Wednesday, August 11, 2010 A family of six were injured at Flat Rock Bridge Family Resort and campground in Lebanon, Maine after a severe thunderstorm caused trees to topple, with one landing on a tent. A 10-year-old girl was critically injured after a tree fell on the tent she was sleeping in. Witnesses say the…
University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library suffers power outage
Monday, May 30, 2011 The University of Chicago’s Joe and Rika Mansueto Library was shut down by a power outage for a short time on Saturday, preventing library personnel from providing full services to its patrons. The US$81 million library, which opened May 16, includes a 180-seat reading room under a 691-panel glass dome. Five…
Wikileaks crashes under cyber attack
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 Wikileaks today announced via twitter that its website has crashed under an apparent cyber-attack; this following the recent release of tens of thousands of US State Department cables. Sources in the US say the mass-disclosure of cables is causing diplomatic setbacks, and embarrassment, for the administration of Barack Obama. These previously…
UK hostage Peter Moore released in Iraq
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Peter Moore, a British IT consultant and computer programmer who was taken hostage by Iraqi militants during a May 2007 militant raid on the finance ministry in Baghdad, has been released alive and in good health. He is the only known survivor of a group of five hostages, consisting of himself,…
Edmund White on writing, incest, life and Larry Kramer
Thursday, November 8, 2007 What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York,…
Bank of America leads Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints about mortgages
Thursday, October 3, 2013 A review this week by Wikinews of US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaints about mortgages in the United States shows Bank of America leads all lending institutions in complaints. Since mortgages complaints were recorded in December 2011, 77,622 total have been added to CFPB’s database. 29.2% of these complaints involved…
Food with cancer-causing dye recalled in Britain
Saturday, April 30, 2005 The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced a recall of foods containing banned dyes which increase the risk of cancer. The food products were sold at the Tesco, Waitrose, and Somerfield supermarkets. A Bristol company called “Barts Spices” found the illegal Para Red substance in their Barts Ground Paprika, which…
Toxic chemical spills in the Ohio River
Thursday, March 1, 2007 At least 10,300 gallons of a toxic chemical, Cumene, also called isopropyl benzene, which is generally used in paint thinner, fuels, and rubber, spilled from a barge after it hit a wall of an underwater moveable dam in the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky, according to the United States Coast…
Australian health workers to close intensive care units in Victoria next week
Thursday, March 13, 2008 Members of Australia’s Health Services Union (HSU) will go on strike in Victoria next week in a dispute over stalled wage and career structure negotiations. Over 5000 physiotherapists, speech pathologists and radiation therapists will walk off the job next week, effectively closing the state’s 68 largest health services. The strike will…
India: Maharashtra plastic ban comes into force
Monday, June 25, 2018 On Saturday, the plastic ban in the Indian state of Maharashtra came into force. In an attempt to minimise pollution, the state government has introduced a ban on single-use plastics. The leader of the Yuya Sena political party, Aaditya Thackeray, said on Twitter, “The ban on single use disposable plastic cups,…