fuzhong.org

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

On Sunday, police stopped Istanbul Pride, a yearly LGBT march in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul. Police officials reportedly used rubber and plastic bullets and sprayed tear gas to prevent the participants from parading, after the Istanbul Governor’s office ordered them on Saturday not to conduct the march, asserting security reasons. This marks the third consecutive year activists were banned from holding the rally.

The statement released by the governor’s office read, “no application that suits the methods was made to our governor’s office”, though the organisers of the march disagreed. Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey for almost a century, but the governor’s office reported “serious reactions against the march.” Activists found checkpoints and a large number of police near Istiklal Avenue.

The pride organisers reported 41 were arrested by the police. Far-right Alperen Hearths was amongst nationalist groups calling for prohibiting the parade. Last week, on June 19, Kür?at Mican of Alperen said, “We will not allow them to walk. Wherever they march, we’ll also go. We will close down that street and they will not be able to go there. If we want, our numbers can reach 200,000”.

In a statement by the organisers of the rally, on Sunday, they said, “Our security will be provided by recognising us in the constitution, by securing justice, by equality and freedom”. Turkish legislators have yet to enact laws shielding the LGBT community from hate speech and ensuring civil rights. In 2010, Selma Aliye Kavaf, then-Minister of Women and Family Affairs said, “I believe homosexuality is a biological disorder and this disease needs treatment.” ^{((tr))Turkish language: ?Ben e?cinselli?in biyolojik bir bozukluk, bir hastal?k oldu?una inan?yorum. Tedavi edilmesi gereken bir ?ey bence.} After the unsuccessful attempt to conduct the parade, organisers released a statement on Sunday, saying, “We are not scared, we are here, we will not change[…] You are scared, you will change and you will get used to it.”

Istanbul Pride was first organised in 2003, attracting by varying reports from tens of thousands to possibly a hundred thousand people in 2014. That was the last actual march before it was blocked three times in the last three years. Last year, the organisers were not granted permission for Istanbul Pride after Istanbul faced militant attacks. The 2015 march was stopped as it was about to start, and police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Monday, June 1, 2009

United States automobile manufacturing firm General Motors filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 protection from its creditors at 12:00 UTC Monday, in a Manhattan, New York federal bankruptcy court. This was the largest bankruptcy filing for a U.S. manufacturing company, and with declared assets of $82.29 billion and a debt of $172.81 billion, and the fourth largest bankruptcy filing in recent U.S. history — after the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers ($691.06 billion), Washington Mutual ($327.91 billion), and WorldCom ($103.91 billion).

The filing, expected to be the first of many, was for a New York GM affiliate, Chevrolet-Saturn of Harlem Incorporated. Numbered 09-50026, it named GM as a debtor in possession, and was filed before judge Robert Gerber.

GM is to be represented throughout the filing process by Weil Gotshal & Manges, a New York law firm specializing in bankruptcy.

The chief restructuring officer, named in the filing, is to be Al Koch, a managing director at AlixPartners LLP in New York, who will report directly to Fritz Henderson, the Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.

In its bankruptcy petition, GM listed its primary creditors as:

The amount owed to UAW excludes “approximately $9.4 billion corresponding to the GM Internal VEBA“. USD22,760 millions are owed to bondholders.

Analysts have observed that the effect of the bankruptcy filing on the U.S. economy is not expected to be as major as it once would have been. One such voice, Mark Zandy, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com, commented that “Bankruptcy now is irrelevant in terms of the economic consequence of what’s happening to GM.” Such analysts believe that the economic impact of GM’s problems has already been felt, with its effects on parts suppliers and employment. They also believe that GM’s programme of accelerated payments, and its participation in a U.S. Treasury program to ensure prompt payments to parts manufacturers, will have cushioned the effect of the bankruptcy itself.

Speaking on Bloomberg Radio, David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, stated that the fragility of the parts suppliers, the loss of whom would threaten the entire automobile manufacturing industry, was of more immediate concern than the GM bankruptcy.

Also filing for chapter 11 protection today were Saturn LLC and Saturn Distribution Corporation, subsidiary companies of General Motors.

As a consequence of the bankruptcy, General Motors Corporation (GM.N) was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and was replaced by Cisco Systems (CSCO.O), these changes scheduled by Dow Jones & Company to take effect from the opening of trading on June 8.

Sunday, July 2, 2006

A rally organised by a coalition of nearly 30 environmental groups took place at the site of the Eden wood chip mill in the south east forests of New South Wales today. Organisers estimate that 600 people attended the event, many of whom had travelled hundreds of kilometers to the site from various parts of New South Wales and Victoria.

The protesters sought to highlight the trade in wood chips made from old growth native forests which has continued in Australia despite promises by governments to discontinue the practice. It is thought to be an unnecessary sacrifice of a publicly owned resource and the habitat of native animals for short term profits. The industry is subsidised through provision of publicly funded infrastructure and a unreasonably low royalty levied on harvesters of the resource.

All Eden wood chips are exported, mostly to pulp and paper mills in Japan and the paper made from Eden chips is generally copy paper used in the printing industry and it is consumed within Japan. Since its establishment, Eden has exported over 35 million tonnes of native forest chips.

The Eden chip mill exports approximately 900,000 tonnes of chips a year, and is heading for 1 million tonnes in the next couple of years, produced from native forests each year and Australia is the only country that continues to trade forest wood chips to Japan, as all other supplier countries use plantation stock to produce chips.

The rally was organised with police cooperation and was conducted without any incident.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The United Kingdom’s (UK) largest technology company, ARM Holdings, confirmed on Monday morning that it had accepted an offer from the Japanese company, SoftBank.

ARM designs microchips used in many devices, including smart phones made by Apple and Samsung. It is expected to invest in the so-called Internet of Things, where many everyday items are expected to be connected to the internet into the future.

The deal, worth £24 billion (US$32 billion), is now expected to be presented to shareholders. The amount offered per share is 43% above the value at the close of trading on Friday. Shares rose by 45% on Monday morning in response to the announcement. Three-quarters of shareholders will need to approve the deal for it to go ahead.

ARM has said its headquarters will remain in Cambridge. Simon Segars, ARM’s Chief Executive, also said a pledge by SoftBank to double ARM’s workforce on the UK would be legally binding.

Philip Hammond, the UK Chancellor, said it would be the biggest investment into the UK from Asia, as well as showing that “Britain remains one of the most attractive destinations globally for investors to create jobs and wealth”. Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister, had recently questioned the benefit to the nation of such takeovers, but has said this one shows the UK can remain successful outside the European Union.

Monday, September 6, 2010

File:Samsung-galaxy-tab.jpg

At the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA) industrial exhibition in Berlin, the South Korean corporation Samsung released its first tablet computer, called “Galaxy Tab”.

The device features the Android operating system and a seven-inch screen. Samsung’s own applications, called “Reader’s Hub” and “Media Hub,” display ebooks and videos respectively. Latest Flash, and an interface to stream to TV also are included. Wireless technologies supported include 3G networks, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

The device is a competitor to Apple’s iPad. British newspaper The Daily Mail considered the appearance of the Galaxy Tab on the market as a serious event for Apple, because the device has a smaller screen, and Samsung was expecting to set a price 1.5 to 2 times lower than the iPad. Samsung were considering a ten inch screen on future models. Galaxy Tab is “the first of the company’s tablet devices”, as a spokesperson said.

Head of product portfolio Thomas Richter expressed optimism about the device’s market future : “This is not just another tablet. We call it a Smart Media device.”

Samsung’s head of mobile communications J.K. Shin was also positive about the release of Galaxy Tab, commenting that “[t]here is a new and emerging consumer demand that Samsung can satisfy since mobile is in our DNA.”

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Register, a British technology news and opinion website, reports that a former Wikimedia Foundation Chief Operating Officer (COO) has a criminal record in at least four U.S. states: Texas, Maryland, Virginia and Florida.

Carolyn Doran, born Carolyn Sue Bothwell, was the WMF COO for six months from January to July 2007. The Register reported Doran’s criminal record includes four convictions for driving under the influence, two of check fraud and petty larceny, one hit and run with fatality, and one charge of unlawful wounding for shooting former boyfriend Philip L. Brown in the chest in 1990. He later asked that no charges be made against her and they resumed dating each other. Two of the arrests for driving under the influence occurred this year, once in May while she was working for the Foundation and once a month after she resigned.

“He asked me to marry him after I shot him,” Doran told The Washington Post on February 22, 1990.

Wikinews has confirmed, through Pinellas County police reports, that she was convicted in four DUI’s and also the hit and run. It is also confirmed, she faced an additional charge of driving while a license is suspended or revoked (DWLSR).

In 1994, Doran was implicated in the murder of a man who was the lover of her friend, Cassondra Sue Betancourt. Betancourt was later convicted of the man’s first degree murder in 1995 after a jury trial. According to court documents, Betancourt, “brought some cocaine to a hotel room that had been rented by the victim, her lover. The next morning, after defendant left the room, the victim was discovered dead.”

Doran, who had prior knowledge that Betancourt would deliver the drugs, made a plea deal with prosecutors that if she testified against Betancourt, she would get a lesser sentence for her previous charges of credit card fraud and petty larceny. Although Doran assisted the prosecution in attempting to gain incriminating evidence by wearing a wire while with Betancourt, Doran never received her lesser sentence.

Despite the attempt, Betancourt’s conviction was later overturned in 1998 because “there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. The court held that there had only been circumstantial evidence linking defendant to the crime, and that proof by circumstantial evidence was not sufficient to prove first degree murder,” added the court papers.

Wikinews can also confirm that Doran’s husband, Sean H. Doran, a former intelligence officer and major for the U.S. Air Force, to whom she was married for only five days, drowned on their honeymoon on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands in 1999. According to The Washington Post, the cause of the drowning which led to his death was not known. It was later acknowledged in private records given to the Library of Virginia that his death was deemed accidental.

Six months later she remarried after meeting a man named Christopher Dale Confer in Arapahoe County, Colorado. It was earlier thought she used Confer as an alias, because according to PACER, she filed for bankruptcy in 2001 where she is listed as having “aliases,” one being Carolyn S. King and the other as Carolyn Confer.

The Register quotes Mike Godwin, the Wikimedia Foundation’s general counsel, as saying that the Foundation had no knowledge of Doran’s prior or current criminal record. “We’ve never had any documentation of any criminal record on Carolyn Doran’s part at all. As far as I’m concerned, I have no direct knowledge of [her criminal record] yet…We have, in our records, no evidence of any such thing.”

Wikinews attempted to contact Mr. Godwin via e-mail but no response has yet been received.

Doran was voted into her COO position by the Wikimedia Board of Trustees at the time. Of the seven board members, six supported her position and one did not. The vote was made and agreed upon on January 22, 2007. She was in charge of “all office/administrative issues” and “overall administration and business operations. Areas of responsibility included administration, personnel and fiscal management. In the future, [she will be in charge of] any new employee working in the administrative area,” according to public e-mails on Wikimedia’s main mailing list foundation-l.

According to Florence Devouard, the Chair of the WMF Board of Trustees, background checks were not performed on anyone until at least 2007, but that recently, the Foundation began to perform them. During that time, Brad Patrick was acting Executive Director and he did all the hiring.

“In fall 2006, we did not perform criminal background checks. From what I understood, Mike took care of this and this is now being done. It is fairly recent, the board did not get any report on this,” said Devouard on foundation-l.

Doran was searched and questioned by U.S. Customs agents in Florida after returning from a Foundation board meeting in the Netherlands around June. According to The Register, it was because she violated the terms of her parole by attending the meeting. She was not arrested, but according to police reports, on October 31, 2007, Doran was arrested under a warrant valid for a “nationwide extradition”. Doran was then extradited back to Virginia, where she is currently being held in a prison in Staunton.

Doran resigned from her position in July 2007, and the Foundation is currently without a Chief Operating Officer.

Monday, September 5, 2005

Australia‘s Federal Minister for Health, Tony Abbott, has made a number of comments about the previous New South Wales Australian Liberal Party leader, John Brogden, who recently attempted suicide, which have been widely thought to be inappropriate.

Abbott is reported to have made comments such as “If we did that, we would be as dead as the former Liberal leader’s political prospects” and “Whenever you hear that David Clarke is doing bad things, you know he is really doing a great job”, referring to the factional leader claimed to have led the campaign against Brogden. The comments were made at a party function approximately twelve hours after Brogden’s suicide attempt. Abbott is also reported to have said “I just want to make it clear I have never told an inappropriate joke, I’ve never pinched a woman on the backside and I never make inappropriate gestures to women” at a Kenthurst Liberal Party branch meeting, in reference to Brogden’s reported behaviour at a function approximately two months ago.

There have been calls for Abbott to resign or be sacked by Prime Minister John Howard from some sectors, such as persons involved in mental health care, as well as the Federal Opposition. They claim that the comments show that Abbott is not mindful of mental health issues when they should be foremost in his mind.

The comments were first raised with Abbott by the ABC Insiders program yesterday. He confirmed that he had made the remarks and offered to apologize “if anyone is upset”, and later that day made such an apology. The extent of the apology was criticised in the House of Representatives in Federal Parliament that day, with Julia Gillard, the Shadow Health Minister, calling it “half-arsed” during debate on a motion to censure the minister for his comments. The motion was rejected as the Liberal/National coalition form Government federally.

There is suspicion that the tipoff about Abbott’s comments was made by a member of the left-wing faction of the Liberal party, of which Brogden was a member, as a form of payback against members of the right-wing faction, of which Tony Abbott is a member. The Liberal right are said to have been involved in the campaign against Brogden.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team.

Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project’s PR, compiled the below Q&A, which the full team approved prior to publication.

The time is 5:40 UTC and this Audio Wikinews Brief for Sunday, October 14, 2007.

[edit]