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Tuesday, April 14, 2020

In February 2017, the Iranian Chess Federation announced two teenage chess players, Dorsa Derakhshani and her younger brother Borna Derakhshani, were banned from representing the national team. The federation announced their decision although Dorsa Derakhshani had previously decided and informed the chess federation she did not wish to play for Iran.

Dorsa Derakhshani is currently 21 years old and holds the International Master (IM) as well as Woman Grand Master (WGM) titles. Her brother, Borna, plays for the English Federation and holds the FIDE Master title.

Dorsa Derakhshani was banned since she did not wear a hijab, an Islamic headscarf, while competing at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in January 2017. Under the laws of Islamic Republic of Iran, hijab is a mandatory dress code. Her brother Borna Deraskhsani was banned for playing against Israeli Grand Master (GM) Alexander Huzman at the same tournament. Iran does not recognise the existence of Israel, and previously, Irani athletes have avoided playing against Israeli athletes.

Mehrdad Pahlavanzadeh, the president of the country’s chess federation, explained the decision to ban the players saying, “As a first step, these two will be denied entry to all tournaments taking place in Iran and in the name of Iran, they will no longer be allowed the opportunity to be present on the national team.” ^{((fa))Farsi language: ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ????? ??????? ? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ????.} He further stated, “Unfortunately, something that should not have happened has happened and our national interest is paramount and we have reported this position to the Ministry of Sports.” ^{((fa))Farsi language: ????????? ?????? ?? ????? ????????? ?????? ??? ? ????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????.}

IM Dorsa Derakhshani, who currently studies at Saint Louis University in the United States and plays for the United States Chess Federation, discussed her chess career, time in Iran and the 2017 controversy, and her life in Saint Louis with a Wikinews correspondent.

Monday, January 2, 2006

So more staff can be hired for Bolivia’s education, health and social programs, President Elect Evo Morales announced that he and his cabinet will take a 50% pay cut. The 46-year-old leader slashed his future salary of about $3600 a month to $1800.

Raising Bolivia from its situation as one of the poorest countries in the world is a primary intention of the president elect. “It’s a question of sharing the country’s situation among us all.” said Morales. “This is a democratic revolution and we will answer the Bolivian people’s call.”

Cabinet ministers and all 157 members of Morales’ party that were elected to Congress will also take a 50% pay cut, Morales said. The salaries of 157 substitute congressmen will be eliminated.

Morales, who is known across the country as “Evo”, is Bolivia’s first native Indian president. Growing up in poverty has marked his politics. He often says, “For a handful of people there is money, for the others, repression.”

Evo will soon move from his rented single room of a shared house to Bolivia’s presidential palace.

Morales also met with business and civic leaders on Tuesday in a conciliatory meeting. Morales said his government would create a stable legal and economic environment to attract investment and create jobs which was applauded by the Bolivian elite.

“I do not have a professional education, but it is important that we co-operate. You have the professional capacity, I have the social consciousness”.

Friday, January 22, 2010

A storm in the Los Angeles County, California area has caused reasons for residents in 2009 Station Fire burn areas to evacuate. Californians in these area braced themselves from mudslides and flash floods due to the expected 25 cm (10 in) of rain yesterday. The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted 3.8 cm (1.5 in) per hour in these fire-affected areas.

Charles Beck, Los Angeles Police Department chief, advised residents, “If a Los Angeles police officer comes to your door and tells you to leave: leave. We’re not asking you to leave because we think your lawn’s going to get dirty, we’re not doing it because your carpet’s going to get wet. We’re doing it because your life is at risk.”

Two days prior, the Los Angeles Coast, the NWS issued tornado warnings, a rarity, for the Whittier, South Los Angeles, and and Long Beach areas. There were reports of a tornado touching down at Sunset Beach in Orange County. The tornado reportedly lifted boats from the water. There were other reports of waterspouts in the Pacific Ocean.

Cal State Long Beach closed for the remainder of Wednesday afternoon and will reopen on Friday, January 22. Schools in the La Crescenta and La Cañada Flintridge areas were also closed yesterday.

In other areas of Los Angeles, the rain caused minor flooding and large puddles – storm drains overflowed. This storm hit strong from about 15:00 PST (2300 UTC) to about 16:30 PST (0030 UTC) Wednesday. It started again rather powerfully at about 17:10 PST (0110 UTC).

A Southern California resident preferring to remain unnamed said this in regards to the storm, “I felt that it was a wonderful change from the super hot weather,” in reference to the 26 °C (80 °F) plus temperatures leading into winter.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

In a rare one-on-one interview with the editor in chief of the journal Science Magazine published online on Friday, Wen Jiabao, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, acknowledged that although companies were to blame, the government was also partially responsible in the recent melamine contamination of milk and infant formula from China.

“We feel that although problems occurred at the company, the government also has a responsibility,” said the Premier. He added that testing requirements should be installed for all important steps in the production process, and that all food should meet international standards. Responsibility for food safety implementations will lie with the Chinese Ministry of Health.

The two-hour conversation between chief editor Bruce Alberts and Premier Wen already took place on September 30th. A Chinese version of the interview was published in the communist party newspaper People’s Daily.

Earlier this week, batches of an injectable herbal medication based on ginseng were recalled after three people died. Wandashan Pharmaceutical all of its injectable herbal remedies. On Saturday, Taiwan suspended imports of a leavening agent used in baking because it tested positive for melamine.

In the milk incident, melamine was added to make the milk appear richer in protein. It caused an estimated 53,000 to become ill, mostly young children. The chemical can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

However, the issues of China’s food industry are only mentioned tangentially. The Premier spoke about social, economic and scientific issues facing his country. Wen explained his “scientific outlook on development”, which tries to found social and economic progress for the people, in a sustainable fashion and with decreased disparities, on a scientific basis. An example is the use of transgenic crops in rural areas, which decreases the need for pesticides.

On the matter of fossil fuels, the Premier explained how “every year, China produces about 180 million tons of crude oil and imports about 170 million tons. China’s dependency on foreign oil is almost 50%. China’s coal production exceeds 2.5 billion tons a year. This kind of huge consumption of energy, especially non-renewable fossil fuel, will not be sustainable.” He reiterated China’s belief in the “common but differentiated responsibility” principle, in agreement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.

At the end of the interview, the Premier agreed that the scientific communities could build bridges between countries, even if their governments disagreed. “More scientific language and less diplomatic rhetoric could make thisworld even better,” he concluded.

The 66-year-old engineer specialised in geomechanics began his second 5-year term as head of the cabinet last March. During his office, China witnessed highlights like the Olympics in Beijing and the recent Shenzhou 7 space launch, but also international criticism, for example on the situation in Tibet.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Ikeda Kanako, a 21-year-old senior student of the Meiji Gakuin University and the first daughter of celebrity surgeon Yuko Ikeda, was kidnapped at about 1225 (UTC+9), June 26, 2006, in Shibuya, Tokyo.

A bullet was fired and one officer slightly cut when police stormed a Kawasaki apartment to rescue the girl.

Kanako was dressed in a white light half-sleeved cardigan, blue jeans with a bistre belt made of leather, a spring green camisole and carried a bag of Vuitton when she was abducted at a bus stop.

She was found unharmed 13 hours later by Japanese police at a condominium located in Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa. The young woman’s make-up was not disordered; Kanako’s long brown fringe was not disheveled at all and she was wearing what she had been when she was kidnapped.

The kidnapping of Kanako was a big story in Japanese media in June, 2006. The story appeared in many newspapers as the front-page news on June 27, 2006.

Kanako and her kidnappers had been in touch with her mother using Kanako’s mobile phone. The effort to free her was helped greatly by a woman who witnessed the moment Kanako was taken; she wrote down the license plate of the van and other details.

Police traced mobile phone calls and were able to locate the van in Kawasaki where they detained two of the kidnappers as they went shopping.

One conspirator Li Yong, 29, from China, led the policemen to the apartment and tricked Kaneo Ito, 49, from Japan, to open the door. Ito managed to discharge one bullet before being restrained by an assistant police inspector, the first man in the room.

The other man involved in the kidnap of Kanako was Choi Gi Ho, 54, from South Korea. Kanato was freed unharmed.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested three men on suspicion of conspiring to kidnap a woman and hold her to a reported 300 million yen ransom.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Michael Chong, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Sport, and MP for the riding of Wellington—Halton Hills, has resigned over Stephen Harper’s Quebec motion. The motion asks MPs if Quebec is a nation “within a united Canada”.

Chong opposed the vote saying that it was akin to ethnic nationalism, which he opposes.

“It is nothing else but the recognition of ethnic nationalism, and that is something I cannot support. It cannot be interpreted as the recognition of a territorial nationalism, or it does not refer to the geographic entity, but to a group of people,” Chong said.

“I am resigning as minister so I can abstain from the vote tonight,” Chong said at a news conference in Ottawa, the nations capital. “While I am loyal to my party and to my leader, my first loyalty is to my country. I believe in one nation undivided called Canada.”

Chong remains a Conservative member of Parliament. Later in the day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed York—Simcoe, Ontario MP Peter Van Loan to the position vacated by Chong.

Harper asked Liberal race contender Stéphane Dion for guidance with the Quebec motion instead of asking the now former Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Michael Chong.

Michael Ignatieff, the front-runner in the Liberal leadership race, has proposed a similar motion. Liberal leadership candidate, Gerard Kennedy, said he opposes the motion and finds it divisive to national unity and could advance the separatist agenda.

The vote will be held tonight in the House of Commons.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Every September, the Apple iPod is redesigned. Last year saw the release of the iPod Nano 5th generation, bringing a video camera and a large range of colours to the Nano for the first time. But as Apple again prepares to unveil a redesigned product, the company has released their quarterly sales figures—and revealed that they have sold only 9m iPods for the quarter to June—the lowest number of sales since 2006, leading industry anylists to ponder whether the world’s most successful music device is in decline.

Such a drop in sales is not a problem for Apple, since the iPhone 4 and the iPad are selling in high numbers. But the number of people buying digital music players are concerning the music industry. Charles Arthur, technology editor of The Guardian, wrote that the decline in sales of MP3 players was a “problem” for record companies, saying that “digital music sales are only growing as fast as those of Apple’s devices – and as the stand-alone digital music player starts to die off, people may lose interest in buying songs from digital stores. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple’s iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon.”

Mark Mulligan, a music and digital media analyst at Forrester Research, said in an interview that “at a time where we’re asking if digital is a replacement for the CD, as the CD was for vinyl, we should be starting to see a hockey-stick growth in download sales. Instead, we’re seeing a curve resembling that of a niche technology.” Alex Jacob, a spokesperson for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the worldwide music industry, agreed that there had been a fall in digital sales of music. “The digital download market is still growing,” they said. “But the percentage is less than a few years ago, though it’s now coming from a higher base.” Figures released earlier this year, Arthur wrote, “show that while CD sales fell by 12.7%, losing $1.6bn (£1bn)in value, digital downloads only grew by 9.2%, gaining less than $400m in value.”

Expectations that CDs would, in time, become extinct, replaced by digital downloads, have not come to light, Jacob confirmed. “Across the board, in terms of growth, digital isn’t making up for the fall in CD sales, though it is in certain countries, including the UK,” he said. Anylising the situation, Arthur suggested that “as iPod sales slow, digital music sales, which have been yoked to the device, are likely to slow too. The iPod has been the key driver: the IFPI’s figures show no appreciable digital download sales until 2004, the year Apple launched its iTunes music store internationally (it launched it in the US in April 2003). Since then, international digital music sales have climbed steadily, exactly in line with the total sales of iPods and iPhones.”

Nick Farrell, a TechEYE journalist, stated that the reason for the decline in music sales could be attributed to record companies’ continued reliance on Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, saying that they had considered him the “industry’s saviour”, and by having this mindset had forgotten “that the iPod is only for those who want their music on the run. What they should have been doing is working out how to get high quality music onto other formats, perhaps even HiFi before the iPlod fad died out.”

When Jobs negotiated a deal with record labels to ensure every track was sold for 99 cents, they considered this unimportant—the iPod was not a major source of revenue for the company. However, near the end of 2004, there was a boom in sales of the iPod, and the iTunes store suddenly began raking in more and more money. The record companies were irritated, now wanting to charge different amounts for old and new songs, and popular and less popular songs. “But there was no alternative outlet with which to threaten Apple, which gained an effective monopoly over the digital music player market, achieving a share of more than 70%” wrote Arthur. Some did attempt to challenge the iTunes store, but still none have succeeded. “Apple is now the largest single retailer of music in the US by volume, with a 25% share.”

The iTunes store now sells television shows and films, and the company has recently launced iBooks, a new e-book store. The App Store is hugely successful, with Apple earning $410m in two years soley from Apps, sales of which they get 30%. In two years, 5bn apps have been downloaded—while in seven years, 10bn songs have been purchased. Mulligan thinks that there is a reason for this—the quality of apps simply does not match up to a piece of music. “You can download a song from iTunes to your iPhone or iPad, but at the moment music in that form doesn’t play to the strengths of the device. Just playing a track isn’t enough.”

Adam Liversage, a spokesperson of the British Phonographic Industry, which represents the major UK record labels, notes that the rise of streaming services such as Spotify may be a culprit in the fall in music sales. Revenues from such companies added up to $800m in 2009. Arthur feels that “again, it doesn’t make up for the fall in CD sales, but increasingly it looks like nothing ever will; that the record business’s richest years are behind it. Yet there are still rays of hope. If Apple – and every other mobile phone maker – are moving to an app-based economy, where you pay to download games or timetables, why shouldn’t recording artists do the same?”

Well, apparently they are. British singer Peter Gabriel has released a ‘Full Moon Club’ app, which is updated every month with a new song. Arthur also notes that “the Canadian rock band Rush has an app, and the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, led by Trent Reznor – who has been critical of the music industry for bureaucracy and inertia – released the band’s first app in April 2009.” It is thought that such a system will be an effective method to reduce online piracy—”apps tend to be tied to a particular handset or buyer, making them more difficult to pirate than a CD”, he says—and in the music industry, piracy is a very big problem. In 2008, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that 95% of downloads were illegitimate. If musicians can increase sales and decrease piracy, Robert says, it can only be a good thing.

“It’s early days for apps in the music business, but we are seeing labels and artists experimenting with it,” Jacob said. “You could see that apps could have a premium offering, or behind-the-scenes footage, or special offers on tickets. But I think it’s a bit premature to predict the death of the album.” Robert concluded by saying that it could be “premature to predict the death of the iPod just yet too – but it’s unlikely that even Steve Jobs will be able to produce anything that will revive it. And that means that little more than five years after the music industry thought it had found a saviour in the little device, it is having to look around again for a new stepping stone to growth – if, that is, one exists.”

Sunday, September 6, 2015

7,810 Jeep SUVs are to be recalled in order to address a software vulnerability in the vehicles’ entertainment systems which allows the vehicles to be “hacked” — allows vehicle software security to be compromised — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US (FCA US) said on Friday. This recall affects some 2015 model Jeep Renegades.

FCA US said exploiting the vulnerability would take “unique and extensive technical knowledge, prolonged physical access to a subject vehicle and extended periods of time to write code.” They said there are no known instances where the software vulnerability has caused injury to anyone.

They said owners of affected cars can fix the software vulnerability by inserting a device containing a software patch into a USB port inside the car.

Another 1.4 million vehicles manufactured by the company have also been recalled last month, when white hat hackers discovered they were able to hack and disable the engines of the affected vehicles remotely.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

American pitchman and advertiser Billy Mays has died at the age of 50. Mays was probably most known for his pitching of the multipurpose cleaning product OxiClean.

According to reports, Mays’ wife, Deborah, found him unresponsive Sunday morning in their home located in Tampa, Florida. Fire-rescue crews pronounced him dead at 7:45am EDT. The cause of death was heart disease.

According to reports, he was a passenger on U.S. Airways Flight 1241, a flight to Tampa from Philadelphia, that suffered a tire blowout upon landing on Saturday night. He was quoted as saying objects from the overhead compartments hit him in the head, but he did not seek medical treatment. Nobody was reported injured in the incident. Deborah said he did not feel well when he went to bed at around 10:00pm EDT the previous night.

An autopsy is expected to be completed by Monday afternoon.

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” said Deborah Mays in a statement to the press.

Mays recently began co-starring in a television show on the Discovery Channel called Pitchmen. Mays, along with English advertiser Anthony Sullivan starred in the show where they would ‘pitch’ several products. By the end of the show, two inventors would be selected and be given a chance at selling their product “en masse”.

Mays also pitched sales for several other products including furniture polish Orange Glo, Mighty Putty, the Gopher, Zorbeez, and the cleaning product Kaboom!.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, told a news conference earlier today that there will be a ten-month stop in the construction of new settlement housing in the West Bank. The Israeli cabinet approved the move by a margin of eleven to one.

“We have been told by our friends that once Israel takes the first meaningful steps towards peace, the Arab world and the Palestinians will follow,” said Netanyahu following the cabinet’s endorsement of the move. “Well, the government of Israel has taken a very big step towards peace today, and I hope the Palestinian and the Arab world will work with us to forge a new beginning for our children and theirs.”

The freeze was made “out of broad national interests with the aim of encouraging negotiations with our Palestinian neighbours,” he continued. “When the period of freeze ends my government will return to the previous policy of building in Judea and Samaria [the Jewish name for the West Bank].”

“This is a far-reaching and painful step […] We hope that this decision will help launch meaningful negotiations to reach an historic peace agreement that will finally end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Netanyahu later said.

Under the plan, construction permits for new residential buildings would be put on hold for ten months. The government said that “natural growth” — characterised by the construction of homes by young people, who were raised in the settlements and want to build houses for their own families — would be exempt from the freeze. Parts of the West Bank that Israel annexed to the Jerusalem municipality would also be excluded from the freeze. The building of schools and places of worship, which will enable settlers to live what Netanyahu described as “normal lives”, will also continue.

“We will not halt existing construction and we will continue to build synagogues, schools, kindergartens and public buildings essential for normal life in the settlements,” he commented.

The prime minister added that there would be no change to Israel’s existing policy on the issue of Jerusalem. “Regarding Jerusalem, our sovereign capital, our position is well-known. We do not put any restrictions on building in our sovereign capital,” he said.

Several members of the Israeli cabinet expressed their disapproval at the proposal, with the conservative, ultra-Orthodox Shas party boycotting the cabinet meetings.

“I think it’s a complete crumbling of Netanyahu’s position and is contrary to all of his electoral promises. He promised an end to unilateral steps, and here we see him after only a few months in office giving up, even though there is no reciprocity from the Palestinians,” said the head of the main settler lobby, Danny Dayan, to the Christian Science Monitor. We are 300,000 citizens, living in 150 communities. It is impossible to freeze us. I don’t how it will happen, but we will break this freeze.”

Many Palestinians also criticised the proposal, mainly because East Jerusalem was not included in the settlement freeze. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a Palestinian spokesman, said to the Wafa news agency that Palestine “rejects returning to peace talks without the complete cessation of settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad also rejected the plan. “The exclusion of east Jerusalem is a very, very serious problem for us. We are not looking for the resumption of the process just for the sake of it, for it to falter a week or two down the road,”

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordanian control, following Israel’s victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The Jewish state annexed that part of the city in a move that was not recognized by the international community.

Earlier this week, on a visit to Argentina, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stepped up his campaign to put international pressure on Israel to stop building on lands that Palestinians say are their own. Abbas urged US president Barack Obama, as well as leaders of other nations that support Israel, to press the Jewish state to end its construction of settlements on occupied lands.

Netanyahu has in the past offered to restrain settlement growth, but today’s announcement was the first time that he set a clear timeframe.