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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

BOSTON, MA –The hotly contested Puerto Rico election for governor has entered the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to decide whether the Puerto Rican Supreme Court or a U.S. District Judge has jurisdiction over the contested ballots.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico. The election has been contested since November.

The ballot for governor allows Puerto Ricans to vote for a governor of their political party and any one person. The largest instance of this occurred when members of the Independence Party voted for their candidate (who trailed a distant third) and for Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party. Opposition mainly from the New Progressive Party argues that the intent of the voter is not clear on these “mixed ballots.” The Popular Democratic Party points out that such mixed ballots have been accepted in the past.

Pedro Rosselló, former governor from the New Progressive Party, is up for re-election.

The Puerto Rican Supreme Court ruled the ballots valid, a decision that was overturned by a U.S. Federal Judge Daniel Domínguez, who ordered ballots be counted but not confirmed until their validity can be decided. The election is a close one, and the validity of the contested ballots will determine the winner.

Time pressure increases with each day, since the inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2005.

The Independence Party favours Puerto Rico becoming an independent nation, and is a small third party. The Popular Democratic Party currently is the ruling party and favours Puerto Rico to remain a commonwealth. The New Progressive Party favours Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state.

Friday, November 3, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley West (Ward 26). Four candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Muhammad Alam, Bahar Aminvaziri, Orhan Aybars, Michele Carroll-Smith, Mohamed Dhanani, Abdul Ingar, Geoff Kettel, Debbie Lechter, Natalie Maniates, John Masterson, John Parker, David Thomas, Csaba Vegh, and Fred Williams.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Leaders attending the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia have worn Driza-Bone coats for their traditional group photo in front of the Sydney Opera House. In APEC tradition, leaders wear attire which draws inspiration from the host nation’s national costume.

Australia’s choice was made by Prime Minister John Howard and his wife Janette. Australia does not have a national costume. In an APEC statement it was revealed that Driza-Bone had been consulted to produce an outfit that “captures the essence of Australia’s culture and environment.”

“Driza-Bone coats were born over 100 years ago when a sailor fashioned waterproof coats out of windjammer sails for protection against the harsh Australian trade winds,” the statement said.

“These coats were also perfect for people working on the vast Australian continent and have since been adapted into the perfect riding and outback attire.”

The custom-made knee-length coats worn by the leaders were the traditional dark brown of all Driza-Bones and had differing colours for the lapels and linings – slate blue for Australia’s vast coastline, mustard yellow for the sun and sand; red ochre for the outback and eucalyptus green for the bush. Leaders were given the choice over which highlight colour they wanted.

The choice of costume was a closely guarded secret by Australia officials, with speculation rife throughout the media. It has been suggested that the costume could include “budgie smugglers” (male swimwear)- and thongs (flip flops) to represent the beach;blue singlets and shorts favoured by labourers or khaki gear in memory of Steve Irwin.

The group photo is said to be one of the most anticipated parts of the APEC summit, with people wanting to see which leader looks the “silliest”. In the past leaders have been dressed in silk tunics, leather bomber jackets and Batik-print shirts.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

The following is how the medal table looks after the final day of competition for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne, Australia.

In the final event of the Games, New Zealand defeated the reigning Netball Commonwealth champion Australia, 60-55, for the first time in 12 years.

Australia received its largest medal haul in Commonwealth Games history, receiving more than a third of the gold medals available; a total of 221 medals.

South Africa was the best of the African nation, winning 38 medals.

There were 247 events and 24 disciplines in the games. Events included:

• Aquatics: diving, swimming, synchronised swimming
• Athletics
• Badminton
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Cycling: track, road, mountain bike
• Gymnastics: artistic, rhythmic
• Hockey
• Lawn Bowls
• Netball
• Rugby Sevens
• Shooting: clay target, pistol, small bore and air rifle, full bore rifle
• Squash
• Table Tennis
• Triathlon
• Weightlifting

The games will be officially closed tonight, (0900 UTC) with the handing over of the Games to Delhi for 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Monday, December 3, 2018

On Friday, German police investigators continued their previous day’s search of the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, for evidence of money laundering and other wrongdoing in connection to the group of leaked financial documents called the Panama Papers. A police spokesperson explained the roughly 170 searchers, including officers, prosecutors and tax experts, encountered such a volume of material the matter could not be concluded in one day.

The allegations are that, from 2013 onward, two employees of Deutche Bank helped clients to avoid taxes and other regulations by creating offshore companies. Bank officials announced Thursday they were cooperating with authorities but made no further comment.

The stock value of Deutsche Bank dropped roughly by half over the course of 2018. Last year, the governments of the United States and United Kingdom fined Deutsche Bank US$630 million for laundering money from Russia through its offices in Moscow and London. This fall, BaFIN, a German regulator, sent a special representative to order Detusche Bank to improve its anti-money-laundering practices and see that it did.

“Panama Papers” is an umbrella term for roughly ten million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, leaked to the press in spring 2016. The documents showed fourteen banks helped wealthy clients hide billions of US dollars of wealth to avoid taxes and other regulations. British newspaper The Guardian suggested Deutsche Bank controlled roughly a third of the 1200 shell companies used to accomplish this. There were protests worldwide, several criminal prosecutions, and the leaders of the governments of Iceland and Pakistan both resigned.

Ava Lee of anti-corruption organization Global Witness said, “Almost three years on, and law enforcement are still relying on the Panama Papers for their work. It shows how investigative journalism has been at the forefront of opening the door on a morass of morally dubious — and sometimes illegal — activity by banks[.]”

Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist who played a prominent role in investigation based on the Panama Papers, was killed in a car bombing last year.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Icelandic internet bank, Icesave, has suspended all 300,000 of its UK customer accounts, leaving account holders in the United Kingdom unable to withdraw or deposit any funds. A message on its website posted this morning states:

“We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly.”

The internet bank, owned by the Icelandic bank, Landsbanki (Landsbankinn), which was recently nationalised in an attempt to rescue it, has been hit by the global financial crisis. Reports from the United Kingdom suggest that the traders and city are preparing for the parent company to be declared insolvent, leaving customers to recover their monies through a financial compensation scheme being backed by the Icelandic Government. The plan will cover the first € 20,887 (Approx £16,300 / $28,720), the remainder of the customers funds being recovered through the UK’s own financial compensation system.

Following the decision to nationalise Landsbanki, the Icelandic Prime Minister, Geir Haarde, who introduced and signed the emergency legislation into law, stated:

In describing and explaining its actions in nationalising the bank, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority issued this brief statement:

In response to the deepening world financial situation, the Dutch government has this afternoon increased its savers protection from €38,000 to €80,000 effective immediately, to help secure the financial status of its savers within Holland. Icesave also has a Dutch branch, icesave.nl – their website was unreachable at the time of this article.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Chemists from the University of Delaware, Newark, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently reported their preparation of a complex containing two chromium atoms connected by the shortest ever metal-metal bond, 1.8028 Å (0.2 nm) long. 1 Å is 1×10^?10 meters or 1/10,000,000,000 meters. The scientists, including Prof. Klaus H. Theopold and graduate student Kevin A. Kreisel, believe the compound contains a quintuple bond, i.e., five bonds between the two chromium atoms.

In general, shorter bonds containing more electrons will be stronger. Although single, double and triple bonds occur in nature, quadruple and quintuple bonds have so far only been found in the laboratory. The first compound with a quintuple bond was reported in 2005.

To make the complex, the scientists first reacted chromium chloride with a bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)diazadiene ligand, which has the structure Ar-N=C-C=N-Ar (Ar is a bulky aryl group). This intermediate dark-green compound was then reduced using KC₈ (potassium metal in graphite) to give the unusual product. The compound crystallises from ether as red/green plates. The quintuple bond between the metals is weakened by some mixing in from antibonding orbitals, reducing the overall bond order to around 4.28. The bond length is 0.026 Å shorter than the previous record, a dichromium complex reported in 1978 by F. Albert Cotton and coworkers, which featured a quadruple bond 1.828 Å long.