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Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Nigerian “free puppy” scam has been circling the internet for months without any reports on television or on the radio. Just yesterday the Toronto Star reported about a Mississauga, Ontario, Canada woman, on September 10, who was scammed by a Nigerian man (Paul) claiming to be a Christian missionary who could no longer take care of his puppy.

In April, the CBC reported that the Toronto Humane Society issued a warning for residents to watch out for the new scam, and to not respond to them. Humane Society communications officer Lee Oliver told the CBC that the only contact method, for an ad about a “free” puppy published in a newspaper, was email. After he emailed the person he received an email response in broken English saying the customer would have to pay $500.

According to the women the advertisements are published in newspapers, such as free Toronto daily newspaper 24, and online. She saw the ad at Livedeal.com, a website which warns about making foreign purchases, and proceeded to email the person in Nigeria who was offering a “free” female Yorkshire Terrier pup. The ad called “GORGEOUS YORKSHIRE TERRIER FOR FREE GRAB HER NOW!!!” had a picture of a “Yorkie” in a white basket.

The seller of the puppy asked the women over the phone to pay $200 for the shipping fee, the next day he asked for $250 to put the dog in a crate, and again the next day $50 for ownership. He did not tell her it would amount to $500. On the third day he asked for $100 for a shot for his puppy. She immediately contacted authorities.

“Are you trying to call me a scam? I’m a family man,” he said. “I am a man of God. I am a missionary,” Paul told a reporter for the Toronto Star.

“Me and my family don’t have enough time for baby … I want a good Christian home for my baby … I love this baby,” he said. “Why all these questions? Why are you accusing?”

According to Oliver, a nearby Toronto resident also responded to the scam.

Warnings have not only been issued in Canada but also in the Cayman Islands. The United States also has many citizens that are victims of the scam.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Jeremy Hanke, editor of MicroFilmmaker Magazine. The magazine, which is free to read online, was started as a resource for the low budget moviemaker and features book, independent film, equipment and software reviews as well as articles on film distribution, special effects and lighting.

He says that one of the goals of the magazine is to “connect low-budget filmmakers via a feeling of community, as many…..often compete so viciously against one another in film festivals for coveted “shots” with Hollywood, that they can quickly forget their similarities.”

When asked if films made on a shoestring budget can really compete with those made for millions of dollars, he replied, “no…yes…and absolutely. Allow me to explain.” And so he does in the interview below.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The battle between the two high definition optical disc formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD has ended after sole HD DVD manufacturer Toshiba has announced it will no longer produce HD DVD players.

In a press conference yesterday, Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida announced and confirmed that Toshiba will terminate the R&D plan on HD-DVD products. The key issue to force Toshiba terminating their HD-DVD R&D plan was Warner Bros., who changed their R&D plan from HD-DVD to Blu-ray on January 4.

In what is a reverse of the VHS vs Betamax format war, Sony‘s Blu-ray has come out on top with the backing of major studios and retailers such as Warner Bros. but also Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Netflix, and Blockbuster who announced they would only support Blu-ray exclusively this past month.

Even though Toshiba is currently about to change their R&D plan from HD-DVD to NAND flash drives and micro drives and plan to build two factories in Iwate, Japan, the company will provide the maintenance service on discs and players in the future 8 years.

Sony bundled Blu-ray into their PlayStation 3 game system. Microsoft’s competing Xbox 360, comes with a $200 HD DVD add-on player, whose fate is now undetermined with the demise of HD DVD. Microsoft has said they will wait for what Toshiba has to say.

[edit]

Monday, December 7, 2009

Morocco said earlier today that Guinea’s military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara, has undergone successful surgery for gunshot wounds sustained on Thursday in an apparent assassination attempt. Guinea’s military government is offering a reward for the capture of the former head of the presidential guard whose men are accused of carrying out the attack.

The inspector of Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces’ health services said that Camara has had successful surgery for head trauma. In a statement issued by Morocco’s official press agency, Dr. Ali Abrouq said Camara’s condition is “not worrying.”

“The current health condition of the Guinean president does not inspire concern,” Abrouq noted in a statement. “The result of the operation is favorable.”

Camara flew to Morocco on Friday after being shot the day before by men loyal to his former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, who is also known as Toumba. Toumba escaped the attack, and is still at large with a group of the presidential guard.

Harouna Kone, a spokesman for the junta, commented that Camara should be able to return to Guinea by Wednesday. “The president is doing very well and we expecting that he will come back maybe on Wednesday […] he is in the Royal Hospital of Rabat, and I think that everything is well there. He called last night and [spoke] with his minister of communication and they discussed about something,” he said, as quoted by the Voice of America news agency.

Security forces, meanwhile, are patrolling Guinea’s borders in search of Toumba, and the government is offering a reward for information leading to his capture.

Guinea’s vice-president and defense minister, General Sekouba Konate, became the interim leader following the attempted assassination.

Thursday’s shooting followed an argument between Toumba and Camara about who should take responsibility for the killing of opposition demonstrators two months ago. Witnesses say Toumba gave the order for the presidential guard to open fire on people protesting Camara’s expected presidential candidacy.

Local human rights groups said that at least 157 people were killed on September 28; the military put the number at 57 people.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for 40 to 175 years in Ingham County, Michigan, United States. Nassar pleaded guilty in November to seven charges of sexual assault in Ingham County, however, he is alleged to have victimized over a hundred girls over several years. Nassar is currently serving a 60-year sentence for federal child pornography charges.

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, presiding over the Ingham County Circuit Court in Lansing, Michigan, handed down the sentence, stating: “I’ve just signed your death warrant.”

Rachael Denhollander first accused Nassar, filing a criminal complaint in 2016. Nassar was charged in Ingham County with seven counts of sexual abuse and pleaded guilty in November of 2017. The true number of victims is alleged to exceed one hundred. During the sentencing hearings in court over 150 women testified Nassar abused them. Alleged victims include famous Olympic gymnasts, such as Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and Gabby Douglas, although Nassar was not specifically charged with abusing them.

Judge Aquilina read out parts of a statement Nassar submitted to the court. In the statement, Nassar wrote, “I was a good doctor, because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that kept coming back over and over”. He also criticized an earlier judge for going “ballistic”. Aquilina declined to read the entirety, citing concern for the victims; “I don’t want them re-victimized by the words in the letter”, she said.

Nassar served as the team physician for USA Gymnastics for years, spanning four Olympic Games. Simultaneously, he served with Michigan State University. He abused his victims under pretense of treating them as a doctor.

Nassar’s case has led to allegations of lack of oversight by Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). At USA Gymnastics, prior to the sentencing three board members resigned over the case on Monday, as well as its president last year. Corporate sponsors of the organization also pulled out.

The current president of USA Gymnastics, Kerry Perry, who was appointed in December, released a statement after the sentencing: “During the last seven days, more than 150 courageous women have shared their deeply personal experiences and how Larry Nassar’s despicable crimes impacted their lives. […] USA Gymnastics applauds Judge Rosemarie Aquilina for handing Nassar the maximum sentence of up to 175 years[…] As stated on my first day on Dec. 1, 2017, I will not waver on my commitment to focus each and every day on our organization’s highest priority — the safety, health and well-being of our athletes.”

USOC head Scott Blackmun also released a statement in which he apologized: “The purpose of this message is to tell all of Nassar’s victims and survivors, directly, how incredibly sorry we are. We have said it in other contexts, but we have not been direct enough with you. We are sorry for the pain caused by this terrible man, and sorry that you weren’t afforded a safe opportunity to pursue your sports dreams. The Olympic family is among those that have failed you.”

Both Reuters and the Los Angeles Times noted applause in the courtroom when Nassar was escorted out. Judge Aquilina said, “There has to be a massive investigation as to why there was inaction, why there was silence.”

Monday, January 2, 2006

Anyone riding the OC Transpo Ottawa municipal bus service’s express bus routes this morning and this afternoon, in the Ottawa area, was probably greeted with an empty bus, and inherently, a “fast and efficient” ride. This is in part because most government workers where off from work still celebrating their Christmas holidays and buses were operating on a “holiday schedule;” a lack of planning on behalf of OC Transpo.

Though, according to OC Transpo, the “Holiday Schedule” means buses this week shall be running a little less often, in reality there isn’t that much difference than the regular schedule. To be more precise, from 05h48 until 07h20, on the express 27 route there will be 5 less buses during the “Holiday Schedule” compared to the “Regular Schedule.”

“This is probably going to be fine for the rest of this week, when government employees start coming back to work”, said Yves Roy, an OC Transpo driver, “but today was a holiday and it appears that express routes only had an average of about 2 to 4 passengers.”

“On my ride in to work, at around 6:10 a.m. this morning, nobody else got on the bus. It was like having a personal stretch limo to myself,” said Patrick Roy, a guard for the commissionaires.

Also, at around 4:15 p.m. another OC Transpo bus driver, whom wished to remain anonymous, stated, “You are the first person I picked up today.” He had been working since the morning doing express runs. He then added, “This is a waste of tax payers money.”

Ottawa’s BRT “Transitway,” has indicated that it cost approximately 42.58$ CAN per hour to run a diesel bus. It is estimated that 729 express buses ran today for approximatelly 7 hours costing approximatelly 217,287$ CAN. The cost of operating OC Transpo is split between transit fares collected and the tax base (mostly municipal, with some federal and provincial contributions.)

“We then continued to talk about waste of fuel, employee pay, insurance liability issues and even went into details about such hot political items as the Kyoto Agreement and conservatism,” said Patrick. “Once the driver reached Place d’Orleans the second passenger joined in the conversation. The driver then took a faster alternate route and dropped us off not far from our homes.”

According to Peter Dickson, editor at The Ottawa Citizen, last year OC Transpo buses followed a ‘reduced’ Sunday schedule and this created havoc on the system. Peter asked, if “perhaps this year they where trying to compensate for this inefficiency?”

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), OC Transpo’s union representative has indicated, “At current fleet levels, Ottawa’s roads would be choked with about 40,000 more cars each rush hour if not for OC Transpo.”[1] ATU suggests 70 per cent of trips in Ottawa are now made by car. However, seemingly, due to returning vacationers and other reasons, today may have created an increase in the use of cars and influenced this statistic. According to city councillor Clive Doucet’s web page “Currently, 17% of all trips residents make in Ottawa are on public transit, up from 15% in the mid-nineties. As a comparison, Paris’ modal split is 40% or higher taking public transit while Los Angeles’ modal split is around 2% for public transit.” Analysing ridership on a large scale seems to be an important element for the city.

According to Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli, “We used to be able to plan a transit system for up to 12 years ahead, with assured funding.” This of course is in reference to provincial government funding.”It would make me happier if we took all of the (fuel taxes) and put them into the transportation infrastructure,” Mr. Hunt, president of the Canadian Automobile Association says. “But we don’t have a plan.”

“Usually OC Transpo bus drivers have two 4 months bookings, for the fall and the winter and two 2 months booking for the spring and for the summer,” said Yves Roy. “For the first time in March 2005, there was a special 1 week booking for the March break that rearranged and redistributed drivers of certain high school bus runs. During previous march breaks, drivers would show up usually waiting 30 or more minutes in an “idling” bus.”

Is there such thing as to much efficiency? Today is an example of buses and drivers being very efficient. On the other hand, it may be a lack of efficiency within OC Transpo’s booking department, upper management and the governments.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005Bobby Abreu, welcome to the spotlight.

The Philadelphia Phillies star, now 31 and a two-time All-Star, has produced well for the Phillies over the last half a decade without the glamour of other top players. However, last night there was no denying that he was the star of the show.

And what a show it was. The first batter in the 2005 Home Run Derby, Abreu proceeded to shatter the previous record of 15 home runs in a round, belting 24, including a 517-foot moonshot that exited the stadium in right field, going through two bats in the process. This rampage came immediately after ESPN announcers Chris Berman and Joe Morgan described Comerica Park, the site of the Derby, as a difficult park to hit home runs in.

In the second round, Abreu edged past Boston’s David Ortiz (who himself hit an astounding 17 homeruns in the first round) and Milwaukee’s Carlos Lee to earn a spot in the finals alongside Detroit star Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez, who snuck into the second round with 7 dingers, swatted the most in the second round, but his home-field advantage deserted him in the finals as Abreu smashed 11 over the fences to win the Derby for his native Venezuela.

Abreu’s three-round total of 41 homers broke Miguel Tejada‘s record of 27, set last year in Houston’s Minute Maid Park.