mynewhopeumc.org

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Australia and Cuba have qualified for the Quarter Final of the 2007 Baseball World Cup. There was only one game taking place today between Chinese Taipei and Italy in Tianmu Baseball Stadium. After six days of play, the competition will most certainly heat up in next 48 hours with every team fiercely vying to qualify for the Quarter Final which takes place Friday, November 15.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Methane gas was blamed for the explosion deaths of 8 miners in southern Polish‘s Halemba coal mine Tuesday, November 21. Officials say at least 15 are missing.

Rescue efforts were halted because dangerously high levels of methane gas returned, according to Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for state-owned Coal Co., which operates the mine.

The missing miners’ locater devices were not emitting signals, increasing rescurers’ concerns for their well-being. Grzegorz Pawlaszek, head of Coal Co., said the 15 missing miners’ fate is “not known,” but added that “there is a chance to find someone still alive.”

“This is a tragedy. People have died here,” Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said when he came to Ruda Slaska to see the blast.

Earlier Wednesday, a reconnaissance rescue team descended 3000 feet toward the blast scene, only to retreat because of safety concerns related to high methane gas levels. Rescue digging efforts were also halted because of explosion concerns.

The missing men were aged 21-59. One of the miner’s family members, Andrzej Pytlik, 30, remained on scene with his sister, hoping and waiting for news of her husband, Krystian Gaszka.

Pytlik, also a miner, said through teary eyes that, “I work in the mines and I know that hope is scant because that’s the truth.”

The explosion occurred in a closed portion of the mine where the now-missing miners were working to retrieve abandoned equipment. According to Pawlaszek, the value of the equipment was $23 million, adding that “It was new equipment and that is why we decided to retrieve it.”

He indicated that the recovery work was performed under the supervision of gas detection specialists, and that the bodies of the recovered miners were difficult to identify because of the severity of burns and because their ID tags were blown away in the explosion.

The Halemba mine, located in Ruda Slaska, has produced coal for nearly 50 years, has been fraught with safety concerns and has a track record of serious accidents. One of the oldest mines in Poland, it is centrally located in the industrial Silesia region.

Earlier this year, a miner was trapped underground in the Halemba mine five days after a cave-in. In 1990, 19 miners were killed and 20 hurt in a gas explosion, and five were killed in collapse in 1991.

Inside, priests and mining officials were comforting and counseling with distraught relatives. Outside, eight white candles flickered on a main gate wall.

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Saturday, April 28, 2012

A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly left multiple phone messages with a local animal shelter in Brooksville, threatening to blow them up. Peter Dalessandro, 52, surrendered himself to authorities around 11:00 p.m. (local time) on Wednesday.

Dalessandro has been charged with multiple counts of threatening to place or discharge an explosive device and multiple counts of assault. Dalessandro allegedly made six calls after a puppy the shelter had taken in was euthanized quickly. He called the shelter several times on April 20 and threatened to kill anyone who was there and stated that a bomb was on the property. A search of the property, however, revealed no bomb.

Allegedly, Dalessandro was angered about a recent incident involving euthanizing of an eight-month-old puppy at the shelter within fifteen minutes after the dog’s arrival. According to reports, it is the animal shelter’s policy to euthanize animals as soon as possible if there is no room to house them. However, The Miami Herald reports a shelter volunteer’s claim that there were at least ten kennels open at the time the dog was taken in. An investigation has been opened into the incident and is ongoing. Several employees of the shelter have been relieved of their duties until it has completed.

The director of the shelter called the euthanizing a mistake. Further reports reveal that Dalessandro allegedly called the shelter staff “scumbags” and told them, “I don’t know how you can make an error like that. I’m going to place a bomb and kill everybody.”

Dalessandro has reportedly made threats of a similar nature not related to this case. According to police, Dalessandro has a history of harshly reacting to news of animals dying or which have suffered abuse and has a rap sheet dating back to 2001. Some of the accusations against him include calling individuals who have been accused of killing animals and calling an attorney defending an individual accused of killing a dog.

Friday, November 30, 2007

A major oil pipeline in Minnesota exploded and caught fire, killing two workers. The pipeline carries oil from Saskatchewan, Canada to close to Chicago, United States, representing 16% of America’s total oil imports.

The section of the pipe that exploded was undergoing maintenance at the time to address a pinhole leak first identified three weeks earlier, and patched at the time with a metal sleeve. On Wednesday, the entire section was removed and replaced with a new one. When oil was reintroduced on Thursday morning, oil leaked where the new section joined the pre-existing pipe, triggering the fatal explosion.

The fire was extinguished later the same day.

The line is split between four separate pipes. After the explosion, all four pipes were shut down, resulting in the global price surge, but this subsided for the most part after it became clear that the three undamaged pipelines had returned to normal operation, restoring 80% of the line’s capacity, and that the accident pipe is expected to be back in use in a matter of days.

“There were no problems found in that area where the leak occurred,” reporters were told by Larry Springer, spokesman for Enbridge, the Canadian company that owns the line. High-tech equipment had been through the line in 2006 to check for any signs of problems.

Enbridge identified the deceased as Dave Mussati Jr. and Steve Arnovich, both of whom were contract workers based in Superior, Wisconsin. The damaged section of pipe is in Clearbrook, which is approximately 350 miles Northwest of Minneapolis.

Enbridge metallurgists have been sent to examine the failed section in an effort to determin the cause of the accident. Other Enbridge workers are working to clear spilled oil from the site. It is expected that once this is complete, the pipe will return to service.

Global crude oil prices temporarily spiked by over US$4 per barrel but closed yesterday slightly above original prices.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Johan Boyden is running for the Communist Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Toronto Centre riding. Wikinews interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

On this day twenty years ago, a transatlantic airliner broke up in midair and came down onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, and eleven people on the ground, lost their lives in what remains the worst air disaster in British history.

The disaster was an act of terrorism, caused by a bomb loaded on board. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, an intelligence officer from Libya, was convicted of 270 counts of murder for the bombing in 2001. Libya has since paid US$1.5 billion in compensation to the victims.

Today, Megrahi’s legal campaign for freedom continues. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission granted him a second appeal, saying there may have been a miscarriage of justice. The terminally ill man will begin that appeal next year. Wikinews wrote to Mr Megrahi in prison but he did not respond.

One who does not believe in Megrahi’s innocence is Kara Weipz. Her brother Richard Monetti lost his life in the bombing. Weipz, who now heads the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group, says she represents the large majority of victims’ families from the United States when she says that they “believe that there were others who acted with Mr. Megrahi and should be held accountable also,” when asked if she felt there was much still to learn about the events twenty years ago.

They have, she says, no sense at all that Megrahi may have been wrongly convicted; to the contrary she now has some closure from the trial. “The conviction has brought a sense of justice to the families. No we do not agree with the convict at all. We support the Crown office and the decisions of the Court,” she told Wikinews.

We asked her if there were any differences between her version of events, and about her thoughts on potential issues with the investigation. “There is no difference between the truth as we see it and the official version of events. The facts are the facts, Mr. Megrahi is guilty,” Weipz told Wikinews. “I don’t believe there were any issues with the investigation. What bothers me is people with conspiracy theories that spew them as truths. The programs that have been run on TV recently call them conspiracy theories as well.” Did the authorities let her down? “Not one bit. I am thankful for the Scottish Police and the FBI.”

She also revealed that she was not concerned that people might have viewed compensation for the bombing, granted from Libya, as ‘blood money’. “Calling it blood money is a misnomer. We entered into a civil trial. The outcome of a civil trial is a monetary one. We knew that since Libya was guilty that the outcome would be that they compensate the families. The only part that bothered me was [that] it was connected to the lifting of sanctions and removal from the State Sponsors Terrorism List. Our goal was to deter terrorism by making it expensive to kill innocent people.”

One of the aims stated by the website of her victims’ group is to maintain the memory of her loved ones; this she felt was still being done – “Absolutely!!!!” was what she told us. She says that the last twenty years have been hard, however: “While I miss my brother [every day], I live a healthy and productive life in his honor. Hard – yes, productive – yes.”

Megrahi has not been in touch with Weipz, or with any of the other victims, she tells us. Refusing to be drawn into speculation, she tells us she has “no idea” what secret documents Megrahi’s defense has been refused permission to see might contain – she has “never seen them” herself, so she does not know what they are.

She also did not feel that Megrahi should have been released upon his recent request on compassionate grounds owing to his terminal cancer, as “he is receiving the same medical treatment in prison as he would outside of prison. The Court didn’t feel it was appropriate either.” Wikinews also asked her if she believes the legal process generally has been fair to him over the years – “Yes, I believe it has been fair.”

VictimsofPanAmFlight103.org states “we are committed to seeking the truth about this tragedy and keeping the memory of our loved ones alive.” The final question Wikinews put to Kara Weipz was this: “Do you think we will ever know the truth?”

“I would love to say yes, but I don’t think we will ever know the whole truth,” she told us.