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Saturday, October 17, 2009

A strong, 6.4 magnitude earthquake stuck Indonesia on Friday, even as recovery efforts continued from the devastating tremors that hit there last month.

The earthquake caused some buildings to sway in the country’s capital, Jakarta; however, there were no reports of injuries. According to officials, the earthquake’s epicentre was in in the Sunda Strait, off the western coast of the island of Java.

The earthquake wasn’t powerful enough to generate a tsunami, according to a Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official, Suhardjono.

On September 30, a powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Indonesia, causing landslides, destroying buildings, and killing over a thousand people. Cleanup and recovery efforts for that quake are still ongoing. Tremors frequently strike Indonesia and neighbouring vicinities, as it is positioned on an arc of fault lines.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

The Independent Monitoring Commission has reported that the Provisional Irish Republican Army has undergone major changes within their military structure and shows that the IRA Army Council wants to put its military campaign behind it. The Commission consists of John Alderdice, a former Alliance Party leader; Joe Brosnan, former Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Republic of Ireland; John Grieve, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and former head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terror Branch; and Dick Kerr, former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Agency.

The report states the IRA no longer has the capacity to mount a military campaign anymore or return to one. The units that have been shut down were responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training. The IRA decommissioned their arms last year.

The report also mentions that the IRA has also put its criminality beyond use and is “clamping down” on criminals within the organization, said Lord Alderdice, as he presented the report. He also added, “That doesn’t mean that criminal activity by all members has stopped but the leadership has made public statements and internal directions, investigated incidents of breach of the policy, even expelled some members and has emphasised the importance of ensuring that business affairs are conducted in a legitimate way.”

Finally, the report added that there is not enough evidence or intelligence to identify who killed Denis Donaldson, a British spy who infiltrated the IRA and Sinn Fein, before revealing his status as a spy.

However, the report added that splinter groups like the Real IRA (RIRA) and Continuity IRA (CIRA) are still threats and are still continuing their activity. The Real IRA was the group behind the deadly 1998 Omagh bombing. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) “was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign [against the British State], nor does it aspire to” according to the report.

It is also noted the creation of two new organizations, Oglaigh na hEireann (Irish Gaelic for “Volunteers of Ireland” and is used by the Irish Defence Forces and the various IRAs.) and the Republican Defence Army. However, the groups are small dissident factions according to the report.

The report also added that the two loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) are also beginning to move from violence but at slower pace and not at a grassroots level like the IRA. Another loyalist paramilitary, the Loyalist Volunteer Force

The report was received warmly by Irish Toaiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ahern, said “These positive and clear-cut findings are of the utmost importance and significance. It is time to make decisions and for Northern Ireland to look to the future.”

“The IRA has done what we asked it to do, and while issues like policing remain to be solved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important.” said Tony Blair in a live statement.

In a surprising reaction, the notoriously hardline leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley, also welcomed the report. He believes that his party’s pressure is working and if Sinn Fein signs up to policing there could be a deal. Paisley said, “If the police question is settled absolutely on a democratic basis and principle we would have come a long way along the road.”

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said “The DUP don’t have anything other than very limited options. They will or will not participate in power-sharing arrangements. If they don’t participate they are condemning people here, but particularly their own constituents, to second class public services, run by second class fly-in, fly-out British ministers. All the DUP can do is to delay, is to attempt to slow down, but they can’t stop the process of changing.”

Monday, September 5, 2005

Feel free to use the Wikimedia sites to solve our Wikinews crossword. Please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people; print it out and fill it in at your own leisure!

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Saturday, June 13, 2020

This Monday, Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has issued a direction ordering the owner of APL England, a Singaporian cargo ship, to search for, and recover, 50 cargo containers that were lost from their vessel off New South Wales, Australia last month; Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has classified it as a “serious incident”. AMSA has identified a priority search area of about 1000km² stretching between the Illawarra and Sydney’s southern suburbs. Drift modelling and analysis of container sightings following the incident indicates that missing containers could be in this area at water depth of up to 200m. Containers within the search area pose the most immediate environmental threat and may present a safety hazard for commercial fishers.

AMSA General Manager Response Mark Morrow said 15 containers had been recovered from the shoreline or towed in after being spotted floating off the coast, but 35 containers were still missing. The 50 cargo containers were spilled from the ship on May 24 as rough weather at the waters has been reported, which caused the vessel’s main engine to trip; resulting in loss of propulsion for a short time and the ship rolling heavily, up to 25°. Further investigations, according to a statement from AMSA, showed “inadequate lashing for cargo and heavily corroded securing points for containers on the deck”, which were the shipmaster’s responsibility.

Of the 50 spilt cargo containers, 26 were empty, according to reports. Further, another 75 containers were damaged but stayed onboard, according to a report from ABC. Some commenters had remarked this incident could have been avoided if the ship was loaded with the cargo more appropriately, such as with a lesser amount.

The AMSA surveyors conducted a seaworthiness inspection on May 26, with the ship docked at the Port of Brisbane anchorage (off Port Cartwright), to check the structural and operational condition of the ship following the collapse of container stacks on the deck. AMSA General Manager of Operations Allan Schwartz said the seaworthiness inspection would help inform if, and how, the ship might be brought safely into the Port of Brisbane.

On May 27, the ship was found to be fit to be brought safely into the Port of Brisbane by Maritime Safety Queensland and the Brisbane Harbour Master. The vessel was escorted into Moreton bay by two harbour tugs, one container salvage response vessel, two Queensland water police vessels and a Maritime Safety Queensland pollution response vessel. It arrived safely in port at midday, and was detained by AMSA on Wednesday night after its investigators discovered the cargo stowage deficiencies including inadequate lashing arrangements for cargo and heavily corroded securing points for containers on deck.

AMSA said in a statement that the ship will not be released until the issues are corrected. “These inspection findings are a clear breach of requirements under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). This is a now matter for the ship’s owner, American President Lines (APL), and the operator to rectify.” AMSA and Australian Transport Safety Bureau are conducting investigation into the incident; the final report is anticipated by the end of 2021 . AMSA continues to provide drift modeling and work with NSW Maritime, the lead agency responding to the incident’s shoreline impacts.

The ship master, 42-years-old Mohamad Zulkhaili Bin Alias, appeared at Wynnum Magistrates Court on May 29, 2020. According to the statement by AMSA, the offences filed against the shipmaster related to pollution and/or damage of the Australian marine environment as a result of poor cargo loading. Specifically the two charges that have been laid, as reported by ASMA, were

1. “Section 26F of the Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983 – Discharging of garbage into the sea contrary to the Act
2. Section 141 of the Navigation Act 2012 – Master did not ensure that the vessel was operated in a manner that did not cause
   • pollution to the marine environment in the coastal sea of Australia or the exclusive economic zone of Australia and
   • damage to the marine environment in the coastal sea of Australia or the exclusive economic zone of Australia”

The orders also included the ship insurer company to pay $22 million as per the Protection of the Seas Act, before the ship can be released from detention at the Port of Brisbane.

This Friday, on June 12, the Brisbane Magistrates Court in Queensland, Australia has changed the bail conditions for shipmaster – he was now allowed to travel abroad. The ship continued to remain detained in Brisbane where Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was investigating.

The new bail conditions allowed the ship master to leave the ship and travel abroad to Malaysia to resume his work, required him to appear in court in person when requested, and required that he would pay AUD60,000 of deposit to the court before his passport could be released to him.

On May 26, reports were received of face masks washing up in NSW between Magenta Beach and The Entrance. By May 27, the floating containers and their contents started polluting the beaches in Sydney, Australia. The AMSA released a statement in which it said the containers likely contained “medical supplies, household appliances and building materials”.

The Malabar Beach, Coogee Beach, Maroubra Beach, Bronte Beach and Bondi Beach were affected. Malabar beach was reportedly affected the most. The beaches were closed on Wednesday, May 27, and Council staff –rangers– as well as residents, including volunteers from Australian Seabird Rescue (ASR), cleaned-up what washed up on shore.

On Sunday May 31, a 12-meter container devoid of its shipment of “medical supplies, household appliances and building materials” washed up on rocks near South Maroubra Beach, in New South Wales, Australia.

The ASR branch coordinator commented on the environmental impact of the debris, by saying “It’s not going to biodegrade, it’s going to stay there for such a long time. These animals out in the ocean are going to choose to eat a lot of it as food. They don’t realise that what the ocean is providing isn’t good for them.”

The beaches were re-opened for swimming by 1st of June. After the beaches re-opened, visitors were advised to not pick up any debris (pictured). Some of the spilled cargo has also reached as far as the Central Coast, according to a report from ABC.

AMSA General Manager Response Mark Morrow said AMSA expected the owner and operator to respond to the direction with a detailed search plan in the coming days. “Failure to comply with this direction constitutes an offence under Australian law”.

The court matter was adjourned until July 24, to be mentioned at Brisbane Magistrates Court on the day.

[edit]

Friday, January 25, 2008

B2B Trade Area of Taipei Game Show, criticized by trade buyers last year, but accompanied with 2008 Taiwan Digital Content Forum, moved to the second floor at Taipei World Trade Center for world-wide participants with a better exchange atmosphere this year.

Not only local OBMs (Softstar Entertainment, Soft-World International Corp., International Games System Corp., …, etc.) but also companies from New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea showcased different specialists with multiple styles. Especially on South Korea, participated members from G? Trade Show (Game Show & Trade, All-Round, aka Gstar) showcased gaming industry of South Korea and the G? upcoming at this November with brochures.

In the 2-days Digital Content Forum, world-class experts not only shared industry experiences, members from Taiwan Gaming Industry Association also discussed and forecasted marketing models for gaming industry. With participations from governmental, industrial, and academical executives world-wide, this forum helps them gained precious experiences of digital content industry from several countries.

According to the Taipei Computer Association, the show and forum organizer, the digital content industry in Taiwan was apparently grown up recent years as Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China Steve Ruey-long Chen said at Opening Ceremony yesterday. Without R&Ds from cyber-gaming, and basic conceptions from policies and copyright issues, this (digital content) industry will be fallen down in Taiwan. If this industry wanted to be grown up in sustainability, gaming OBMs in Taiwan should independently produce different and unique games and change market style to market brands and games to the world.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Several organizations have increased their Farsi services in the wake of the events surrounding the recent presidential election. Google has added Farsi-to-English translation as one of its translation options to its Google Translate service. Similarly, Facebook has launched a Farsi version of its web site. The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for its Farsi news channel, BBC Persian Television.

Google’s translation services currently only provide translation from Farsi to English. Franz-Josef Och stated that this was to enable people in Iran to communicate directly via the Internet with the outside world, saying “Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.”. The company states that it is working to provide translation between Farsi and the other 40 languages that it provides on its Translate service.

Facebook’s Farsi version of its web site, which is still marked as a beta-test version, was launched rapidly, with, the company states, the assistance of more than 400 Farsi speakers who submitted translations of the contents of the site.

Both companies state that their reasons for expanding their services are to promote communication, and are not politically motivated.

The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for broadcasting its Farsi news channel. This is, it states, in response to signal jamming of its broadcasts by the Iranian government. (The Iranian government accuses BBC Persian Television, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, of being a propaganda service for the British Government.) It states that its broadcasts on the Hot Bird 6 satellite had been aggressively jammed, and that therefore it was now also broadcasting from the Eutelsat W2M satellite, and planned to start broadcasting from Nilesat as well in the near future.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

On Monday, Australian telecommunications company Telstra has introduced dual carrier HSPA+ standard for broadband Internet business customers in the Next G network. This is the first time this technology is being introduced on national scale. The bandwidths the users can deploy increased into two to three times, with Telstra becoming the world’s fastest national mobile broadband service. The switch started with enabling the service for premium users. After some feedback, Telstra may expand the plan.

The higher speeds for wireless are intended to simplify and ease multitasking of users.

John Paitaridis, Telstra’s executive director, network products and services in Enterprise & Government, said “One of the reasons we decided to launch first to Enterprise And Government and Business customers is that clients are saying that their ability to access applications quicker makes a difference to their business and when they start to equate time savings and doing calculations around productivity it does become a return on investment.”

Telstra Business Group Managing Director Deena Shiff also stated that the efforts aren’t as sudden as it might seem, having feedback of many users as the base.

Australians are telling us they can’t afford to be tied to the desk all day and these new speeds mean they can now access mobile broadband at speeds typically reserved for the office. We have been deploying the high-speed capability in the network since December 2009 and now, with the launch of the new Ultimate USB Modem, these new speeds are available to customers across all capital city CBDs and associated airports, selected metropolitan areas and in more than 100 regional locations. These high-speed zones cover approximately 50 per cent of the Australian population and match the areas of highest customer demand and will make the frustration of waiting around for files to download a thing of the past. In other metropolitan and regional areas, the Telstra Ultimate USB Modem offers typical download speeds ranging from 550kbps up to 8Mbps… Our customers have told us that they want higher speed mobile broadband so they can work more flexibly outside of the office and we are delighted to be the first in the world to offer these new blistering speeds on a national network. The new Telstra Ultimate USB Modem provides customers with the speeds needed to handle large files, multi-task and update cloud-hosted applications effortlessly on the go when they are in a coverage area.

Previous modems were able to reach peak speed 21Mbps, with real life speeds ranging from 0.5Mbps to 8 Mbps. The theoretically expected maximum of the new technology is 42Mbps with user speeds varying between 1.1 and 20 Mbps. The new speed is twice as fast. This is caused by that the dual-carrier “Evolved High-Speed Packet Access” technology allows networks to send and receive wireless data using two channels simultaneously. This technology can be deployed on Next G networks. Telstra switched to them in February, thus making the switch to HSPA possible now.

Telstra delayed the implementation of the new technology until elections end. This decision was intended to avoid wrong interpretation of them by Coalition. Coalition’s claims include that wireless networks can be an alternative to the Labor party “fibre-to-the-home” proposal to introduce more expensive wired Internet. The announcement of the new technology, initially planned on August 25, was delayed, with Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton explaining, “We just didn’t want to feel like we were influencing the [telecommunications] debate.”

The political parties have different plans on development and funds on the Internet. The Labor party aims to spend AUD 43 billion to bring 1 Gbps wired Internet nationwide, and the Coalition plans to spend AUD 6 billion to introduce a variety of improvements including upgrade of existing copper Internet as well as expansion of wireless Internet to support 12Mbps. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has said in the past that Australians shouldn’t assume wireless technologies won’t ever be comparable to fixed-line technology. Telstra’s upgrade shows that wireless broadband is reaching the 100 Mbps minimum speeds promised by Labor’s national broadband network.

Telstra has only 2000 devices which support the new technology. This is why the opportunity to try it out is being given only to the Business plan customers, and they receive it for the same price as they were paying for the previous NextG plan. Since October 5, the device will be available for sale, with the Business customers able to buy it with 75% discount and a prepaid data allowance. The upgrade is expected to cover roughly 50% of the population. This is happening at the same time as one of Telstra’s competitors Vodafone is doubling data download quotas on mobile cap plans.

As some testing showed, real life download speeds reached only about the half of the maximum. Telstra executive director of wireless Mike Wright explained that the predicted figures were the estimates, with real life speeds lower due to interfering environmental conditions: “It’s possible to achieve better than the typical user speed claims, but those claims occur in the ideal network environment with good signal quality. When you’re out on the streets you get a lot of variation where the network is subject to signal quality, your location and the network load.”