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A compilation of brief news reports for Saturday, December 20, 2008.

The United States government has announced that it will give US$17.4 billion in loans to help three of the nation’s automobile makers – Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford – avoid bankruptcy.

The money will be taken from the $700 billion bailout package originally intended to rescue US banks. General Motors will get $9.4 billion and Chrysler $4 billion before next year. Ford stated that it wants to get by without government aid.

President George Bush said that it would not be “a responsible course of action” to allow the companies to collapse.

Sources

• “Bush unveils $17.4bn car bail-out” — BBC News, December 19, 2008
• “U.S. Throws Lifeline to Detroit” — WSJ.com, December 20, 2008

Telephone and Internet communications between Asia and Europe have been disrupted after some submarine cables were severed.

The cables FLAG FEA, SMW4 and SMW3 near Alexandria, Egypt, were damaged, and the GO cable 130 kilometres off the coast of Sicily has also been reported as broken. France Telecom will repair the damage, and the company announced that it was dispatching a ship to repair the line between Egypt and Italy.

Experts warn that it could be several days before the problems are fixed.

Sources

• “Severed cable disrupts web access” — BBC News, December 19, 2008
• “New undersea cable cuts lead to Internet outages” — ars technica, December 20, 2008

Yann Elies, a French yachtsman participating in the Vendee Globe round-the-world solo yacht race, was rescued on Saturday by the Australian navy after the former was paralysed by a wave that struck his boat in the Southern Ocean.

Elies broke his left thighbone and perhaps several ribs after the wave slammed into his boat 200 kilometres southwest of Perth.

The Australian frigate dispatched the HMAS Arunta to rescue Elies. The ship left Fremantle early on Friday morning and reached Elies by evening.

Sources

• “Injured yachtsman rescued by navy” — BBC News, December 20, 2008
• “Navy reaches stricken solo sailor Yann Elies” — news.com.au, December 20, 2008

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

SpaceX Corporation launched its Falcon I rocket today from Kwajalein Atoll. Liftoff occurred at 6:00 PM PDT, following two previous launch aborts this week.

The first stage was completely successful, although there appeared to be some problems with the second stage. The sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of 300 km, and is on a traectory for re-entry. It was intended to go into orbit, but contact was lost before this could be accomplished

This is the second launch for the low-cost SpaceX rocket, and the first successful launch for the company. The previous launch had a successful lift-off, but failed 35 seconds into the flight and crashed near to the launch pad due to a fuel leak in the engine.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Israel has purchased two more Dolphin class submarines which have the capacity to carry nuclear warheads. Israel already has three older nuclear weapons-capable Dolphin submarines but the new Dolphins have propulsion systems that allow them to remain submerged for longer periods of time, according to the Jerusalem Post, making it harder for them to be tracked by satellite. Experts view the purchase as a clear signal to Iran that Israel can retaliate if subjected to a nuclear attack.

“The Iranians would be very foolish if they attacked Israel,” said Paul Beaver, a British based defence analyst, speaking to the Washington Post. According to Beaver, the submarines would provide Israel with both first strike and second strike capability.

Israel already has land-based nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in the form of the Jericho I and II missiles.

German officials confirm that the contracts for the new submarines was signed July 6. The Jerusalem Post reports that they will be operational shortly.

Israel has never confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons but is believed to have the world’s sixth largest stockpile of the devices, with most outside estimates putting their stockpile in the low hundreds. Israel’s possession of nuclear arms has often been a locus of bitter controversy in the Middle East, especially among countries who believe that the world community, and especially the United States, is hypocritical in its tolerance of Israeli nuclear arms while decrying the efforts of other Middle Eastern nations to develop their own nuclear capabilities.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reports there is a growing mood among Israel’s defence establishment that the country will have to act independently to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons as the United States is unlikely to do so.

“America is stuck in Iraq and cannot go after Iran militarily right now,” according to an unnamed official quoted by the paper.

A report by the US House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee released on Wednesday asserts that if Iran arms itself with nuclear weapons, Israel would be pressed to respond militarily. “A nuclear armed Iran would likely exacerbate regional tensions. Israel would find it hard to live with a nuclear armed Iran and could take military action against Iranian nuclear facilities,” the report states. Iran has continually maintained that it seeks only to develop nuclear technology for the production of electrical power, though this has been disputed by many nations.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Torture proliferates American headlines today: whether its use is defensible in certain contexts and the morality of the practice. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone was curious about torture in American popular culture. This is the first of a two part series examining the BDSM business. This interview focuses on the owners of a dungeon, what they charge, what the clients are like and how they handle their needs.

When Shankbone rings the bell of “HC & Co.” he has no idea what to expect. A BDSM (Bondage Discipline Sadism Masochism) dungeon is a legal enterprise in New York City, and there are more than a few businesses that cater to a clientèle that wants an enema, a spanking, to be dressed like a baby or to wear women’s clothing. Shankbone went to find out what these businesses are like, who runs them, who works at them, and who frequents them. He spent three hours one night in what is considered one of the more upscale establishments in Manhattan, Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, where according to The Village Voice, “you can take your girlfriend or wife, and have them treated with respect—unless they hope to be treated with something other than respect!”

When Shankbone arrived on the sixth floor of a midtown office building, the elevator opened up to a hallway where a smiling Rebecca greeted him. She is a beautiful forty-ish Long Island mother of three who is dressed in smart black pants and a black turtleneck that reaches up to her blond-streaked hair pulled back in a bushy ponytail. “Are you David Shankbone? We’re so excited to meet you!” she says, and leads him down the hall to a living room area with a sofa, a television playing an action-thriller, an open supply cabinet stocked with enema kits, and her husband Bill sitting at the computer trying to find where the re-release of Blade Runner is playing at the local theater. “I don’t like that movie,” says Rebecca.

Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the end of the night when Shankbone was waiting to be escorted out (to avoid running into a client). Rebecca came into the room and sat on the sofa. “You know, a lot of people out there would like to see me burn for what I do,” she says. Rebecca is a woman who has faced challenges in her life, and dealt with them the best she could given her circumstances. She sees herself as providing a service to people who have needs, no matter how debauched the outside world deems them. They sat talking mutual challenges they have faced and politics (she’s supporting Hillary); Rebecca reflected upon the irony that many of the people who supported the torture at Abu Ghraib would want her closed down. It was in this conversation that Shankbone saw that humanity can be found anywhere, including in places that appear on the surface to cater to the inhumanity some people in our society feel towards themselves, or others.

“The best way to describe it,” says Bill, “is if you had a kink, and you had a wife and you had two kids, and every time you had sex with your wife it just didn’t hit the nail on the head. What would you do about it? How would you handle it? You might go through life feeling unfulfilled. Or you might say, ‘No, my kink is I really need to dress in women’s clothing.’ We’re that outlet. We’re not the evil devil out here, plucking people off the street, keeping them chained up for days on end.”

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Bill & Rebecca, owners of Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, a BDSM dungeon.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Corus steelworkers in Redcar, Cleveland, England marched yesterday for a campaign to save their jobs, after the closure of Redcar’s steelworks was announced in May 2009.

Approximately 5,000 people, including employees of Redcar’s steelworks, other Corus steelworks, Teesport and the local chemical industry, partook in the march, and the Australian Workers’ Union also expressed their support.

Trade unions called on the government to help the plant. Roy Rickhuss, Community‘s National Officer for Steel, said that “we need help, we need support from the government if the manufacturing base in this country is going to survive”. He also said that “the government has helped the bowler hats, now it’s time to help the hardhats”. Derek Simpson, of Unite the Union, was concerned that “the loss of the Corus plant will rip the heart out of this community”. Community also warned that the job losses would increase child poverty rates in Teesside.

Vera Baird QC MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Redcar and Solicitor General, expressed hope that Corus at Redcar would regain its main contract. She claimed that “the government is 100% behind, and has played a key role in encouraging these negotiations to resume”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that “the difficulties that the company is facing are caused by an extreme downturn in demand for steel around the world”. The government has offered £5 million (€5.8 million, $8.2 million) to retrain the workers.

10,000 jobs could be lost in Teesside from the closure of Redcar steelworks. 1,920 people are directly employed by Corus in Redcar, with a further 2,000 contractors being employed, and other local businesses relying on Corus’ business.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A group of British embassy workers kidnapped in northern Ethiopia 12 days ago have been released, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said. The workers – four British citizens and one French citizen and Ethiopian staff working with them, had been held in Eritrea, she announced on Tuesday.

The party were apparently on a sightseeing tour when they were abducted on 1 March. Beckett also said that all kidnapped were safe and well and were:

The group went missing on March 1 on a tourist trip to visit geological sites in the remote Afar region, in the country’s north. Two vehicles belonging to the group were later found in a north-eastern village called Hamedali. The vehicles were found were riddled with bullets, but still contained luggage and mobile telephones.

The region in which the Hamedali is, Afar, straddles the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had said on Monday that Ethiopian officials had a “good idea” of where the hostages were being held.

Zenawi announced that embassy staff had not been specifically targeted and suggested that the kidnapping might have been a “mistake”. Hamedali is a staging post for tourists venturing into the unique geological formations of the Danakil Depression, including the area’s famous salt lakes. The area is one of the hottest and inhospitable lands on Earth. Visitors are warned by the government to travel in a convoy with armed guards because of rebels and bandits. Witnesses stated that around 50 men burst Hamedali and marched the foreigners towards the Eritrean border.