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Friday, December 5, 2008

On December 4, 2008, a solar car, developed by scientists at Swiss universities, ended its journey of traveling around the world at the United Nations climate talks in Pozna?, Poland. Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, rode into Pozna? in the vehicle, along with schoolteacher Louis Palmer.

The two-seat car began its journey 17 months ago in Lucerne, Switzerland. Carrying solar cells on a trailer, the car sent the message that global warming can be stopped and there are better alternatives.

“This is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has travelled all the way around the world without using a single drop of petrol,” said Palmer. “These new technologies are ready. It’s ecological, it’s economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warming.”

Many people have been carried by the solar car, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The conference in Pozna? seeks to draft a new climate treaty that would replace the Kyoto protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. The delegates hope to finalize the treaty by December 2009, when the UN reconvenes on the climate in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Here at the conference, we are talking about reducing emissions by 10 or 20 percent,” Palmer said. “I want to show that we can reduce emissions by 100 percent — and that’s what we need for the future.”

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Greenpeace activists have scaled the house of Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, and then mounted 60 square feet of solar panels on the roof.

The four men and four women were highlighting what they believe is Prescott’s failure to make new houses, for which he has responsibility, more energy efficient.

After putting the solar panels up, they unfurled a large banner which read Oi 2 Jags! Hit targets, not voters.

John Prescott’s wife was alone in the house when the protesters climbed the building. She was reportedly awoken by their noise.

One protester, Laura Yates, 27, said, “The Deputy PM’s got a reputation for straight-talking,” she said from the roof, “but since the election kicked off we’ve heard barely a squeak about climate change from big hitters like him. As long as the average existing British house is responsible for six tonnes of CO2 every year he’s not dealing with the climate crisis. He’s in danger of hitting more voters than climate targets. Whoever wins on May 5th needs to get serious about energy efficiency.”

Speaking from the roof by mobile phone, she told Reuters, “It’s a major contributor to the climate change problem and Prescott could do something about this, particularly with the millions of new homes that are going to be built in Britain over the next years,” she said.

“He’s overseeing this house building programme and he should be ensuring that every one of these new homes is built to zero emissions standards,” she added.

The protesters climbed down at 2.50pm and were promptly arrested by local police for “harassment of a person in a dwelling”. The police then handcuffed them before taking them away in a van. The protesters left the solar panels by the door of the house, offering to come back and install the panels at a later date.

A police officer emphasised to BBC News that the distress of the event had been immense for Mrs Prescott: “It’s not pleasant to be invaded in the privacy of your own home and it is being treated seriously. She’s very distressed but she’s pleased with the happy outcome.”

John Prescott is currently touring the country as part of Labour’s General Election 2005 campaign. Speaking from Gloucester, he told BBC News 24, “It’s now clearly a publicity stunt and it terrorised my wife in the early hours in the morning to see all those men scrambling over the building. [Mrs Prescott] did not know who they were. It’s deplorable and unacceptable even for a publicity stunt.”

The protesters were challenged by the armed police officers who guard Mr Prescott’s home, but reportedly the officers withdrew when they realised it was a peaceful protest.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

The upcoming 2006 Brampton municipal election, to be held November 13, features an array of candidates looking to represent their wards in city council or the council of the Peel Region.

Wikinews contributor Nick Moreau contacted many of the candidates, including Dalbir S. Kathuria, asking them to answer common questions sent in an email. This ward’s incumbent is John Sprovieri; also challenging Sprovieri is Derek Begley, Sherdaljit Dhillon, Mahen Gupta, Satpaul Johal, and Vahid Saadati-Khanshir.

Friday, July 11, 2014

On Tuesday, Indian Railway Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda presented his first budget for Indian Railways.

The budget emphasized increased amenities for travelers, better safety, and timely completion of projects. There were no fare hikes announced as both passenger and freight fares had been increased last month. But, it was announced that fares will be revised twice a year to absorb fuel costs. Gowda criticized previous governments for announcing new projects and failing to complete them. He said projects will now be prioritized, such as decongesting major routes instead of announcing new ones. Gowda announced no major new projects, but announced 54 new trains. He also criticized the last government for driving the railways into a loss.

Gowda announced a bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad; new semi-high speed trains in nine sectors connecting metros; and new measures towards improving cleanliness, food, and e-ticketing were announced. He said CCTVs will be installed in major stations to monitor cleanliness, and major stations will have food courts serving local cuisines and precooked food from reputable catering brands will be served on-board. The railways have faced complaints of substandard food in the past.

He announced the introduction of a new rail-flaw detection system to better investigate the causes of accidents. The budget allocated a significant sum to the construction of bridges at unmanned crossings, a major cause of rail-track deaths. He announced a new project to introduce automatic closing doors on mainline and suburban trains, and said wi-fi will be provided in larger stations and select trains. Workstations will be available for on-board use for a fee by Business travelers. The e-ticketing system will be extended from booking tickets to booking coaches and entire trains, and also retiring rooms in stations. Electric mobility carts will be provided to elderly and handicapped passengers at all major stations. Also, Railway Protection Force will recruit four thousand female constables and escorted carriages will be provided for women. A significant amount was announced for improving rail connectivity in north-east India.

Gowda emphasized use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to fund future projects. He also said he will ask the Cabinet to approve foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian Railways. Some stations are to be improved using PPPs. Manish R. Sharma, executive director of capital projects and infrastructure at PricewaterhouseCoopers, pointed out the budget didn’t contain any information on how the government intends to attract private investors. Deven Choksey, managing director at K. R. Choksey securities, said the government now seemed to be more inclined towards PPPs than before. India’s stock index SENSEX dropped and closed 2% below opening. Investors were observed selling shares in energy, infrastructure, and real estate sectors.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

In an article published on Wednesday by The Washington Post, reporter Joby Warrick alleged that the Bush administration and the CIA “possessed powerful evidence” that contradicted assertions made by President Bush one month after the Iraqi war began, where trailers found in Iraq were said to have been mobile biological weapons labs.

On May 27, 2003, President Bush made public statements on these trailers by asserting that “We have found the weapons of mass destruction,” which coincided with the CIA publishing a whitepaper that detailed how the trailers were allegedly used to produce biological weapons.

Warrick’s news report revealed that evidence exists to support that two days before the presidential statements were made and the CIA whitepaper was published, that a fact-finding group reached an opposite conclusion.

The group was comprised of U.S. and British civilian experts that investigated the labs and concluded unanimously that they had nothing to do with biological weapons production. They relayed their results back to Washington, where Warrick said in the front page Washington Post article that the newspaper interviewed six of the nine group members.

According to The Washington Post, this preliminary report was followed up with a detailed 122 page final report three weeks later, titled “Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers.” The report remains classified to this date.

Reuters reported that an unnamed U.S. official confirmed the existence of the field report filed on May 27, 2003, and said that the field report had not been evaluated at the time of Bush’s statement. “You don’t change a report that has been coordinated in the (intelligence) community based on a field report,” he reportedly said. The Bush administration continued to make claims about having found mobile biological weapons facilities throughout 2003.

On June 8, 2003, an unnamed senior CIA official stood by the interpretation that the trailers were mobile bioweapons labs saying “It is what we think it is, to the best of our knowledge”.

Then Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed in June 2003 that “confidence level is increasing” that the trailers were intended for biological weapons production.

White House speaker Scott McClellan said on July 16, 2003, that “We’ve seen some of the evidence of his weapons of mass destruction program through two mobile biological weapon labs that have been discovered.”

Vice President Dick Cheney claimed in September 2003 that the trailers were “mobile biological facilities”. Then CIA director George Tenet claimed in a speech on February 5, 2004, that the trailers “could be made to work” as biological weapons labs.

The alleged existence of mobile biological weapons laboratories was one of the cornerstones in Colin Powell’s presentation in front of the United Nations to make the case for war on February 5, 2003. Much of the information came from an Iraqi defector dubbed Curveball who was an asset of the German BND. The credibility of this source was disputed by the BND.

The Iraq Survey Group reported in September 2004 that the trailers were “impractical” for biological agent production and “almost certainly” designed and built for the generation of hydrogen. Asked about the prospects to turn the trailers into biological weapons labs, Rod Barton, a member of the Iraq Survey Group, said “It would be easier to start all over with just a bucket”.

The Washington Post cites unnamed sources among officials and members of the initial survey group as claiming that the original classified report from May 27, 2003 and the classified final report three weeks later came to the same conclusions as the unclassified findings of the Iraqi Survey Group.

Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, wrote September 8, 2003:”However, it now is clear that these so- called labs were nothing more than hydrogen generation units based upon British technology acquired by Iraq in the 1980s, used to fill weather balloons in support of conventional artillery operations, and have absolutely no application for the production of biological agents.”

In the April 12, 2006 press conference, Scott McClellan said “I will point out that the reporting I saw this morning was simply reckless and it was irresponsible. The lead in The Washington Post left the impression for the reader that the President was saying something he knew at the time not to be true. … The President’s statements were based on the joint assessment of the CIA and DIA that was publicly released the day before [the President made his statements].”

He did not answer repeated questions whether the President knew of the secret report at the time he was asserting that “we found biological laboratories” on May 29, 2005. When asked why the secret report was not made public earlier McClellan responded by saying that “it takes a substantial amount of time to coordinate and run through a declassification process”.

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