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Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Republicans and lobbyists close to President George W. Bush have reported that the White House will propose changing the formula for establishing initial Social Security benefit levels in order to cut guaranteed expenditures on future retirees, according to today’s Washington Post. The Social Security Administration would no longer use the increase in wages over a worker’s lifetime to calculate retirees’ first-year benefits but would use inflation rates instead. The new “price indexing” formula will reduce individual benefits and overall Social Security outlays because the inflation rate typically is much lower than the rise in wages. The full impact of the change will be felt in the middle of the century.

The Bush Administration proposal, which will be offered to Congress in February or March 2005, is part of an overall Social Security reform package that also would create “personal investment accounts” into which individual taxpayers could divert part of their payroll taxes. The White House believes that the shortfall in benefits created by the adoption of price indexing would be made up by capital gains from the stocks and bonds held by individual taxpayers in their personal investment accounts.

The move is akin to the private sector’s migration from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution benefit plans such as 401(k)s as almost half of a worker’s benefits will not be guaranteed by the year 2075. President Bush will support the move to price indexing for calculating initial benefits by pointing out that it was the approach recommended by his 2001 Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

Benefits currently are calculated by averaging a worker’s earnings in their 35 highest-paid years and adjusting earnings to factor in cost of living standards at the worker’s retirement age. Under the Bush proposal, rather than adjusting benefits on the basis of earnings growth, the calculation would be based on the increase in the consumer price index over those years.

The implementation of “price indexing” would cut future Social Security costs by trillions of dollars. However, the cuts in guaranteed benefits for middle-class and some high-income workers would be substantial: 9.9% for workers retiring in 2022, over 25% for workers retiring in 2042, and 46% for workers retiring in 2075.

Opponents of the price-indexing proposal point out that inflation-based calculations of benefits, by linking benefits to prices but not wage levels, would cut retirees out from future increases in living standards since it is wages and not prices that determine standards of living. While American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Policy Director John Rother concedes that many of the arguments of opponents are valid, price indexing is inevitable and must be viewed in the context of President Bush’s total reform package.

Rother points out that Social Security benefits, which currently equal 42 percent of the earnings of an average worker retiring at age 65, would be reduced to 20% of pre-retirement earnings for future retirees, thus potentially freezing retirees into today’s standard of living. However, Rother says that price indexing has to be linked to Bush’s private investment accounts as income from the accounts give retirees the chance to make up the shortfalls.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

President George W. Bush made a stop over in two of the worst hit cities by Hurricane Katrina today. His stops included New Orleans, Louisiana, and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The president made small speeches in both cities, with references to the many problems that still exist due to a lack of housing, the slow pace of Small Business Administration Loans, problems with homeowners insurance payments and the urgent need for bridge rebuilding.

“People in faraway places like Washington, D.C., still hear you and care about you,” Bush said standing in a gymnasium at St. Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis. “I recognize there’s some rough spots. We’re going to work to make them as smooth as possible.”

Bush also recognized and promised that his administration is learning the lessons of its “all-to-slow” and “much-criticized” response to Katrina. “Obviously the federal response in parts of this devastated area could have been a lot better. We want to know how to make them better. We want to make sure that when there is a catastrophe of any kind, this government, at the federal level, is capable of dealing with it in conjunction with the state and local governments.We want to know how to make it better,” Bush said during his speech. “I just want to assure you, we are, we are.”

Bush went on to praise the city’s success in getting the essential utilities, such as, water and electric “mostly” on-line. He also said that federal tax incentives will encourage businesses to create jobs and promised that the new levy system will make the city “both safer and more attractive for investment.” He also added that all those things will help New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf, back into a “shining part of the South.” He also said “New Orleans is a great place to have a convention” and a “heck of a place to bring your family.”

Bush promises that the federal government has allocated 85 billion dollars for reconstruction efforts, $25 billion of which has already been spent on mostly the effort to clean up the debris and provide temporary housing for citizens.

Hurricane Katrina struck the south central U.S. on late August 29, 2005.

Katrina first made landfall in Miami, Florida on August 25, 2005 as a category one hurricane resulting in dozens of deaths in South Florida and spawning several tornadoes.

Katrina then passed over Florida and headed into the Gulf of Mexico where it strengthened into a massive category 5 storm.

She then made her second landfall on the morning of August 29, 2005, near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana with winds at 125 MPH and a central pressure of 920 mbar, a strong Category 3 storm.

Katrina is quite possibly the strongest hurricane on record ever, but estimating the size of storms from before the 1960s (the pre-satellite era) is difficult to near impossible.

As of January 4, 2006, the confirmed death toll from Katrina stands at 1,386.

Demographers estimate of New Orleans’ 400,000 residents prior to Katrina only 25% have returned.

Monday, February 20, 2006

The New Zealand government has announced that it will be reviewing funding for medical and dentistry students at Otago and Auckland Universities to certify the institutions’ standards and help staff retention.

The dean of Auckland University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Professor Iain Martin says the review “can’t come soon enough”.

The Medical Students Association welcomes the review. It says that it has been worried about student debt for years “High debt encourages too many graduates overseas, or into high paying areas of practice at the expense of areas like general practice”

Monday, November 5, 2012

The following is the twelfth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2012 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after a brief mention of some of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: a fan of Wikinews asks a critical question at the Second presidential debate; Gary Johnson discusses Syria and foreign intervention with Wikinews, and three candidates give the their final plea to voters ahead of the November 6 election.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

The roof of Notre Dame cathedral in French capital Paris caught fire yesterday. The spire and at least part of the roof, and at least part of the wooden frame, collapsed. According to officials, the two bell towers were saved.

The fire reportedly started at about 19:00 local time (1700 UTC). Reportedly over 400 firefighters participated in extinguishing the blaze and were still working as of midnight. Not only did they put out the fire but they continued to cool the structure after the fire was gone to reduce the possibility of further damage.

Officials cleared the area around the cathedral.

The French Civil Security service said water bombing by aircraft was disallowed as it might have caused additional damage to the monument.

As of late yesterday, the fire’s cause had not been officially stated. President Emmanuel Macron cancelled an address he was to have given during the evening and instead went to the scene.

Renovation work was ongoing in the building before the fire began. The world-famous cathedral, completed in the 13th century, is one of the most well-known monuments in France.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

An article in the February 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports on an unusual cause for an outbreak of low blood sugar among men in Singapore: illegal use of sexual performance enhancement drugs that were contaminated with a diabetes drug.

Between January and May 2008, 149 men and one woman between 19 and 97 (mean age 51) were admitted to five public hospitals for unexplained low blood sugar. Similar cases were reported in media reports from Hong Kong. Seven Singaporean patients remained in a coma because of prolonged sugar starvation of the brain, and four subsequently died. The diabetes drug glyburide was found in blood and/or urine samples in 85% of cases; 30% admitted having used illegal sexual performance enhancers.

The contaminated products were a counterfeit version of the drug Cialis (meant for the treatment of genuine erectile dysfunction), and three purported herbal preparation (the affected brands included Power 1 Walnut and Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule). All four preparations additionally contained Viagra in varying concentrations. Two herbal products contained traces of the weight loss drug sibutramine, a compound related to amphetamines.

The drug packaging mentioned names of non-existent overseas production facilities, so the source of the contamination with the diabetes drug could not be established.

The authors underline the risks that is known to be associated with purchasing drugs from unreliable providers or from online resellers. The clandestine use of impotence drugs as sexual performance enhancers seems to have provided a good illustration of this problem. They further call for more efforts by national and international health and law enforcement agencies to curb the manufacturing, international transport and sales of untrustworthy medication.

Friday, October 2, 2009

At least thirteen people have been killed after torrential rains caused mudslides in Italy on Friday.

The mudslides occurred in the city of Messina, located in the northern part of Sicily. The mud blocked rails and road, cut off communications, and destroyed several buildings.

Search and rescue teams were using dogs to locate survivors buried beneath the rubble. Around forty people were hospitalised.

“Most of the dead and seriously injured were in two buildings that collapsed in mudslides,” emergency services spokesman Giampiero Gliubizzi told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Over one hundred people were forced to evacuate when mudslides threatened their homes, officials said. Some escaped onto roofs, where they were airlifted by helicopters.

“I didn’t understand what was happening. I was at home and everything started moving. Then I found myself surrounded by rubble,” said a survivor. Witness reports suggest the depth of the mud reached seven metres (23 feet) in some areas.

Friday, May 19, 2006File:148888main sts121atpad lg.jpg

On Friday in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Space Shuttle Discovery began its 4.2 mile, 7 hour long journey to the launch pad, completing successfully. Discovery weighs approximately 4.5 million pounds.

The launch was supposed to occur in May, but NASA pushed back the date because of a faulty fuel sensor.

This will be Discovery’s second mission since the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003. Engineers believed that foam falling from the shuttle and smashing into the wing caused the disaster. After the accident, NASA grounded the shuttle fleet to determine the cause.

In 2005 cameras had shown during launch that a piece of foam being shed from the external tank, as well as smaller tile and foam dings. NASA and the crew decided that mission specialist Stephen Robinson should attempt to pull out the protruding gap fillers. Cameras also detected a small piece of thermal blanket near the cockpit that fell off, but later tests in wind tunnels had shown the piece to be of little concern and Discover landed safely.

NASA is scheduling the launch for Discovery to be between July 1 and July 19, 2006 and Steve Lindsey will Commander of the mission, flying with pilot Mark Kelly, two spacewalkers, Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers and mission specialists Stephanie Wilson and Lisa Nowak. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter is also part of the crew but he will remain on the International Space Station (ISS) for several months.

Saturday, June 4, 2005

After an investigation of allegations that Islam’s holy book the Qu’ran was mishandled in front of inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Bush administration has acknowledged the credibility of some of these reports. According to Robert Burns of the Associated Press, U.S. military officials acknowledged that, “a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine,” and “a detainee’s Quran was deliberately kicked and another’s was stepped on.” The US government first denied a specific report that the Qu’ran had been flushed down a toilet at the prison facility, but on Friday agreed that similar allegations were indeed true.

On May 16, Newsweek magazine apologized to the victims of deadly riots that ensued due to a Newsweek article stating that U.S. officials defiled the Qur’an. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan criticized Newsweek’s initial response to the incident, saying it was “puzzling.” Later that day, Newsweek retracted the story, which the White House said was a “good first step”.

On May 20, the International Red Cross (IRC) revealed in a rare public announcement that it had documented and reported to the United States credible information concerning desecration of the Qur’an by Guantanamo Bay personnel. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, acknowledged that allegations were made on “rare occasions” but were uncorroborated. Simon Schorno, a Red Cross spokesman, disputed the Pentagon’s denial saying, “All information we received were corroborated allegations.” He added that, “We certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves,” and that “the ICRC considers such reports “very seriously, and very carefully, and [we] document everything.”

Scott McClellan explained in a press conference that the White House is not trying to tell Newsweek what to print. McClellan said, “Look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the United States abroad. And Newsweek has said that they got it wrong. I think Newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. We appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. Now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. And that’s all I’m saying. But, no, you’re absolutely right, it’s not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report.”

On May 25, Amnesty International called for the shutdown on Guantanamo Bay due to numerous human rights violations, saying “The ‘war on terror’ appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international ‘terrorism’.” Amnesty International’s view was shared by both the International Red Cross (IRC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The IRC has said it reported to the U.S. government detainee’s reports of desecration of the Qur’an. In the foreword of the report, written by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan, Guantanamo was compared to a Soviet-era gulag in that it is “entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law”.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded saying the report’s allegations were “ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. The United States is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity. We have liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have worked to advance freedom and democracy in the world so that people are governed under a rule of law and that there are… protections in place for minority rights, that women’s rights are advanced so that women can fully participate in societies where now they cannot”, as well as supporting the fight against AIDS in Africa.

About the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo, which McClellan has previously called isolated incidents, he said, “We hold people accountable when there is abuse. We take steps to prevent it from happening again, and we do so in a very public way for the world to see that we lead by example, and that we do have values that we hold very dearly and believe in.”

On May 31, U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed the human rights report as “absurd” for its harsh criticism of U.S. treatment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the allegations were made by prisoners “who hate America.” “It’s an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,” Bush said of the Amnesty International report.

William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, defended the report, saying, “What is ‘absurd’ is President Bush’s attempt to deny the deliberate policies of his administration.” and “What is ‘absurd’ and indeed outrageous is the Bush administration’s failure to undertake a full independent investigation”. Irene Khan also responded saying, “The administration’s response has been that our report is absurd, that our allegations have no basis, and our answer is very simple: if that is so, open up these detention centres, allow us and others to visit them.”

And, on Friday, the U.S. military released the results of their investigation and confirmed that in 5 separate incidents, American guards at the Guantánamo Bay prison “mishandled” the Islamic holy book. However, they stress that guards were usually “respectful” of the Qur’an. One incident involved splashing a Koran with urine by urinating near an air vent while others involved kicking, stepping on and writing in Qur’ans.

Brigadier-General Jay Hood, the commander of the jail, looked into the allegations, published and then retracted by Newsweek, that American personnel flushed a Qur’an down a toilet. He said that the inquiry did not find any evidence supporting this particular allegation. “The inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Qur’an down a toilet. This matter is considered closed.”

Saturday, September 15, 2007

15 elite commandos in the Pakistan anti-terror unit have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack.

The car rammed into the brigade headquarters of the Special Operations Task Force, part of the Pakistan military Special Services Group, set up in conjunction with the United States. It is believed to be the work of Islamic terrorists. The bomb destroyed the mess hall, killing at least 15 and injuring 50 more, six critically. It is thought the dead may include members of the CIA.

The wounded were taken to a local military hospital for treatment, while security forces secured the scene of the blast.

The attack coincided with US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visiting the country. The Special Operations Task Force was heavily involved in last month’s storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and is accused by Islamic extremists with links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban of brutal conduct in the incident. The unit has also attacked terrorists near the border on which Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding.

“This signals the transformation of the Islamic militants trying to bring down [Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf from rag-tag fighters to highly skilled insurgents able to attack at will,” a diplomatic observer said last night. “It is an extremely worrying development from the point of view of Musharraf and those who support him.” Observers have expressed concern at the fact that the bomber was able to successfully attack such a high-profile and heavily guarded target as the headquarters, especially considering the building’s close proximity to the Tarbela Dam generator, considered an important strategic asset.

“This is a high-security zone,” one official said. “Obviously, this was someone who was known and familiar to the soldiers there, and it could be one of the civilians working at the base.”

Earlier this month, an attack aimed at the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence killed 25 people.