Monday, February 20, 2006

The New Zealand government has announced that it will be reviewing funding for medical and dentistry students at Otago and Auckland Universities to certify the institutions’ standards and help staff retention.

The dean of Auckland University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Professor Iain Martin says the review “can’t come soon enough”.

The Medical Students Association welcomes the review. It says that it has been worried about student debt for years “High debt encourages too many graduates overseas, or into high paying areas of practice at the expense of areas like general practice”

Sunday, November 7, 2010Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards won the NASCAR Nationwide Series 2010 O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge held yesterday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

Kyle Busch came in second for Joe Gibbs Racing, and Brad Keselowski finished third to win his title after leading through the season. Busch’s teammate Joey Logano started from 10th place on the starting grid, but finished 4th in front of Martin Truex, Jr. Jason Leffler (Braun Racing) and Reed Sorenson (Braun Racing) finished behind Truex, Jr. in 6th and 7th. Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, and Steve Wallace rounded out the top ten finishers in the race. Pole position winner James Buescher finished 37th, after being involved in an accident on lap 44.

In the Drivers’ championship, Keselowski clinched the championship with 5,314 points, 465 ahead of Edwards, and 695 ahead of Busch in third. Justin Allgaier was scored fourth, Menard was sixth, and Harvick was seventh, after finishing eighth. Trevor Bayne and Leffler was ninth and tenth. Keselowski now cannot be beaten with only two races to go. “My whole family made so many sacrifices along the way and I’m surrounded by great people. I’m happy and blessed to have this whole team around me. Almost had a win here today and wanted it to work out,” he said after the race.

Afterward, Edwards commented, “I had to do everything I could. I got the best restart I could and it ended up giving us the race. I knew if I gave him an inch he would beat us.” Busch followed in the press conference and said “Carl Edwards jumped the restart by about three lengths before the restart mark.” He was then asked if he should have brought it up to NASCAR, but he answered, “Does it fucking matter? Race is over. Carl Edwards is in victory lane. Nothing you can do about it. Our car was fast in the beginning but didn’t have the speed it took at the end of the race. I don’t know if it was under the hood or through the corners. It was disappointing finishing second but whatever.”

Monday, January 11, 2010

Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is US Senate Majority leader, is under a lot of criticism over comments he made during the 2008 United States presidential election, toward US President Barack Obama. The highlighted comment made by Reid was calling Obama a “light-skinned” black man “with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.” The remarks were released in a book co-written by Time magazine reporter Mark Halperin, and New York magazine reporter John Heileman.

Reid has since apologized for “using such a poor choice of words.” President Obama quickly accepted the apology. Reid has been a partner with the Obama Administration on issues such as health care reform. Democratic Party chairman Tim Kaine told Meet the Press “the comments were unfortunate and they were insensitive”, but “I think the case is closed because President Obama has spoken directly with the leader [Reid] and accepted his apology. […] We’re moving on.”

Members of the Republican Party have called on Reid to resign over his comments. Party chairperson Michael Steele told Fox News Sunday “There is this standard where the Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it … comes from the mouths of their own. But if it comes from anyone else, it’s racism,”. Having appeared alongside Kaine, where the Democrat Party chairman stated the case was closed, Steele argued that there was a double standard, on the basis of then-Senator Obama calling in 2002 calling for Trent Lott, at that time the majority leader, to be ousted for supporting the views of Strom Thurmond, who stood as a segregationist Presidential candidate in 1948.

The book Game Change published today, also says that New York Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged Barack Obama to run in early 2006, even though he later endorsed his former colleague Hillary Clinton. Other revelations included that John McCain’s aides were concerned about Sarah Palin’s failure to understand basic facts prior to her ABC News interviews with Charles Gibson, including why North Korea and South Korea are separate countries.

Co-authors Halpern and Heileman have a history of vocal criticism of media coverage of the 2008 Presidential election. In late 2008, Daily Kos reporter Jed Lewison drew attention to comments by Halpern, on-stage with Heilmen, asserting the reportage was, “extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage”; he characterised election coverage as, “the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war”. Halpern’s centrepiece example was an analysis of New York Times profiles on the prospective First Ladies; overlooking earlier NYT coverage that reported on Obama’s Caucasian ancestors being slave owners.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Manchester United triumphed yesterday over local rivals Manchester City, with Michael Owen scoring the late injury time winner in a goal-packed match.

Wayne Rooney opened the match with a quick goal for United after 2 minutes, but Gareth Barry equalised after a quarter hour, leaving it 1–1 at half time.

In the second half Darren Fletcher scored two headers, but Craig Bellamy brought City back from behind each time. With Bellamy’s second goal coming late in the 90th minute, the teams looked set for a 3–3 draw.

City boss Mark Hughes claimed they were “robbed” after the referee allowed almost seven minutes of injury time. The fourth official signalled four minutes stoppage time, and Owen’s dramatic goal came in the sixth minute. Speaking after the match Hughes said, “We need an explanation because I don’t know why the referee has added that amount of time on … I was questioning the amount of time added on even before the game finished.”

United manager Alex Ferguson said it was probably “the best derby game of all time”, and singled out Owen for particular praise, describing him as “world class”. Owen had been brought on in a late substitution, and it was his first goal at Old Trafford, following his transfer from Newcastle United over the summer.

It was also a big occasion for City forward Carlos Tévez, playing for the first time against his former team. Tévez is the first player to move from United to City in a decade, setting a British transfer record of £47 million in the process.

The defeat ends City’s unbeaten start to the season, leaving them in fourth place in the Premier League with 12 points. United are second in the table with 15 points, trailing Chelsea.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Jim Cramer, CNBC’s host of Mad Money, plans to appear on The Daily Show Thursday, in the midst of an escalating feud between Cramer and the Comedy Central show’s host, Jon Stewart.

Jim Cramer has been the only CNBC employee to publicly respond to Daily Show segments strongly criticizing the television business news channel’s financial coverage during the growing global recession, particularly focusing on specific remarks by made by Cramer.

The feud began on March 4, when The Daily Show aired an eight-minute clip lampooning CNBC. The comedy news show featured several clips of pundits, focusing particularly on predictions or reports by CNBC reporters that The Daily Show argued were overly optimistic or too strongly slanted in favor of the companies being discussed.

In one clip, a CNBC host reported Merrill Lynch said it would not need capital, which The Daily Show followed with a list of billions in bailout money the financial services firm has required since September. In another clip, Jim Cramer is shown allegedly affirming “Your money is safe in Bear Sterns”, followed by a Daily Show statement that the global investment bank went under six days later.

“If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today,” Stewart said during the bit, “provided I’d started with a hundred million dollars.”

Although most CNBC reporters and executives declined to comment, Cramer defended himself in a column published Monday, claiming the clip was taken out of context. Cramer said he wasn’t talking about buying Bear Sterns stock, but simply reassuring a viewer that his liquidity held in Bear Sterns was safe.

“The absurdity astounds me,” Cramer said of the Daily Show bit. “The fact that I was right rankles me even more.”

Later that day, The Daily Show responded with another montage of clips, this time more specifically targeting Cramer.

“So Jim Cramer, I apologize,” Stewart said ironically, then promptly showcased video of Cramer suggesting the safety of Bear Stearns stock 5 days prior to the collapse of Bear Stearns on Mad Money’s Lighting Round. Provokingly, Jon Stewart then admitted, “He’s not saying literally ‘I’m asking you to buy Bear Stearns,’ for that you have to go back a full 7 weeks” this time showing video footage of Cramer on January 24, 2008, telling TheStreet.com TV viewers to specifically “buy Bear Stearns” stock 7 weeks before it collapsed.

The following day on March 10, Cramer responded again during a Tuesday appearance on the Today show, saying, “[Jon Stewart] is a comedian, and he’s decided to focus on some calls I made during a bull market. The guy is a comedian. Did I make a mistake? First of all, any time you recommend a stock and it goes down, you’ve made a mistake. Here’s a shocker: Almost every stock is down! Any stock you recommended is bad. You know, Warren Buffett, I could run tapes from him, he would look like a complete fool.”

The feud between The Daily Show and CNBC generated a significant amount of attention in the mainstream media. The Associated Press called the first Daily Show bit a “brutal takedown” of CNBC. Other publications, like New York magazine, defended CNBC, writing, “We doubt there’s a single news outlet that hasn’t made a misstatement regarding the economy in the past year.”

The Thursday Daily Show sketch ran the same day CNBC reporter Rick Santelli was scheduled to appear on the show, to discuss his vocal criticisms of President Barack Obama’s plans for dealing with foreclosures. Santelli cancelled the appearance, but Daily Show executives said the CNBC montage was not retaliatory and that they planned to show it before the cancellation was announced.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The automobile manufacturer Toyota has said that it will recall up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, after a problem with the accelerator pedal was discovered.

According to the firm, eight models were affected by the problem — AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis, and RAV4 — after it was discovered that the accelerator may become stuck in a depressed position, resulting in uncontrollable speeding.

On Thursday, Toyota said it would recall 1.1 million cars in the US; a day previous, it had suspended eight models from sales. Last week, 2.3 million cars in the US were recalled due to the pedal issues.

The chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe commented on the recall. “We understand that the current situation is creating concerns and we deeply regret it,” said Tadashi Arashima. The firm, however, noted that it wasn’t aware of any accidents resulted by the malfunctioning accelerator pedals, and not many pedal problem incidents were reported in Europe. “The potential accelerator pedal issue only occurs in very rare circumstances,” Arashima added.

The National Automobile Dealers Association, meanwhile, commented that Toyota showrooms could lose as much as US$2.47 billion worth of revenue due to the incident.

“Toyota veterans will likely hear the news with disbelief and keep faith in the brand, but new customers could definitely be scared off,” remarked Robert Rademacher, who is the president of the trade group ZDK, as quoted by Business Week. “This recall has a dimension which we’ve never seen before.”

There are concerns that the problem may result in reduced consumer trust in Toyota. Hans-Peter Wodniok, an analyst for Fairesearch GmbH & Co. in Germany, noted: “If this is a one-time event, huge as it is, Toyota may be forgiven. But if something happens again in the next months and years, they will have gambled away customer trust in Europe as well.”

Analysts for Morgan Stanley, however, said they believed Toyota would not suffer much from the incident. “The company’s actions to correct the situation are timely enough to avoid major brand damage,” they remarked in a note to investors.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Almost a thousand protesters at The Copenhagen Climate Change Summit were arrested yesterday for unruly conduct. Although most of the protests were peaceful, one group began destroying windows of nearby buildings. Tens of thousands of protesters held multiple rallies throughout the Danish capital. Marches have also formed in Australia, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Indonesia and the Philippines. One of the demonstrators, Nnimmo Bassey, of Friends of the Earth, summed the rallies with “Let’s dance, sing and be happy, because power is in your hands,”.

Protesters included actress Helen Baxendale, model Helena Christensen and former Irish president Mary Robinson. Baxendale was quoted “I think it’s also important that people come and make their voices heard as well. I think, in the end, that’s what will make real, positive change.”

The Copenhagen Summit opened last Monday, and has representatives from nearly 190 nations to discuss caps on greenhouse gas emissions. A draft proposal calls for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 50–90% by 2050 and 25–40% by 2020 for developed nations.