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Wednesday, May 2, 2007

The tomb of former general secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, János Kádár, located in Budapest, Hungary in the Kerepesi Cemetery, was vandalised on Wednesday night.

Vandals accessed Kádár’s casket by cutting a 40 cm hole into it and then removed some of his remains, police have confirmed. Reports say the urn containing his wife’s ashes was also stolen. In addition, the vandals wrote “murderer and traitor may not rest in holy ground” on a memorial to communist leaders near Kádár’s tomb.

“Not all the grave site was dug up. Experts are going to open the casket but as far as we can tell through the hole that has been cut into the coffin there are bones missing,” said Endre Kormos, a spokesman for the Budapest Police Department. The damaged coffin has been removed by authorities for further athropological investigations. Police also said a plate of marble that was covering his grave was also stolen.

Kádár was a controversial and important figure of the 20th-century Hungarian history. He was the leader of the country in the period of Goulash Communism, when Hungary had one of the most liberal systems in the Eastern Bloc, however, he also assisted the Soviet troops in crushing the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and is held responsible for the jailing and execution of revolutionists, including Imre Nagy and other members of the government.

The Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, the center-right opposition party Fidesz and other political parties condemned the act, the Russian Pravda reports.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pro-wrestling, a sport derived from Greco-Roman freestyle wrestling, is often connected with the idea of sports-entertainment. Popularized by Japanese and American federations (e.g. World Wrestling Entertainment, New Japan Pro Wrestling, etc.) the ongoing events and news are often discussed on the Internet. As such, television programs and other mass media focused on pro-wrestling are commonplace in Japan, America, and Europe.

In Taiwan, fans do not simply watch the TV shows and discuss them via the Internet, but some of them participate in the sport of wrestling through communities from the Internet or colleges. Although a Taiwanese wrestler recently won a world-class pro-wrestling title, due to policies that focused only on promoting key athletic sports like baseball, billiards, basketball, and taekwondo (i.e. those with more possibilities to win a gold medal in the Asian Games or Olympics), governmental officials lost a great opportunity to promote sports like wrestling, which has many potential participants.

What’s the vision of wrestling in Taiwan? How did the communities drive TV spectators and wrestling fans and government officials pay more attention in wrestling? Is wrestling a future key sport in Taiwan? Wikinews Journalist Rico Shen visited the “2008 IWL Spring Festival”, organised by a fan community and interviewed “Mr. Orange”, well-known commentator of WWE TV shows broadcasted by VideoLand Max TV in Taiwan, to prospect the future of wrestling.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

In diplomatic cables released by the whistle blowing website Wikileaks on Friday, it is revealed that the United States embassy in Rangoon suspects the North Korean and Burmese military are participating in “covert military or military-industrial” activities. In the cables dating back as early as January 2004, the embassy reports the military activities could include the construction of a nuclear reactor in or near Minbu, along with “SAM missiles” and an underground facility with as many as 300 North Korean military personnel assisting the Burmese military in the construction. Burma is primarily controlled by its military.

In the January 2004 cable, a businessman reportedly told the U.S. embassy in Rangoon that “massive” barges were bringing in large pieces of equipment to Minbu from the Irawaddy River. He suggested that “the quantities involved as well as the diameter of the rebar suggested a project larger than ‘factories.'” In the same cable, the U.S. acknowledges that rumors of a nuclear reactor being constructed in the area date back to 2002, with suspected Russian involvement. “Rumors of ongoing construction of a nuclear reactor are surprisingly consistent and observations of activity such as that described [sic] appear to be increasing,” said Martinez, the reported cable author. According to a news report in March, The Irrawaddy claims Burma was close to completing at least three nuclear reactors. The country’s leadership claims the nuclear research that is taking place is to be used for peaceful purposes.

In August of the same year, the U.S embassy receives more information that North Korea military is assisting in the construction of “SAM missiles (surface to air missiles) of unknown origin” and an “underground, concrete reinforced” facility in Minbu. The construction allegedly includes buildings which would house at least “20 Burmese army battalions that will be posted near the site.” The correspondent again says that the report “tracks with other information Embassy Rangoon and others have reported in various channels.”

“This account is perhaps best considered alongside other information of various origins indicating the Burmese and North Koreans are up to something. Something of a covert military or military-industrial nature. Exactly what, and on what scale, remains to be determined,” said McMullen, the reported cable author. He also admits that the number of North Koreans thought to be assisting the Burmese military “is much higher than our best estimates of North Koreans in Burma.” According to the Agence France-Presse in 2002, citing an unnamed U.S State Department official, the U.S. warned Burma not to pursue a nuclear program saying that it expects Burma “to live up to its obligations [under the non-proliferation treaty] and to not pursue production of weapons grade fissile material.” However a 2008 cable says that Burma may already be in possession of weapons grade uranium. The cable reports that a civilian tried to sell 2,000 kilograms of uranium-238 which “could be dug up” from the ground at a site in Kayah State. Uranium-238 could be used in the construction of nuclear weapons.

“A Burmese civilian met with members of USDAO [United States Defense Attaché Office] Rangoon and offered to sell Uranium-238. The individual had initially contacted the USDAO eight days prior with the offer. The individual provided a small bottle half-filled with metallic powder and a photocopied certificate of testing from a Chinese university dated 1992 as verification of the radioactive nature of the powder,” said the cable. “The individual claimed to be able to provide up to 2000 kg of uranium-bearing rock from a location in Kayah State, and further stated if the U.S. was not interested in purchasing the uranium, he and his associates would try to sell it to other countries, beginning with Thailand,” it added. The cable adds that the Burmese government was unaware that such a transaction was taking place and that they “would likely seize any additional samples or stocks of the material if aware of their existence.” However, a cable in January of 2007 says that the Burmese military may have received a shipment of uranium at the end of that month. The “sensitive shipment” was said to have come from Singapore via shipping freighter.

“[An unnamed witness] claimed that metals are usually exported in blocks, whereas the bags in this shipment were filled with loose earth and mud. The source of the mixed ore, Maw Chi, is also a source for uranium, they claimed. Security was tighter than usual, surveillance was heavier, and officials paid closer attention to the movement of the shipment and activity at the port,” said the cable. The cable author, ‘Villarosa,’ later states that the embassy in Rangoon was given allegedly detailed information on the shipping methods, weight and cost. No further cables have yet to be released on the matter.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

If you are in the market for new bedding, and not too concerned with the new United States guidelines for mattress fire resistance, now might be a good time to buy. Mattresses sold in the U.S. must meet new federal guidelines for flammability starting on July 1.

The flammability of mattress sets sold in the U.S. is subject to a new mandatory federal regulation requirement passed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on February 16 last year. The requirement, costing mattress manufacturers an estimated $100 million to meet, is scheduled to take effect on July 1. The commission anticipates that the new standards will save 270 lives and 1,330 injuries per year from mattress fires.

“We’ve passed a new open flame regulation and the whole idea behind the regulation is to make sure that if a mattress catches on fire that the fire burns slowly enough that people have enough time to get out of the house and get away,” said Hal Stratton, chairman of the CPSC

Radio and TV advertising spots are reacting to the new regulation by discounting prices on mattresses that fail to meet the new guidelines. Sales made in the mattress industry, like the automobile industry, are highly negotiable on price. The new regulation does not appear to have much “teeth” for mattresses already in the distribution pipeline, but it is a new law that is a bargaining position for potential buyers.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Chemotherapy is usually associated with a collection of side effects ranging from digestive problems to hair loss, but a study published this week in Human Reproduction demonstrated that female cancer patients may find they have something in common with much younger women in one specific area — their ovaries.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh examined donated ovarian tissue from fourteen female cancer patients, most of whom had Hodgkin lymphoma, and compared it to tissue from healthy women. They found the samples from women who had been treated with a specific chemotherapeutic regimen known as ABVD not only contained greater numbers of dormant ova — egg cells — than those from women treated with harsher regimens but also more than samples from healthy women. ABVD is named for combining several drugs known as adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine.

These reproductive cells were not merely more plentiful in ABVD patients. They also appeared immature, “new” in the words of lead researcher Evelyn Telfer. This challenges the conventional belief that girls are born with all the ova they will ever have and the numbers can only go down as the cells are either used up by the reproductive cycle or succumb to damage or natural aging. However, further research is needed to confirm this. The study covered relatively few patients by scientific standards, and David Albertini of the Center for Human Reproduction in New York has suggested the cells may not actually be freshly grown. Instead, they may have always been there and were merely rendered more detectable by ABVD treatment.

The ability to grow new egg cells may have significant implications for women in Western societies, many of whom postpone childbearing to establish careers, sometimes into their late thirties or forties. However, Telfer warns against making use of these findings too soon: “There’s so much we don’t know about the ovary. We have to be very cautious about jumping to clinical applications.”

The experiments had been discussed earlier this year at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Apple announced Monday that it has sold over two million iPads, just two months after the device began shipping in the US and only days after its international launch.

Apple shares rose 2.9 percent (US$7.41) to US$264.29 Tuesday afternoon. Market analysts also upped price targets and sales estimates in response to the announcement. Shares for AT&T, who provides data plans for the iPad, also rose yesterday.

Prior to the iPad’s April 3 launch, many analysts had speculated about the viability and marketability of the device. However, iPad sales have been faster than anticipated. Although it was only expected to sell one million iPads for the whole quarter, Apple announced in early May that it had surpassed the one-million mark in just 28 days. It again surprised industry watchers, who were expecting about 1.6–1.7 million iPads to have been sold when Apple announced that it had passed the two-million mark. iPad sales may make up over ten percent of Apple’s revenue this quarter, a feat that took the iPhone twice as long to achieve. The iPad has been so popular and supplies of the tablet so low that Apple tried to place limits on the number of iPads a person can purchase earlier.

Apple had postponed sales of the iPad to Europe and Asia until last weekend due to strong demand for the tablet in the US. In addition to the US, it now sells the devices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K., and will begin shipping iPads to Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore in July.