Afghan president Hamid Karzai opens new terminal at Kabul International Airport

Friday, November 7, 2008

Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, has opened a new terminal at Kabul International Airport. The US$35m (£22m) two-story structure was gifted by Japan as the old terminal building had become badly damaged by decades of war.

Speaking at the event, attended by 150 Afghan and Japanese officials, Karzai expressed his gratitude for the building, saying “Afghanistan could not have made this terminal on its own for many years or without lots of effort.” The new terminal is built next to the original sixties building, which had been considered luxurious when new but has fallen into decline, especially after the 1979 Soviet invasion and the civil war which followed.

Increasing numbers of military aircraft joined the commercial passenger planes, making Kabul International a frequent target of rocket attacks. It was in a poor state of repair, as well as outdated and in need of expansion, by the time the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan.

Karzai implored his people to take proper care of the new terminal, which Afghan officials described as a step along the route to reconstruction after the Taliban were deposed.

“I hope, now this facility has been handed over to us, that our sisters and brothers, those in charge of the airport, the passengers passing through, the state officials and MPs using it, will look after it and they should not allow, God forbid, that we come here after a year and find its windows, doors and tiles broken,” he said.

The building will enter service next week, in time to carry passengers to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage of the Hajj. It has a capacity of one million passengers every year, and will service both domestic and international routes.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Studies done on germs and bacteria performed by researchers at the University of Florida show that a dirty kitchen sponge can be cleaned and “sterilized” by microwaving it for 2 minutes, but researchers warn to wet the sponge first.

“People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave,” said the professor who was in charge of the study that discovered the results, Gabriel Bitton.

“Basically what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes. The microwave is a very powerful and an inexpensive tool for sterilization,” added Bitton.

The sponges that researchers studied, were placed in “raw wastewater” and then put into a microwave to be “zapped,” according to Bitton. The wastewater was a “witch’s brew of fecal bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and bacterial spores, including Bacillus cereus spores,” said Bitton.

Researchers say that at least 99% of the bacteria, viruses, spores and parasites in kitchen spongees can be destroyed or “inactivated” by simply microwaving the wet sponge, on the highest power, for two minutes.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Russ Aegard is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Seven people were killed and fourteen injured after a man detonated explosives in a crowd Friday around 10:30 local time in Aksu, Xinjiang, China. Most of the victims of the blast were ethnic minorities.

The man allegedly drove a three-wheeled vehicle armed with explosives into a crowd. The man suspected of detonating the bomb was detained, after sustaining injuries from the blast. His name is still unknown to authorities, although they do know he is a member of the Uighur ethnic group.

“The suspect is a Uighur. Most of the victims are Uighurs too,” said government spokesperson Hou Hanmin.

Hou stated that police believe the attack was intentional.

In response to the bombing, martial law has been declared in Aksu City.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

On July 7 and again on July 23, there were accidental leaks at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in France, which is a collection of sites in four different communes: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Pierrelatte in Drôme, and Bollène and Lapalud in Vaucluse.

Along with two other minor incidents on July 18, it has prompted the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (Criirad) to order a review of security and safety. Already last week, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the ground water near all reactors should be tested and the state of waste storage sites assessed.

In the latest incident, a hundred workers were exposed to radiation. They all work for Électricité de France (EDF), which runs the Tricastin facilities with Areva. This marks the largest number of workers to be collectively contaminated in French nuclear history.

The leak was at reactor number four, which was shut for refuelling. Workers were exposed to Cobalt 58 dust which escaped while maintenance work was being carried out. Sensors noticed a rise in the level of radiation and the workers were then evacuated.

“Seventy of them show low traces of radioelements, below one fortieth of the authorized limit,” EDF said. A spokesperson later raised the number to 97 people. Criirad warned, however, that the limit was “not the level from which risk begins but the maximum acceptable level.”

“We have an alarm system which is meant to protect the staff from contamination via the atmosphere,” said Tricastin director Alain Peckre. “If a problem is detected, the alarms go off, our security procedures swing into place and everyone is evacuated from the building.”

A union representative from Confédération générale du travail (CGT) alleged that EDF was reducing maintenance and increasingly using sub-contractors, putting workers at risk in exchange for profitability.

“We spend 1.5 billion euros a year on ensuring our plants are in optimum condition,” countered an EDF spokesperson. “Safety is our top priority over and above providing electricity to the network. Since our power stations were set up, 80 per cent of maintenance operations on reactors that have been temporarily turned off are carried out by external contractors. They are the most competent to maintain and repair specific parts of the reactor, some of which they have taken part in building.”

The previous incident, on July 8, involved a 74kg spill of liquid containing unenriched uranium. Thirty cubic metres of water overflowed while a tank was being emptied. Subsequent test showed that contamination may have occurred for years.

Local wine growers Coteaux du Tricastin AOC have already become concerned about the negative association with “Tricastin” and have begun considering changing the name of their Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC).

“It’s only a question of image as nuclear and food don’t mix very well in consumers’ minds,” said the AOC’s president, Henri Bour, to The Daily Telegraph. Nuclear authorities “didn’t understand our move, doubtless not wanting to admit that the nuclear industry’s image is perhaps not perfect,” he added.

“Nuclear was progress and we wanted that. We thought people were competent. Now we ask, were there previous incidents we weren’t told about?” said local resident Roger Eymard to The Guardian.

Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN), a nuclear safety authority, has already criticised Areva for its handling of the first incident. ASN complained of poor communication with authorities and unsatisfactory security measures and operational procedures.

The leaks have occurred just as President Nicolas Sarkozy has been promoting the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) as a solution to rising energy costs and global warming.

France has the second largest nuclear power network in the world and generates over 80% of its electricity through nuclear power.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Buffalo, New York —Wikinews was the first to tell you that the Elmwood Village Hotel development in Buffalo, New York was to undergo “significant changes”.

The Elmwood Village Hotel is a proposed project that would be placed at Elmwood and Forest Aves. in Buffalo. In order for the development to take place, at least five buildings that house both businesses and residents, must be demolished.

To confirm and to get more information about the changes, Wikinews interviewed Eva Hassett, Vice President of Savarino Construction Services Corporation, the development company in charge of building the hotel.

Wikinews: The hotel proposal is being redesigned. Could you comment on that? What changes are being made? Are they significant?

Eva Hassett: The hotel has been resized as a 72-room, four story building. This is 10% smaller in number of rooms and a full story lower. We are also redesigning the facades in a way that will minimize the mass – more of a vertical feeling than horizontal. Different materials, windows, details. The smaller size of the hotel also makes the number of on-site parking spaces more appropriate and hopefully represents less of a challenge to an already difficult parking situation.

WN: Will you still be going before the city’s planning board as scheduled on February 28? Same for the Common Council?

Hassett: We will be on the Planning Board agenda this Tuesday morning but I do not expect that the Board will vote on the item that morning. I think we will be mainly explaining the new design and hearing input/questions.

WN: Will there be anymore public meetings?

Hassett: We would be happy to do one more big public meeting. We will be talking to Forever Elmwood about that on Monday (February 27, 2006). We would like to see if there is support for the new design and we also want to honor the public’s request for another meeting. I am hopeful that meeting can take place the week of March 6th.

WN: Is Savarino considering Mr. Rocco Termini’s design/proposal? If no, do you (Savarino) support/oppose?

Hassett: We are hopeful that we can build the hotel as redesigned. We think it would be a great addition to the Elmwood Ave. area, a good way for out-of-towners to see what Buffalo offers and a big help to the businesses there.

WN: Are you considering more time for the community to make a judgment?

Hassett: As I mentioned above, we expect to have one more meeting to get public reaction to the new design, and I think the Planning Board may want an additional meeting to make their determination. We do however, have constraints that will limit the amount of extra time. We still think it is a great project for the City and Elmwood; and we still want it to be something that the community wants as well.

So far, the City of Buffalo’s City Planning Board is still scheduled to meet at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern) on February 28, 2006 followed by the Common Council meeting at 2:00 p.m. on the same day.

Images of the design are not yet available. “We are working on the renderings this weekend, but I will likely have some early in the week,” stated Hassett.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

In the year 2000, Dries Buytaert created Drupal, a freely licensed and open source tool to manage websites, as a bulletin board for his college dorm. Since Dries released the software and a community of thousands of volunteer developers have added and improved modules, Drupal has grown immensely popular. Drupal won the overall Open CMS Award in 2007, and some speakers in Drupal’s spacious developer’s room at FOSDEM 2008 were dreaming aloud of its world domination.

Buytaert (now 29) just finished his doctoral thesis and has founded the start-up Acquia. The new company wants to become Drupal’s best friend, with the help of an all-star team and US$7 million collected from venture capitalists. Wikinews reporter Michaël Laurent sat down with Dries in Brussels to discuss these recent exciting developments.