Author: Admin

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Ford Motor Company, the U.S. car maker, will reportedly pay €57 million (US$78 million) for a 72.4 percent stake in the Romanian assembly plant Automobile Craiova, a Romanian official said Friday.

“The offer of Ford Motor Company for a 72.4 percent stake is €4.1556 per share or €57 million overall,” said Sebastian Vladescu, head of the State Property Agency (AVAS), after opening Ford’s improved offer. Vladescu added that the contract may be signed on September 12, during the auto show in Frankfurt.

The Romanian government bought back the Craiova-based car maker from Daewoo Motors, in late 2006 for US$51 million. As the Korean company was bankrupt, the government had to pay another $10 million for debts stemming from past loans. Ford is the only bidder for the purchase of the factory.

According to Washington Post, many auto-part makers have set up in the new European Union member country, attracted by cheap labor, favourable tax rates and the rising output of Renault’s Dacia plant. The vice president of Dacia, Constantin Stroe, said that the price Ford offers is not important. “It’s important to have the factory working as soon as possible”, he added. “With this production facility, Romania will become an important auto production center in Europe”, concluded Stroe, cited by HotNews.

Sunday, April 3, 2005The annual Sunday Times Rich List published today showed that Ireland now has six euro billionaires, up from four last year. The combined wealth of Irelands 250 wealthiest is €42.3bn.

Topping the list was the new entrant Hilary Weston with a fortune estimated at over €7.2bn. Weston was excluded in previous lists because the majority of her wealth was made abroad, however a rule change this year allowed the Dublin born model to enter in first place. Mrs Weston, 63, grew up in Ireland and built her modeling career there before becoming wed to Galen Weston, heir to his grandfathers multi-billion euro retailing fortune in Canada. The couple permanently moved to Canada in 1983 after a kidnap attempt by the IRA.

The top six on the list were as follows:

1. Hilary Weston and family; €7.286bn – Retailing
2. Sir Tony O’Reilly; €1.897bn – Food, media and inheritance
3. John Dorrance; €1.857bn – Inheritance
4. Dermot Desmond; €1.239bn – Finance
5. Sean Quinn; €1.157bn – Quarries, hotels, insurance and industry
6. Tony Ryan; €1.114bn – Airline

The iconic rock group U2 placed 10th with a combined fortune of €629m.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Recently, Finnish open-source video game developer Perttu Ahola discussed Minetest, his “longest ever project”, with Wikinews.

Started in October 2010, Minetest was an attempt by Ahola to create a sandbox game similar to Minecraft. Minecraft is a multi-platform commercial game, which was in alpha version when Ahola challenged himself to create something similar to it from scratch, he told Wikinews.

Minetest is an open-source game, which is free for anyone to download and play. It is written in the C++ programming language, and the source code is available on code-hosting site GitHub. According to Ahola, Minetest attempts to run on older hardware, with limited graphics, but to be accessible to more people: those who have outdated technology, and making it available for no cost. Minecraft, on the other hand, is a paid game, currently costing USD 26.95 for its computer version. Minecraft is currently owned by Microsoft, and performs poorly on older hardware.

A correspondent from French Wikinews contacted Perttu Ahola via Internet Relay Chat a few weeks ago, discussing Minecraft. This interview is built on top of the previous interview, as we take a deeper dive into knowing more about this free game which is about to turn ten years old in a few months.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Chinese court sentenced prominent democracy activist Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for inciting to subvert state power, prompting international calls for his release.

A Beijing court issued the sentence Friday following a two-hour trial earlier in the week. A group of U.S. and European diplomats were among those who stood outside the court after they were barred from the courtroom.

Gregory May, first secretary with the United States Embassy in Beijing, told reporters the United States is “deeply concerned” by Liu’s sentence.

“We continue to call on the government of China to release him immediately,” May said, “and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens to peacefully express their political views in favor of universally recognized fundamental freedoms, including the right to petition one’s government.” May says members of the U.S. embassy have repeatedly raised Liu’s case at high levels in Washington, D.C. and Beijing.

China has accused foreign diplomats of “meddling” in the trial. On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu stressed that Liu is a Chinese citizen and, as a result, his case is an “internal” affair.

Liu’s charge of subversion is an ill-defined one, often brought against those who voice opposition to Communist Party rule. Liu has spent time in jail or under house arrest before, especially following his early activism over the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square.

Along with his prison term, Liu will lose his political rights for another two years. Liu’s lawyer, Shang Baojun, said of the verdict, “We are just extremely disappointed.” Baojun says Liu plans to appeal the verdict.

Liu was detained more than a year ago after he co-authored the pro-democracy petition “Charter ’08.” Thousands of Chinese citizens signed the online document, including 38-year-old Yang Licai, one of a handful of Chinese supporters who came to the courthouse on Friday. Yang says he came to turn himself in.

Yang also says he signed Charter ’08, and since Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years for sponsoring the document, Yang felt he should receive the same treatment. After he finished speaking with reporters, police escorted Yang into a van that promptly drove away.

Many international human rights organizations are denouncing the sentence and calling for Liu’s release. International PEN, a non-profit organization devoted to freedom of expression, called Liu’s sentence “a grievous betrayal of his inalienable rights as a Chinese citizen.”

Liu is a former president of the independent China PEN Center. Larry Siems, the director of Freedom to Write and international programs at PEN American Center, says Liu exemplifies the traits that PEN values. “He’s been in his work an example of a true intellectual, someone who is true to his ideas and principles,” Siems noted, “and also as a public intellectual, someone who lives by his actions, his words, someone who’s willing to speak his mind and take the consequences.”

Siems says PEN will continue to advocate for Liu’s release.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

A driver has been fined after following the directions of his satellite navigation system, leading him to the edge of a massive cliff drop in West Yorkshire, England.

Robert Jones, who is 43 years old, appeared in Calderdale Magistrates Court on Tuesday, representing himself. He was prosecuted by Waseem Raja. Waseem told the court: “The defendant was using a TomTom satellite navigation system. The defendant followed that system to the letter, so much so it led him up a lane clearly unsuitable for motor vehicles.”

“The path was such it was not designed for use of motor vehicles yet Mr Jones slavishly continued to follow the satnav system to the point where his eyes and his brain must have been telling him otherwise to such a degree he was not exercising proper control of the vehicle.”

On March 22, 2009, Robert Jones was driving a BMW 5 Series and was trying to get to his home in Doncaster, South Yorkshire after staying with friends in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. He was unsure of the route home and so followed his satellite navigation system, which was in the car. He continued to follow instructions despite being told that the narrowing dirt track he was driving on was actually a road. At the time the petrol gauge in the car indicated that he had just seven miles of fuel left. Because of this, Jones was desperate to find a filling station. He became so distracted by the sat-nav that he didn’t realise his mistakes until he struck a fence on the edge of a 100 foot (30.5 metre) drop. The battery on his mobile phone had run out so he had to walk to a nearby village to get help.

In his defence, Robert told the court: “I might have been an idiot for taking the wrong road or carrying on but I have not driven without due care or attention. I’m sorry it happened. I certainly would not do it again. I drive 5,000 miles a week and I never have had a problem with it. I had no reason not to trust it.”

Jones was found guilty of driving without due care and attention. He was fined £370 (US$610) with £500 ($824) costs and ordered to pay a £15 ($24) victim surcharge. He also got six points on his licence and had to pay £1,000 ($1,624) in recovery charges.

Monday, August 27, 2012

London, England — As Paralympians ready for the Games which are set to open later this week, they have access to a world class fitness center inside the Paralympic Village which is designed to maximise their pre-Game preparations.

According to volunteers staffing the center, instead of being a single large room, as in Beijing, the building has numerous rooms. It, along with the adjacent Village Services Centre, is designed to be converted into a school after the games conclude. Rooms have been structured as a gym, an auditorium, and science laboratories.

Gym equipment is supplied by Technogym, an Italian firm that has supplied gym equipment for the Olympics since 2000. Equipment has been provided not just for for the Fitness Centre, but for gyms at all the Olympic venues. The newest equipment is oriented toward maximum flexibility, allowing athletes to exercise the particular muscles that they most require for their sport.

In addition to the equipment, the Fitness Centre also provides instructors trained in the use of the equipment, the likes of which athletes from many countries have never seen before. There are also a number of instructors available to provide motivational training.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.