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Saturday, March 8, 2008

There were 5 games played in the National Hockey League on March 7, 2008.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

It has been announced that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 19, the son of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will take her place as the head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and lead the party alongside his father Asif Ali Zardari. It is also announced and confirmed that the PPP along with the Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), will contest the upcoming elections for a new Prime Minister on January 8.

“I stand committed to the stability of the federation. The long and historic struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor. My mother always said democracy is the best revenge,” said Bhutto in a statement during a press conference today.

It is reported that Benazir wanted her son to take her place if anything happened to her, according to her will which was written just two days before she returned to Pakistan from exile in October.

It has also been announced that the PPP has voted in favor of a resolution that calls for an investigation into Benazir’s assassination which will be given to the United Nations. The resolution says that they would like the United Kingdom to help with the investigation, and that the PPP does not trust any investigations performed by the government of Pakistan.

Despite Bhutto being the new head of the PPP, Zardari says that Mukhdoom Amin Fahim, a loyal party member, will run in any elections for a new Pakistani Prime minister. But his bid for the seat may have to wait.

The current ruling party in Pakistan the PML-Q party states that because of continuing violence and riots in Pakistan that were set off by Benazir’s assassination, elections may not be held for another three months or more. So far, elections are scheduled to take place on January 8, 2008.

Asif Ali Zardari is expected to handle the Party’s affairs until Bhutto returns from England, where he is currently in school studying in Christ Church, at the University of Oxford. When he returns, control of the Party will be handed over to him. Despite that, Zardari states that he will be answering questions from the media and politicians because Bhutto is still “of a tender age.”

Thursday, March 23, 2006

The new book Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of The San Francisco Chronicle, is being released today. The authors not only implicate professional baseball celebrity Barry Bonds in the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but also say Gary Sheffield received human growth hormone and testosterone from Greg Anderson, Bonds’s personal trainer.

The book goes on to claim that Jason Giambi also took performance-enhancing drugs from Anderson. Bonds continues to insist that he did not realize his trainer was giving him steriods. He claimed in his grand jury testimony that he thought he was receiving flaxseed oil and an arthritis salve. Sheffield’s response to the claims was quite simple: when asked if the allegations made against him were true, his response was “Nope.”

Despite the book’s accusations of Sheffield and Giambi, it centers around Bonds and the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative or BALCO, Victor Conte Jr. Conte is currently serving four months in prison for distribution of steriods and money laundering. It appears that the steroid controversy concerning Bonds will only intensify as he continues to march on towards the career home runs record, one of baseball’s most sacred records.

Friday, April 29, 2005

The world’s most expensive hotel-casino ever has opened in Las Vegas, Nevada. The casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost US$2.7 billion to construct. The hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the Las Vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.

Numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. The sign in front of the Wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the Wynn logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.

“I think it’s going to start a shift of power. It’s been the south for a long time. Things will start moving to the north because of Wynn Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson with the expansion of the Venetian, the New Frontier — that whole area will become the new hot area of Las Vegas for the next decade or so,” gaming expert Anthony Curtis told Las Vegas KLAS TV.

As the property opened to the public, developer Steve Wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.

“It’s always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors,” Wynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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Analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the Wynn development. Wynn paid off the cost of The Mirage hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.

“If you remember the opening of The Mirage in 1989, Wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. Everyone thought he was nuts; ‘couldn’t be done,’ they all said,” Las Vegas history department Chairman Hal Rothman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Wynn sold his interest in Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand (which became MGM Mirage and is now run by Kirk Kerkorian) for US$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the Wynn hotel-casino for US$275 million. The property was previously the home of the Desert Inn.

The hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and “parlors” for high rollers. The casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. A Ferrari–Maserati dealership and the Le Reve stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.

A round of golf will go for US$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.

All of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million US dollars per room. Other expensive Las Vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the Bellagio, which cost half the price at US$533,000 per room. The most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, which cost US$775,000 per room.

“Yes, (Wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before,” Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Several of Wynn’s largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on Las Vegas.

“I’ve never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in Las Vegas and Atlantic City,” Harrah’s Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Other casino bosses from the Mandalay and the MGM Mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.

“It’s a positive in terms of bringing more visitors,” Mandalay Resort Group President and CEO Glenn Schaeffer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, then we’ll pick up some of that business also,” MGM Mirage Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. Security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.

“I think it’s spectacular,” David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told Reuters.

“People were pushing and shoving,” Las Vegan Kathie Anderson told Associated Press.

“There is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos,” British billionaire Richard Branson told Associated Press from the casino floor. “I would say every other casino must be nervous. He’s lifted the bar dramatically,” Branson said.

“This would be hard to top,” Las Vegan Marlene DeMarco told Reuters.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Yesterday in Geneva, Iran and the P5+1 nations — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council; United States, United Kingdom, China, France, and Russia; plus Germany — reached a six-month deal over Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. Iran is to reduce its nuclear activities in return for a lifting of some economic sanctions.

Iran has agreed to not build any new enrichment facilities, to halt enrichment of uranium past a purity of 5%, to “neutralise” a stockpile of nearly 200kg of enriched uranium of a purity of nearly 20%, to not install new centrifuges, and to disable a number of existing centrifuges. They also have to allow access for inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to a number of sites including Natanz and Fordo, as well as information on the reactor at Arak.

In return, the P5+1 is to provide “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible” relief from economic sanctions including removal of specific trade sanctions on precious metals, including gold; the automotive sector; and oil. The sanctions relief is worth around US$7 billion (about €5 billion).

In Tehran, Iran’s negotiators were welcomed home at the airport by a gathering of supporters holding placards. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians reportedly watched coverage of the negotiations through the Iranian night.

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, told reporters, “[i]n this agreement, the right of [the] Iranian nation to enrich uranium was accepted by world powers”. The United States contests this.

US president Barack Obama welcomed the deal: “For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back.” He said the provisions of the deal “cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb”.

British prime minister David Cameron said the deal was an “important first step” and Iran was “further away from getting a nuclear weapon”.

John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, appeared with British foreign minister William Hague at a press conference in London. Kerry told reporters: “Now the really hard part begins, and that is the effort to get the comprehensive agreement, which will require enormous steps in terms of verification, transparency and accountability”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, said the deal was a “historic mistake” and said the Iranians had agreed only to “cosmetic concessions” that “can be undone by the Iranians within weeks”. “Israel”, he said, “is not bound to this agreement while Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel. Israel has the right to protect itself in the face of any threat. I wish to reiterate that as the prime minister of Israel — Israel will not allow Iran to develop nuclear military capabilities.” He also said: “Iran is receiving billions of dollars in relief in the sanctions without paying any sort of price. Iran is receiving written approval to violate UN Security Council resolutions”.

Naftali Bennett, the Israeli economic minister, warned of the prospects of a nuclear Iran: “If in another five or six years a nuclear suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid, it will be because of the agreement that was signed this morning”.

A spokesman for President Obama stated: “the United States will remain firm in our commitment to Israel, which has good reason to be skeptical about Iran’s intentions”. Obama phoned Netanyahu on Sunday to try and reassure him.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has seized 20 tons or nearly 40,000 pounds of cocaine with a street value of over US$500 million in what authorities call one of the largest cocaine busts in history.

Three busts in total were made in a period of nearly one month. The first on February 19, off the coast of Mexico, March 18 off the coast of Panama and on March 25, also off the coast of Panama.

In the first bust on February 19, “the Ecuadorian-flagged fishing vessel Don Juan K was approached in the Pacific Ocean February 19 off the coast of Mexico while allegedly offloading cocaine into “go-fast” (cigarette-style boat) boats. The fishing vessel’s crew apparently set fire to Don Juan K in an attempt to destroy the evidence and flee in the go-fasts. The USCGC Sherman stopped the go-fasts and recovered about 900 pounds of cocaine as Don Juan K sank. The 14 crew members are being processed for further legal action,” said a statement on the USCG’s website.

The second bust on March 18 yielded nearly 40,000 pounds of cocaine.

“The 330-foot Panamanian-flagged motor vessel Gatun was interdicted in the Pacific Ocean Mar. 18 off the coast of Panama while heading north toward the United States. Sherman’s crew stopped and boarded the vessel and found 765 bales of cocaine weighing approximately 38,000 pounds in two shipping containers. Gatun was escorted back to Panama and its 14 crew members processed for further legal action,” added the statement.

In the third bust on March 25, at least 2,000 pounds of cocaine was seized, also from a ship off Panama’s coast.

“[The] Sherman’s crew stopped and boarded a small stateless go-fast in the Pacific Ocean Mar. 25 off the coast of Panama following a short chase, in which, the go-fast attempted to flee at a high rate of speed. Approximately 2,000 pounds of cocaine was found aboard the go-fast and its four crew members were processed for further legal action,” said the statement.

Several agencies both in the U.S. and in other countries in Central and South America and will continue to investigate the extent of the drug ring.

“The Coast Guard works in close coordination with Joint Interagency Task Force South, U.S. Attorney’s office, Panama Express South, DEA, FBI, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, as well as the Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security on counter drug operations in the Pacific Ocean near Central and South America. These drug smuggling routes are some of the most active, yielding roughly 70 percent of the cocaine seized annually by the Coast Guard,” added the statement.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell received a letter from sixteen female United States Senators on Thursday calling for the NFL to adopt a zero tolerance policy on domestic violence.

The senators criticized the NFL for their new domestic violence policy enacted in August. The new policy says a player will receive a six game suspension for their first offense.

A video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice assaulting the woman who has since married him was recently released by website TMZ. The assault took place in a elevator at an Atlantic City, New Jersey casino. Rice was initially given a two game suspension; later, following the video release, the Ravens terminated Rice’s contract and the NFL indefinitely suspended him.

The bipartisan group of senators said, “If you violently assault a woman, you shouldn’t get a second chance to play in the NFL.”

The league stated they had initiated an independent investigation by former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller into the Rice incident.

The cross-party signatories were, from the Democratic Party,  Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, of California,  Debbie Stabenow, Michigan;  Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota;  Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Washington;  Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire;  Kirsten Gillibrand, New York;  Barbara Mikulski, Maryland;  Mazie Hirono, Hawaii;  Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota;  Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts;  Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin;  Kay Hagan, North Carolina;  and, from the Republican Party, Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Susan Collins of Maine.