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Saturday, May 6, 2006

A four-year-old Indian boy from the eastern state of Orissa ran 65 kilometers (40 miles) continuously, setting an Indian record and possibly a world record as well.

Budhia Singh, a slum resident whose talent was discovered by a local coach, completed his run in seven hours and two minutes. Budhia had originally planned to run 43 miles, but doctors intervened at the 40-mile mark when he started showing signs of extreme exhaustion. 300 cadets from the Central Reserve Police Force, which plans to sponsor his upbringing, escorted Budhia, while thousands of onlookers cheered him on.

Officials from the Limca Book of Records, India’s best-known record book, witnessed the run and said that Budhia’s accomplishment would appear in the 2007 edition of the book.

Coach Biranchi Das says that he had seen Budhia’s talent when Budhia accidentally entered a sports field without permission. Das had the boy run laps as punishment, but after five hours the boy was still running.

Human rights groups in India decried the run, saying that government officials endangered Budhia’s life by allowing him to run in sweltering temperatures. “It is an act done so rashly or negligently to endanger human life or the personal safety of others as defined under section 336 of the Indian Penal Code,” said Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Center for Human Rights.

Das said that doctors had examined the boy and found nothing wrong.

“I loved running today. I can run as much as I want,” Budhia said after the run.

Friday, July 22, 2005

The British Parliament approved the first stage of the new Crossrail underground railroad through London as a £15 billion construction project earlier this month. Crossrail is the first major new train line to be built in London in decades.

The rail line being implemented as a hybrid bill in Parliament. After a second reading in Parliament, it was voted upon and decided that the government will commit to the project so that the line will be built.

The next issue before Parliament of to ensure that the implementation of the bill so it is consistent with private interests of neighborhoods to be affected by Crossrail. This is when residents can petition Parliament to change the way the line is constructed.

As a result of construction of the Crossrail line, hundreds of homes will have new tunnels excavated beneath them.

On contacting Crossrail, they have indicated approximately £50 will be offered to each landowner to buy all the land rights-of-way to build the train tunnel more than 9 meters below the residential buildings. The average value for properties in the affected areas is £350,000.

Under UK compulsory purchase laws to be used in this bill, the residents are entitled to the difference in the value of the whole property with and without a tunnel under it. If the offer given by Crossrail is not accepted by any of the residents, the residents can take the case to the Land Tribunal, where the fair value will be established.

This however, could be cost prohibitive. Crossrail does not indicate that it will attempt to assign a fair value in the original offer and instead is only going to offer around £50 per property in the hope that not many people take the matter to the Land Tribunal.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

London, England — The Australian women’s national wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, defeated the USA Thursday in a 40–39 thriller at the North Greenwich Arena.

This semifinal victory advances the Gliders into the final, where they are to meet the winner of the day’s match between the Netherlands and Germany. They are guaranteed at least silver. The Gliders won silver in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004 and bronze in Beijing in 2008, but have never won the gold. The USA team is to meet the loser of that match to contest the bronze.

The Gliders’ quest for Paralympic gold medals began last week with a narrow 52–50 defeat of Brazil. The Aussies then crushed Great Britain 51–24. Australia had a loss to Canada 50–57, but bounced back to win against the Netherlands, 58–49. This advanced Australia to the quarter final, where the Gliders met and defeated Mexico 62–37.

Team USA started by defeating France 63–24 in its first game. It then lost to Germany, 54–48. It came back and defeated Mexico 67–33. Team USA came from 21 behind to defeat China in extra time, and played Canada and won in the quarter final 67–55.

The first quarter got off to an exciting start. USA had first possession and chalked up the first score. Kylie Gauchi responded quickly with a good shot, leveling the score. Then followed an exciting passage of play in which USA turned the ball over, but Clare Nott lost it on a bad pass. Shelly Chaplin then stole it back but Kylie Gauchi put it out of bounds. Clare Nott stole it back again, only to have Gauichi turn it over again. The USA took a shot at the basket from inside the paint, but missed. They then took a rebound and finally scored. A USA free throw extended their lead to 2–6. Thereafter both teams’ shooting was poor, and the score was only 10–12 at quarter time.

The second quarter started with Merritt scoring twice to give Australia the lead 14–12. A ferocious Australian defence saw USA’s style severely cramped, and they turned the ball over a number of times. They also took too long to move the ball forward. The crowd included the familiar block of Gliders fans in yellow T-shirts. They made their presence felt, chanting “Defence, Gliders, Defence!” whenever USA had the ball. Unfortunately, the Gliders’ poor shooting prevented them from fully capitalising on their superb defence, leaving the score tied at 26–26 at half time.

In the third quarter, an early goal by Kylie Gauchi from outside the paint gave the Gliders the lead. A series of steals gave the Gliders additional shots at goal, most of which missed, but USA had no answer to the Australian defence, with a series of timeouts and turnovers, and their shooting was even poorer. While the Australians relentlessly racked up point after point, taking a 32–26 lead, USA were unable to score at all until the last minute of the quarter. A hurried goal with seconds to go by Katie Hill saw the Gliders leading 38–28 at the last change.

In the fourth quarter, the Australian defence remained taut, but the shooting remained terrible. In the final accounting, Cobi Crispin only made 3 out of 10 shots, and Amber Merritt only 4 out of 16. The Glider’s most accurate shot turned out to be Clare Nott, who made four out of five attempts. Meanwhile, an increasingly desperate USA team pegged the Australians back to 40–39. Three timeouts were taken in the last minute. Fouls saw Merritt sent to the free throw line, but she missed both shots. The game went down to the last second, with USA missing a shot from inside the paint, before the shot clock ran out.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Liverpool FC revealed the plans for its new Stanley Park Stadium today. The stadium is to be built over the next three years in Stanley Park, to replace Liverpool’s long time home at Anfield. The plans as submitted would provide for a capacity of 60,000, with a possible increase towards 80,000.

The design by HKS is situated approximately 8 meters below the surface to lessen its impact. The cost of construction is said to be £300 million.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A man has died after being involved in a robbery of his shop in West Yorkshire, England. Four youngsters, described as wearing hooded jumpers and tracksuit trousers, raided the Cowcliffe Convenience Store in the town of Huddersfield at approximately 2030 GMT on Saturday.

63-year-old Gurmail Singh sustained head injuries as a result of the robbery. Six witnesses attempted to prevent the youths from exiting the shop but failed, and the teenagers managed to escape with confectionary, cigarettes and money. One witness claimed to see a hammer in posession of one of the offenders, however it is unknown if this was used in the attack.

Singh was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but died there at approximately 0330 GMT on Sunday. West Yorkshire Police have now launched an investigation into the death of Gurmail Singh. A post-mortem examination is scheduled to take place on Monday to attempt to discover how the shop-owner was killed. West Yorkshire Police are now appealing for witnesses or anyone who has information in relation to this incident to contact them.

Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”

Sunday, July 13, 2008

In contrast with what unnamed source(s) in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network on Friday, The Jerusalem Post reports that Major-General Mohammad al-Askari, spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry was denying earlier reports that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been training personnel and allegedly performing military exercises in Iraq.

On July 11, unnamed Iraqi sources told local news outlets in the country that the IAF was performing military exercises in the country and was using American military bases for places to land. The alleged exercise, claimed the sources, was an exercise aimed at preparing an attack on Iran.

The sources further stated that Israeli planes fly in from Jordan during the dead of night and land near the Iraqi city of Hadita reportedly at a U.S. landing strip. They added that Israeli planes were also detected at other bases in Iraq and that those strips were being prepared as places to launch an attack on Iran.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry denied that any such exercise was taking place stating, “as the Ministry of Defense, we haven’t observed any IAF warplanes practicing in Iraqi airspace.” The Israeli Defense Force also denied the allegations saying they were “baseless.”

The U.S. also denied the reports. “I find that report inconceivable and clearly someone is either misinformed or intentionally trying to create mischief,” stated Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for The Pentagon.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Over the past few months, Wikinews reporter Joseph Ford has held several interviews with Kevin Baugh, president of the Republic of Molossia, a micronation located near Dayton, Nevada. This week, Ford had the opportunity to interview another intermicronational leader, Christopher Beyette, prince of the Principality of Vikesland, another micronation located in Manitoba.

At only three years old, the Principality is a relative newcomer to the intermicronational community.

When asked if he considers Vikesland a serious micronation, Prince Christopher said that his country is “a new nation project. Our goal is to eventually become an internationally recognized state with hopefully some sort of small sovereign land base.”

He went on to tell much more about Vikesland, which can be read in the interview below.