazine Dezeen reported. The collaboration was a part of IUCN’s “Save our Species” (SOS) programme.

The endangered animals to feature on the polo shirts were: vaquita, Burmese roofed turtle, northern sportive lemur, Javan rhino, Cao-vit gibbon, kakapo, California condor, saola, Sumatran tiger, and Anegada ground iguana.

The limited edition polos were to be produced in the count of the endangered animals, meaning 30 shirts featuring the vaquita, a mammal found near the Californian Gulf, would be produced as only 30 vaquitas are believed remaining. In total, 1775 polos featuring an endangered animal as the logo would be produced.

Lacoste was founded by tennis player René Lacoste and André Gillier in 1933 and their crocodile logo was never changed until now, in the 85-year-history of the clothing brand.

The limited edition shirts were to be available in only some European countries and the United States.

Note: Statistics from Lacoste’s website