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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The pilot who stole a light aircraft yesterday from Canada and landed in the central United States is now in custody.

Adam Dylan Leon, a 31-year-old Canadian citizen, stole a Cessna 172 Skyhawk light aircraft from an airfield in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. After taking off, the airplane went off course toward the United States. The State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin was briefly evacuated, but the aircraft went southwest of the city and personnel were allowed back in. Two F-16 fighters had been dispatched to follow the Cessna which later landed near US 60 in Ellsinore, Missouri, but NORAD spokesman Mike Kucharek said that the aircraft was not thought to be a terrorist threat.

Sgt. Marty Elmore, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol, says Leon was arrested about 9:30 CDT near the site of his landing. Leon is a person of Turkish origin who became a Canadian citizen in 2008 and changed his name from Yavuz Berke. Leon jumped a fence and stole the plane, according to local radio.

According to Kucharek, the aircraft began behaving erratically around 2:30 CDT. He also says the pilot, at the time unidentified, appeared to acknowledge the fighter craft but did not heed their instructions. Leon’s motive is not known.

Managers at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wisconsin earlier said the facility was preparing for a forced landing of the aircraft, but the attempt to force it to land was scrubbed.

The aircraft later crossed the border out of Wisconsin and passed over Illinois north of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It flew further south before landing in Ellsinore on Route 60, at which point the pilot fled on foot. Attempts to establish contact with or discern the intentions of the pilot were unsuccessful.

The distance from Thunder Bay to Ellsinore is 795.1 miles (1,280 km), near the reported maximum range of a Cessna 172, but authorities say the aircraft had two hours of fuel left. Only Leon is believed to have been on board the aircraft.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

While nearly all cover of the 2008 Presidential election has focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates, there are small political parties offering candidates, and those who choose to run without a party behind them, independents.

Wikinews is interviewing some of these citizens who are looking to become the 43rd person elected to serve their nation from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

First off is Long Beach, California’s Frank McEnulty (b. 1956), a married father of two with an MBA (Venture Management) and BS (Accounting/Finance).

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

On Sunday, the government of Jammu and Kashmir, India, ordered private academic coaching institutions for students until and including class XII to shut down for the next three months calling those institutions “distractions” for the students; with an exception of coaching institutions preparing students for professional exams.

After meeting the heads of some educational institutions, the state’s education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari said: “We had a discussion with our principals today to how to make the education system better. We have come to a conclusion that the distractions which affect our education system […] one of those distractions are the coaching centres”. He added the government is to review the status of the tuition centres with respect to their decisions twice a month.

High schools and colleges have suspended classes since the beginning of the month. Boycotting the classes, students protested against two encounters in Shopian that resulted in the killing of four civilians as well as twelve militants. Then there were protests against the gang rape and murder of eight-year-old girl Asifa Bano in Kathua who police said was held captive and sedated at a temple in January. Retired government official Sanji Ram and several others —including multiple police officers— were arrested earlier this month for, or in relation to, the gang rape and murder of Asifa. Asifa’s corpse was found in the village of Rasana on January 10.

Some of the protesters clashed with the state security forces, and pellets were fired over the protesters. Bukhari said, “Security of the students is paramount, that is why we kept schools and colleges closed. But now the students should control their emotions and go back to their classes […] Now, enough is enough, they have their protest and should attend school now.” Bukhari went on to add that they cannot “afford to have future a generation of illiterates and uneducated.” He said the students who come to the road for protests “would be treated as rowdies”.

According to an official in Jammu and Kashmir’s education department, the motivation behind the temporary shut down of tuitions was “when the coaching centres are closed, students would not have an option but to attend schools”. Coaching Centre Association president Junaid Yousuf responded to this ban, saying: “What is the point of ordering closure of coaching centres and keeping schools open? This defies logic. You are not shutting down the places where protests occur and closed those centres where there are no protests”.

“This distraction leads to fall in attendances in schools. We are not against coaching centres; we will first see how schools function. Therefore immediately we will request and order the coaching centres to stop their shops for some time[…] We are the custodians of the students and want that they are not distracted”, the Education Minister said.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

August 20, 2008 is the 11th major day of the 2008 Olympic games, the below article lists some of the highlights.

Jamaican Usain Bolt, who recently set the world record for the one hundred meter sprint, has set a new world record in the 200 metre sprint with his time of 19.30 seconds, 0.02 seconds quicker than the previous world record, which was set by Michael Johnson in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

“This is a dream come true. You come out every day to be a champion and I’m just happy,” said Bolt, after the race. “I’ve proved I’m a true champion and that with hard work anything is possible.”

The silver and bronze went to Americans Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix, respectively.

Russian Larisa Ilchenko took home gold in the women’s marathon swim. Her final time 1:59:27.7. She beat the United Kingdom’s Keri-Anne Payne by 1.5 seconds, and Cassandra Patten, also of Great Britain by 3.3 seconds.

Belarusian Aksana Miankova set a new Olympic Record and won the gold medal in the final of the women’s hammer throw with a score of 76.34.

Yipsi Moreno, who was representing Cuba, won the silver medal, while Wenxiu Zhang, from China finished in third place with a score of 74.32.

Zhang also set her new season’s best.

Jamaican Melaine Walker set a new Olympic record, national record and won the gold medal in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles with a final score of 52.64 seconds.

Sheena Tosta, who was representing United States, won the silver medal, while Tash Danvars, from Great Britain, finished in third place with a final score of 53.84, a new personal best.

Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, and the Netherlands were eliminated in the matches leading up to the Baseball semi finals which will take place on August 21. Chinese Taipei defeated Canada in a closely matched 12 inning 6-5 game, but both failed to advance. China was defeated by Cuba 17-1, and the Netherlands was defeated by South Korea 10-0. The United States and Japan also played, with the US defeating Japan 4-2, but both were already guaranteed entry into the medal round. Japan will play the United States in the bronze medal round, while Cuba and South Korea will compete for the gold medal.

Liudmyla Blonska, who won silver in the heptathlon is suspected of using illegal substances. As a result, she faces a lifetime ban and she may be stripped of her silver medal.

Kelly Sotherton, who competed against Bloska, criticised the athlete. “I’ve been saying all along that she got caught doping when she was scoring 6300, so how can she not be doping and scoring 6800?” she said.

“I’ve not seen any of her results since early June and then she comes out here and is producing good performances, which was suspicious,” she continued. “The thing I hope is that the Russian and the American who will be upgraded get their medals in a proper presentation, otherwise they will have lost that moment forever.”

Nick Davies, a representative of the International Association of Athletics Federations also criticised Blonska. “It is fair in life to give people a second chance but now (if it is proved) she has committed an offence again, it is a life ban and good riddance quite frankly.”

Thursday, July 12, 2018

On Monday, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (Royal Spanish Football Federation; RFEF) announced Luis Enrique as the new coach of the Spanish men’s national football team. Per the contract, Enrique is to serve as the coach for two years.

Speaking about Enrique’s appointment, RFEF president Luis Rubiales said, “The decision was unanimous. I like his commitment and he has turned down better paid jobs in order to coach Spain. He’s a coach who completes all the requirements the Federation was looking for”.

Previously, Enrique has managed Italian capital-club AS Roma as well as Spanish LaLiga clubs Celta Vigo and FC Barcelona. Enrique took the managerial role at Barcelona in 2014, and in his first season at the Catalan-club, he won the treble, winning LaLiga, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

During his tenure at the Camp Nou, Enrique won three Copa del Rey, two LaLiga, and one each of the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Supercopa de España. After winning nine trophies with Barcelona, he left the club in 2017 and hasn’t taken any managerial role until now. After the treble winning season, Enrique was awarded the FIFA World Coach of the Year award in January 2016.

Enrique succeeds Fernando Hierro, who served as an interim coach for Spain during this year’s FIFA World Cup. Previous full-time coach Julen Lopetegui was sacked by RFEF after he signed a contract with Real Madrid as the club’s new manager. Hierro was also the Spanish sporting director until Monday. Prior to the announcement of Enrique’s appointment, José Francisco Molina was appointed as the new RFEF sporting director.

Enrique’s first game as Spain’s coach is scheduled to be against England on September 8 at Wembley Stadium in the new UEFA Nations League.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

The New South Wales government will make it compulsory for schools to play Advance Australia Fair, Australia’s national anthem before class this year.

Teachers at primary schools in NSW will also be required to introduce “Australian values” lessons from the beginning of this school year. The lessons are expected to teach children “what it means to be Australian” and include topics such as family values, community harmony, national heritage, national identity, cultural differences and Australian history.

The Three Rs will also be extended to five and include the topics of respect and responsibility. The NSW government claims that it needs to ensure people respect authority within the community.

Adults will not escape the government’s plans to foster respect for authority with the government announcing it plans to create a new law enforcement package with new laws to make it easier for police to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

Fines and penalties for a range of offences such as damaging public property, including transport and housing, will also be reviewed.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Companies in the United States are shedding more jobs, pushing the country’s unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.8%.

The US Labor Department said on Friday that employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, with companies in the service industries — including banks, restaurants and retailers — hit especially hard. This is the 21st consecutive month of job losses in the country.

The United States has now lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession officially began in December 2007. The new data has sparked fears that unemployment could threaten an economic recovery. Top US officials have warned that any recovery would be slow and uneven, and some have predicted the unemployment rate will top 10% before the situation improves.

“Continued household deleveraging and rising unemployment may weigh more on consumption than forecast, and accelerating corporate and commercial property defaults could slow the improvement in financial conditions,” read a report by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, predicting that unemployment will average 10.1% by next year and not go back down to five percent until 2014.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said that “it’s a very fragile and tentative recovery. Policy makers need to do more.”

“The number came in weaker than expected. We saw a lot of artificial involvement by the government to prop up the markets, and now that that is starting to end, the private sector isn’t yet showing signs of life,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist for Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Also on Thursday, the US Commerce Department said factory orders fell for the first time in five months, dropping eight-tenths of a percent in August. Orders for durable goods — items intended to last several years (including everything from appliances to airliners) — fell 2.6%, the largest drop since January of this year.

The US government has been spending billions of dollars — part of a $787 billion stimulus package — to help spark economic growth. There have been some signs the economy is improving.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that spending on home construction jumped in August for its biggest increase in 16 years. A real estate trade group, the National Association of Realtors, said pending sales of previously owned homes rose more than 12 percent in August, compared to August 2008.

A separate Commerce Department report said that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, rose at its fastest pace in nearly eight years, jumping 1.3 percent in August.

Other reports have provided cause for concern. A banking industry trade group said Thursday the number of US consumers making late payments, or failing to make payments, on loans and credit cards is on the rise. A survey by a business group, the Institute for Supply Management, Thursday showed US manufacturing grew in September, but at a slower pace than in August when manufacturing increased for the first time in a year and a half.

Stock markets reacted negatively to the reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41 points in early trading, reaching a level of 9467. This follows a drop of 203 points on Thursday, its largest loss in a single day since July. The London FTSE index fell 55 points, or 1.1%, to reach 4993 points by 15.00 local time.