Monday, January 18, 2010

The world’s oldest dog, who answered to the name of Otto, has died at the age of 20. Otto, who was a Dachshund, was born and lived in Shrewsbury, in the county of Shropshire in England.

The dog had to be put down by a vet on Thursday after it was discovered that the animal had developed stomach cancer. The dog’s date of birth was February 14, 1989, which means that Otto would have been 21 years old 31 days after his death occurred. Lynn Jones and her husband Peter had both owned the dog since he was six weeks old. Otto was officially declared the oldest dog in the world by the Guinness Book of Records in October 2009. He was cremated on Friday.

Now Lynn Jones has payed tribute to her pet. “I have cried all morning, I am devastated,” she said. “He died at 10:10AM and I feel like I’ve lost my right arm. I know I sound like a wuss, but he was like the son I never had, my baby boy. I am glad he is not suffering any longer but I wanted him with me forever. We found out yesterday that he had a very large tumour in his stomach and last night I felt that he was trying to tell us something. He couldn’t sit or lie down comfortably and he was trying to tell us that he’d had enough, so we made the decision to end his suffering and took him to the vet [Thursday] morning.”

Friday, January 26, 2018

Fire broke out on Friday morning and destroyed the bottom two floors of a six-story hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing at least 37 people, most of them elderly. More than a hundred injuries were reported, with eighteen people in critical condition. This is the highest death toll from fire in South Korea in almost a decade.

The fire is believed to have started at about 7:30 local time, according to fire chief Choi Man-woo. It originated on the ground floor in the emergency room as per various officials. The hospital has 98 beds and a medical staff of about 35, and specializes in long-term care of elderly patients. It adjoins a nursing home, all of whose 94 residents were evacuated. Staff carried some patients out of the hospital on their backs.

One patient, Jang Yeong-jae, who told his story to JoongAng Ilbo, said he escaped by removing a screen from a window to get to a ladder placed by firefighters. He described people “running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms”. The majority of the victims died from smoke inhalation and are believed to be elderly, said the head of the city’s public hospital, Chun Jae-kyung. A doctor, a nurse, and a nursing assistant have died, according to the fire service; it took three hours to put out the fire.

In a press briefing, Seok Gyeong-sik, the director of the hospital, apologized to patients and their families. Son Kyung-chul, its chairman, stated that there were no sprinklers because the facility was small. Sprinklers are being installed in the nursing home, where a new law requires them by June 30.

Last month, 29 people died in a fire in a gym in Jecheon; the owner and the manager were arrested for safety violations. In 2014, a blaze in a nursing home in Jangseong left 21 dead. The President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, responded to the Friday fire by calling an emergency meeting of his staff, and promised that the cause would be found rapidly “to prevent the recurrence of the fire in the future”.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The naming rights for St James’ Park, the home ground of English football club Newcastle United F.C., are to be put up for sale. The club stated that the club would be “welcoming offers for the stadium naming rights next season”. The move was part of a new drive to “maximise its commercial revenues”, after the announcement that owner Mike Ashley was not selling the club, which had been up for sale since May 2009.

St James’ Park is the largest and oldest football stadium in North East England. Football had been played at St James’ Park since 1880, with Newcastle United using it as their home ground since their inception, in 1892. Despite Newcastle being in the second tier of football, St James Park is the third largest club football stadium in England, behind Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium.

Naming rights is not unprecedented in English football, including the Premier League grounds the Britannia Stadium, DW Stadium, Emirates Stadium, KC Stadium and Reebok Stadium. Bookmakers Ladbrokes named sportswear company and current club sponsor Addidas favourites to secure the rights. In order to stop the move, BBC Radio Newcastle football commentator Mick Lowes suggested that the Newcastle United Supporters Trust‘s used part of its reported £25m funds to pay Ashley not to sell the rights.

Ex-Newcastle striker and local sports pundit Malcolm Macdonald said of the decision:

they thought they had got on the wrong side of the people of Tyneside then just wait and see what happens if they go through with their plans to re-name St James’ Park because there will be an almighty uproar and outcry. It would upset people so much because it everyone’s second home. That is how people feel about it. It has been St James’ Park forever and a day and it should remain that way.

Lee Ryder, the Evening Chronicle‘s chief sportswrite blogged:

We need to make Coors Light Park a fortress” – to even imagine a future Toon player uttering such words will make many physically sick…Renaming St James’s Park is simply bad taste in the eyes of most Geordie fans – and many will feel that even the injection of silly money to do it will do nothing to make up for another piece of heritage being ripped away from the Tyneside streets….Renaming St James’s Park to Coors Light Park, Bwin Park or even the McDonalds Arena shows that Newcastle’s top brass have again got it so seriously wrong

George Caulkin of The Times wrote of the decision:

Renaming St James’ Park is a muddle-headed, flawed and divisive notion which must not and cannot stand. In an era of recession, there may be a need for Newcastle, in their own words, to “maximise their commercial revenues,” but if it comes at the expense of goodwill (what little there is left of it), hope and a sense of community, it would also come at a bitter, prohibitive, self-defeating cost.

There has been debate over the correct spelling and pronunciation of the stadium name, with differing accounts based on its meaning and origin. In 2008, the club insisted to the BBC programme Look North that the the correct spelling of the Stadium is St James’ Park, with no following ‘s’ after James’, because the stadium is not named as “the park of St James”, rather, it is named after the nearby St James Street, which predates the ground.

The announcement came on the same day as it announced Chris Hughton as the club’s permanent manager, and that owner Mike Ashley was taking the club off the market for a second time.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

During a seminar with students at the Mechinat Rabin in Oranim, Israeli veterans of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict revealed accounts of the deaths of unarmed civilians. This has prompted new allegations of war crimes and a review and investigation into the rules of engagement within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

There are two accounts in which fears of war crimes have been raised. In one, an Israeli commander ordered the killing of an old woman walking down a road and coming within 100 metres of an IDF position. There was no warning that a perimeter existed, no attempt was made at a warning and no attempt was made to ascertain as to whether the old woman posed a threat.

In a second account a woman and her two children were killed by a sniper when she was ordered to leave a building being occupied by Israeli soldiers. The commander of the unit commandeering the building however failed to inform a sniper placed on a roof top and the three were killed according to standing instructions issued to the sniper.

In addition to specific cases, the veterans spoke of a general contempt towards the Palestinians, and disregard for their lives. One squad leader speaking at the military academy said that the attitude of those both above and below was that”…we should kill everyone there [in…Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist.” With his immediate commanding officer advocating the clearing of buildings by shooting all within without warning.

An Israeli spokes person speaking to the BBC said that the incidents spoken of were well known within the brigade responsible and that any actions that took place were within its rules of engagement, however in response to the accusations the Military Advocate General of the IDF, Brigadier General Avichai Mendelblit has instructed the Israeli Military Police Investigation unit to investigate the allegations.

Talking to Israel Radio Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said that the IDF is “…the most moral army in the world” though individual exceptions may have occurred, and that these would be investigated.

Others in Israel whilst not denying that these incidents might have occurred speak of lack a context in which they have been reported.

Internationally the accusations are not seen as individual soldiers being responsible for war crimes but that war crimes may have been committed by the Israeli military as a whole, that its rules of engagement were drafted and implemented in such a way that they failed to sufficiently distinguish between combatants and civilians.

In response to the allegations Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that the Geneva Conventions required that there had to be a clear distinction between military targets and the civilian population and that “…If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law…”

If it is to have indeed failed to protect the lives of Palestinian civilians then the Israeli military not only violated international law but its own moral code of conduct as outlined in its tenet of purity of arms.

Saturday, April 9, 2005

The Toronto Transit Commission is expected to strike Monday. The TTC workers union, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, rejected a deal offered by TTC management. They last went on strike in 1999. The average daily ridership exceeds 1.3 million passengers.

The city of Toronto has prepared to help deal with the forecasted traffic congestion by opening up free parking for car-pools at 14 city-owned community centres, banning parking on some city streets, and opening up some bus-only lanes to car-pools.

The initial deal, which was rejected, offered a 2% wage increase over five years. With a huge turnout the union-members voted against accepting the offer with a 99% majority according to a press release by the union. The union rejected the latest offer Friday reported to be a three-year contract with raises of 2.75 percent in the first year, three percent in the second and 3.25 percent in the third.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

On Monday night, New Jersey, US-based toy retail giant Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in the US as well as in Canada. The retailer filed it from Richmond, Virginia for Chapter 11 bankruptcy code in the US, and a judge allowed a loan of over US$2 billion.

According to the filing, the retail chain owns US$6.6 billion in assets, but has a debt of US$7.9 billion. They were under a roughly US$5 billion debt since the company underwent a three-way acquisition in 2005. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust acquired Toys R Us for around US$7 to US$7.5 billion. After the US judge approved a loan, Toys R Us received about US$3 billion from the lenders to continue the business and survive a competitive market, and restructure their business model. E-commerce giant Amazon.com, Walmart and Target are some of the competitors for the conventional ‘brick and mortar’ toy shop, with lower priced-merchandise and fast, cheap delivery. In a conference call in June, CEO Dave Brandon said “very, very aggressive pricing online” was causing problems. He also said the company was experiencing “significant weakness in demand for their products globally”. Toys R Us are to clear a debt of US$400 million by May 2018.

Toys R Us said they would continue to operate for the holiday season. Bankruptcy lawyer Jeff Gleit said Toys R Us “need to do both a financial restructuring as well as an operational restructuring” and “needs to modernize with the times”. Last holiday season, Toys R Us made sales around US$4.5 billion. Overall, the company reported a US$29 million loss in 2016. CEO Brandon said, “Our objective is to work with our debt holders and other creditors to restructure the US$5 billion of long-term debt on our balance sheet, which will provide us with greater financial flexibility to invest in our business”.

Toys R Us employs more than 60 thousand people in 38 countries around the world in more than 1600 stores. The company’s stocks fell by six percent after filing for Chapter 11 protection. US bankruptcy code Chapter 11 allows the company to restructure under a plan approved by the court. The company would also be shielded from creditors’ claims during the process. For the stores located in Canada, Toys R Us filed bankruptcy in Ontario and are to undergo reorganisation. However, 259 stores located outside the US or Canada will not undergo reorganisation, the company said.

Over 300 US-based retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year, and hundreds of stores closed.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The discovery of the presence of airborne asbestos in a middle school in Montclair, New Jersey Friday prompted the evacuation of over 200 students from the school and the school’s closure. Renaissance Middle School, part of the Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey, was closed Monday and remains closed Tuesday while undergoing asbestos testing and cleaning.

According to a letter sent home to parents by the Superintendent’s Office of Montclair Public Schools on Friday, “plaster may have been disturbed” during construction on new fire doors at the Renaissance School building on Thursday.

An inspection arranged by the school district indicated asbestos was present in the plaster, and a subsequent inspection performed by asbestos consultant Detail Associates revealed “a level of airborne asbestos fibers that exceeded the acceptable range” in the third floor hallway of the school. Montclair Public Schools business administrator Dana Sullivan told The Star-Ledger that testing conducted on March 31 revealed the presence of asbestos in a brown undercoating of plaster at the Renaissance School building.

The affected area was sealed off, and some students were moved to other areas of the building while others were moved to off-site locations. District Public Information Officer Laura Federico told The Montclair Times that sixth and seventh graders were transported to Hillside Elementary School, and eighth graders were bussed to Montclair High School. “The safety of our students and staff is always our first concern,” said Federico.

According to The Montclair Times, Detail Associates conducted a cleaning protocol at the school on Saturday and tested the building to make sure it did not contain unacceptable levels of asbestos fibers. The letter sent to parents Friday by the Superintendent’s Office said that Detail Associates had told the district that the building would be “cleaned, tested and cleared for occupancy by Monday morning”. The school remained closed Monday, and a meeting was held between parents and school district officials. A Parent-Teacher Association meeting is planned for Wednesday night.

The Star-Ledger reported that the ongoing asbestos cleanup of the school is being supervised by the state Department of Environmental Protection. At the meeting Monday morning between parents and school district officials, parents demanded that the inside of lockers be included as part of the asbestos cleanup. This additional step in the asbestos inspection process prompted the school’s closure Tuesday. A Monday statement by the Business Office of Montclair Public Schools said that the Renaissance School would remain closed Tuesday for sixth and seventh grade students “so that an extensive cleanup and additional asbestos testing can be completed”. Eighth grade students did not have classes scheduled as a trip to Washington, D.C. had previously been planned; the school trip is unaffected by the recent asbestos incident.

Steve Jaraczewski of Detail Associates was present at the district meeting Monday, and said that one of four test samples taken at the school was positive for the presence of airborne asbestos at over six times acceptable levels. Jaraczewski was critical of the asbestos management plan provided by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, which owns the school’s building and leases it to Montclair Public Schools.

Jaraczewski said that the state Department of Environmental Protection has required asbestos management plans since 1988, but that the company that drafted the asbestos plan for the Archdiocese of Newark is out of business. Representative for the archdiocese Jim Goodness emphasized that the building would be back open for classes soon. “The kids will be able to go back to school soon, and that’s the important part,” said Goodness.

Exposure to airborne asbestos can lead to mesothelioma, a cancer which develops in the sac surrounding the lungs and chest cavity, abdominal cavity, or the sac surrounding the heart. Exposure to disturbed asbestos fibers can also lead to lung scarring, a condition called asbestosis, and lung cancer. Patients with malignant mesothelioma generally do not have positive outcomes, and once diagnosed have six months to a year to live.