Saturday, October 14, 2006

Over the weekend, millions of Americans faced the new ban of online gambling.

The legislation was attached by Rep. Bill Frist to the Port Security bill.

Many of the public companies that offer online gambling have been quick to react and give their outlooks on the legislature. Party Gaming and 888 among others have said that they will shut down all U.S. operations if President Bush signs the bill into law. This sent online gambling stocks tumbling with Party Gaming leading the way with a 55% decrease in market value.

The people involved are awaiting to see what happens over the next few weeks.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Romanian government has allocated 16.6 million euros for the modernisation of two thermoelectric power plants that serve a residential area in the city of Arad, western Romania. The funds come in response to a request sent at the beginning of this year by the Arad municipal government.

The mayor of Arad, Gheorge Falc?, said that the modernisation was necessary because, up until now, apartments in the area could not be properly heated due to a significant loss of hot water caused by problems in the pipe network. According to the mayor, the installations will be fully modernised by this winter (December 2005). Falc? also added that, in years to come, he would request more funds from the national government in order to modernise all out-of-date power plants in the city, and therefore reduce the costs for consumers.

At the same time, the Romanian government has pledged to reduce pollution levels, especially in industrial cities like Arad, in order to comply with European Union environmental standards. Romania is set to join the EU in 2007. The government’s target is that, by 2015, all plants or facilities using large combustion installations will have to align to EU environmental standards or will be forced to shut down. One of such plants is the Arad District Heating Plant, CET Arad, which is going to be modernised in the future. The modernisation is expected to take 100 million euros to complete.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Fears of contaminated bone and skin grafts are being felt by unsuspecting patients following the revelation that funeral homes may have been looting corpses.

Janet Evans of Marion Ohio was told by her surgeon, “The bone grafts you got might have been contaminated”. She reacted with shock, “I was flabbergasted because I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I didn’t know I got a bone graft until I got this call. I just thought they put in screws and rods.”

The body of Alistair Cooke, the former host of “Masterpiece Theatre,” was supposedly looted along with more than 1,000 others, according to two law enforcement officials close to the case. The tissue taken was typically skin, bone and tendon, which was then sold for use in procedures such as dental implants and hip replacements. According to authorities, millions of dollars were made by selling the body parts to companies for use in operations done at hospitals and clinics in the United States and Canada.

A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, has reportedly been taking body parts from funeral homes across Brooklyn, New York. According to ABC News, they set up rooms like a “surgical suite.” After they took the bones, they replaced them with PVC pipe. This was purportedly done by stealth, without approval of the deceased person or the next of kin. 1,077 bodies were involved, say prosecuters.

Investagators say a former dentist, Michael Mastromarino, is behind the operation. Biomedical was considered one of the “hottest procurement companies in the country,” raking in close to $5 million. Eventually, people became worried: “Can the donors be trusted?” A tissue processing company called LifeCell answered no, and issued a recall on all their tissue.

Cooke’s daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, said, “To know his bones were sold was one thing, but to see him standing truncated before me is another entirely.” Now thousands of people around the country are receiving letters warning that they should be tested for infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis. On February 23, the Brooklyn District Attorney indicted Mastromarino and three others. They are charged with 122 felony counts, including forgery and bodysnatching.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Morogoro Plastic will open a plastic grinding plant in the Tanzania town of Morogoro in April of 2005, according to Faustine Rwambali of the East African. The grinding plant will be followed by a network of 5 washing plants around Tanzania. 75% of the $2m (2bn Tsh) investment needed to build the system of plants has been provided by Barclays. The first three washing plants will be in Mwanza, Arusha, and Dar es Salaam, followed by a plant on the island of Zanzibar and one in the southern part of the country.

The East African, a weekly business paper published by the Aga Khan’s Nation Media Group, reports the grinding plant will have a daily capacity of 3 tons of plastic. This capacity will be upgraded to 10 tons per day once equipment ordered from Portugal arrives in June, reported IPPMedia, the news arm of East African beverage conglomerate IPP Holdings. Praful Ladwa, the director of Morogoro Plastic, claims Tanzania produces 1000 tons of plastic per day. Once the full network of plants is functioning, Ladwa hopes it will be able to handle more than 75% of that waste stream.

According to the East African, Tanzania has 15 to 20 plastics companies. Ladwa said the new plant system will be the “first of its kind in East and Central Africa.” Morogoro Plastic plans to expand its recycling operations into neighboring Kenya and Uganda by 2007. Ladwa asserted that the system would create at least 10,000 jobs in the region.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said today that he was “a lot of fun” while he was outlining his plans for Australia as a possible future Prime Minister.

During an interview with ABC Radio, Mr Costello was asked to say something about himself that the public didn’t know. Mr Costello’s replied “That I’m a lot of fun – a lot of fun and good company.”

Costello, who is considered current Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s likely successor when he retires, said he was not expecting an easy rise to the Prime Ministership, admitting that the forthcoming federal election would be difficult.

The treasurer said “If you read polls, then (Kevin) Rudd is in front and he’s already carrying on as if he’s got the election in the bag,”

“I would say an election is not over until all of the votes have been counted on the polling day, and I think it will be a hard-fought election.”

Mr Costello also outlined his vision for Australia should he become Prime Minister in the future centering his platform upon education and water.

“I think we need first, a first-class technical school system in this country, training people for trades,” Mr Costello said.

“I think we need improved standards of literacy in our primary and secondary schools and I think we need better facilities at the tertiary level.”

The treasurer admitted that education was one of his key priorities as he had been a university tutor and had a father who was a teacher. Speaking of his father, Costello said “I watched him influence generations of students,”

“I know the difference that a good school teacher makes in a person’s life and I believe in the importance of education.”

Mr Costello also said that Australia would need to carefully manage its water resources for the future.

“We have to manage our water better, we have to invest in water better, we have to harness water better, we have to price water better,” he said.

“I think we really do have a water crisis in this country and it’s something that we’re going to have to deal with in order to keep our country growing and our lifestyle up in the decades which lie ahead.” Mr Costello criticised state governments for failing to invest in water infrastructure and predicted desalination plants would have a major role to play in securing the nation’s water supply.

“There has not been enough investment in dams, there has not been enough investment in pipes, in irrigation canals and I think we’re going to have to look very, very carefully at desalination plants for our major capital cities,” said the Australian Treasurer.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

A new law which seeks to utilise reusable energy and minimise cost impact on consumers is under development in Japan. The new law, which would be effective from July 1 next year, would seek to reduce Japan’s dependency on nuclear power.

The new legislation would urge power utilities to cut costs by purchasing renewable energy from outside companies and private businesses. Japan’s decision has been referred to as opening the door on renewable energy, which currently only contributes to six percent of Japan’s energy sources.

Politicians have amended the bill, allowing the revised bill to pass through parliament later this month. Prime Minister Naoto Kan who is pushing for the bill to be passed in return for his resignation, has stated that the ‘feed-in-tariff on renewable energy will be set at a fixed price so that utilities are limited to purchasing electricity from renewable power generators. Kan hopes that this will encourage more business and private corporate partners to enter into the renewable energy market.

“As a medium-term revolutionary energy and environmental strategy, we have decided to start a thorough review of nuclear power policy and draw a roadmap for a reduction of the dependence on nuclear power” Mr Kan said.

Large companies are concerned about the new legislation as it will continue to affect profit margins which are low due to power shortages and high priced exports. The bill was changed to reduce the surcharge for large power companies after complaints from the Japanese steel industry. If the scheme is launched then consumers will face an increase on electricity bills as utilities can pass their costs onto end-users. Despite the governments promise to cap the surcharge for the next ten years, there is no reference to it in the revised bill.

Lawmakers hope that by adding a provision requiring utilities to streamline their operations, the impact on consumers will be minimized.

A third party group will be set up within the under the Agency for National Resources and Energy to ensure that the setting of fixed prices are fair and just.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of a mining disaster which occured in Lanarkshire, Scotland on September 18, 2009, killing 47 miners. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond MSP unveiled a bronze statue and a memorial garden in Moodiesburn on Sunday in front of a crowd of approximately 600.

At roughly 0700 BST on September 18, 1959, 47 men who were working in Auchengeich Collery in North Lanarkshire, Scotland were overcome by smoke as they were walking down to start work. They were subsequently killed after being trapped by a fire in the mine which prevented them from escaping. At the time, a decision had been made to flood the pit after attempts to rescue the men failed. Only one miner had managed to survive the blaze. It transpired that the fire was caused by an electrical fault 1,000 ft below the surface.

First Minister Salmond unveiled a memorial garden and a bronze statue which had been placed to mark the 50th anniversary of the incident. The statue is one of a miner. A religious service was carried out from Bishop Joseph Devine. Tom Clarke, MP for Chryston and Bellshill, also attended the event. Memorial committee chairman Daniel Taylor read out the names of the late 47 people while another person was playing bagpipes in the background.

When the service came to a close, First Minister Salmond commented on the tragedy, saying “The tragedy at Auchengeich Colliery left barely a town, village or mining family in North Lanarkshire unaffected. Fifty years on, the memories of the fateful day which claimed the lives of so many husbands, fathers, brothers and sons endure and I am honoured to pay tribute to them. Scotland is fortunate enough to have been blessed with rich natural resources, from the abundant coal seams of the central belt to the oil and gas reserves off our shores and the emerging renewable energy sources we are just beginning to feel the benefits of. But we should never forget the human cost which has come with that. Just as the Piper Alpha tragedy more than two decades ago underlined the hazards of North Sea exploration, the Auchengeich disaster showed all too starkly the dangers and risks which miners all over Scotland took for granted as part of their job every time they descended the pits. The excellent work of the people of North Lanarkshire and Auchengeich Miners’ Welfare has provided this new memorial garden and magnificent bronze sculpture. Together, they are a truly fitting tribute to those 47 brave men who died in Auchengeich half a century ago.”