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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Greek leftist groups of masked youth demonstrators clashed with Greek police and riot squads in Stadiou Avenue, in Athens, during American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s meetings with Greek officials. Anarchist mobs hurled Molotov cocktail bombs and the police-riot squads fired tear gas. According to police information, the youths smashed some 20 store fronts and set six vehicles alight.

Police had thrown a cordon around central road arteries of the city since Tuesday morning, while two street protests – organized by the KKE and Synaspismos leftist parties – were staged at Propylea on Panepistemiou Street as well as on Klafthmonos Square. Moreover, yesterday, a team of about 15 members of the Greek Communist party, climbed on the top of Athens’ Concert Hall, just meters away from the U.S. Embassy, in order to hang a huge banner with the message “Condoleezza Rice go Home”.

In her short stay in Greece, America’s chief diplomat met with the Greek Premier Costas Karamanlis in Maximus Palace as well as with her counterpart, the Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis. The agenda of their discussions included Iran‘s nuclear program, the Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus and Macedonian issues as well as the co-operation between the United States and Greece.

Thursday, December 6, 2018

On Tuesday, the United Kingdom Parliament started five days of debates ahead of a vote over Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal to leave the European Union.

The deal being debated is a withdrawal agreement for the United Kingdom (UK)’s exit from the European Union (EU), and a political framework defining ambitions for the future of the UK–EU relationship.

In a statement to the House of Commons shortly before debates began, Theresa May said “I have spent nearly two years negotiating this deal […] I have lost valued colleagues along the way, I have faced fierce criticism from all sides. If I had banged the table, walked out of the room, and at the end of the process delivered the very same deal that is before us today, some might say that I’d done a better job.”

Following the debates, a vote in the House of Commons is to determine if the deal will be implemented. The vote is scheduled for next Tuesday, December 11.

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, June 26, 2006

Police in the Australian state of New South Wales have arrested a 22-year-old man following an incident in Narrabeen, a Northern suburb of Sydney on Saturday. Police allege the man dragged a dead possum behind his car along a busy Sydney road.

According to a police statement, a number of citizens contacted them after seeing a vehicle driving along the Wakehurst Parkway in Narabeen with what appeared to be an animal tied to the rear. The police were told that the animal was dragged for several hundred metres before breaking free from the rope.

After receiving further information from the public, police found the body of a brush tail possum on the side of the road. Witnesses then provided police with further information that assisted them to locate a 22-year-old male, believed to have been driving the vehicle the possum was tied to.

Police attended a house where the man was staying and took him to Dee Why police station where he was interviewed. Police have stated that another three youths have been interviewed regarding the incident.

The 22 year-old man was charged with offensive conduct and is to appear in court on a later date. Under NSW law, the maximum penalty the man faces is 3 months in jail or an AUD$660 fine.

Police and the RSPCA will conduct an autopsy on the possum, which they expect will confirm that the possum was already dead before being dragged.

Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 COMPUTEX Taipei, the largest trade fair since its inception in 1982, featured several seminars and forums, expansions on show spaces to TWTC Nangang, great transformations for theme pavilions, and WiMAX Taipei Expo, mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Besides of ICT industry, “design” progressively became the critical factor for the future of the other industries. To promote innovative “Made In Taiwan” products, pavilions from “Best Choice of COMPUTEX”, “Taiwan Excellence Awards”, and newly-set “Design and Innovation (d & i) Award of COMPUTEX”, demonstrated the power of Taiwan’s designs in 2008 COMPUTEX Taipei.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

London, England — Yesterday, with less than a day before the start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the Turkey men’s national wheelchair basketball team practiced at the Basketball Arena in London’s Olympic Park. Turkey’s campaign starts on Thursday in a game against the United States men’s national wheelchair basketball team.

Friday, August 4, 2006

Kuwait might finance a great number of public works in East Timor, in an investment worth 500 million to 600 million dollars, the East Timorese Prime Minister said today. José Ramos Horta leaves today for an official visit to Kuwait.

“I want to start right now the negotiations process with the Development Fund of Kuwait for the construction of great projects for East Timor’s roads, bridges, harbors and airports”, Ramos Horta, East Timor’s Prime Minister, said.

“For a project of this magnitude, to carry throughout several years, the amount of money to be spent is about 500 million to 600 million dollars or more. We are now waiting a preliminary study made by an Indian company, paid by Kuwait”, Ramos Horta added.

The East Timorese delegation is composed by the Minister of public works, Odete Victor, and the Minister of energy & mineral resources, José Teixeira.

The visit is part of an invitation by Kuwait’s Prime Minister Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, and includes meetings with the Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the crown prince Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah and representatives of the Development Fund of Kuwait.

This is the second visit to Kuwait in two years by Ramos Horta, an country with who the East Timorese Prime Minister maintains relations with several members of the royal family and of the government.