US stock markets reach 12-year lows

Thursday, March 5, 2009

US stock markets dropped to twelve-year lows on Thursday, amidst falling confidence in the financial sector and worries over whether the US automobile manufacturer General Motors will be able to keep operating.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 4.08%, or 280.52 points, at the closing bell, reaching a level of 6595.32, a new 12-year low. The Nasdaq Composite lost 54.15 points, or 4%, to 1299.59, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 plunged by 30.27 points, or 4.25%, closing at 682.60.

Every stock in the Dow Jones, other than Wal-Mart, either lost ground or remained even, and all stocks in the S&P 500 index lost ground.

General Motors’ shares lost 15.5% after the auto firm announced that its auditors had “substantial doubt” over whether it would be able to keep operating.

Shares of financial companies were lower by nine percent, with Bank of America losing 11.7% and Citigroup falling by 9.7%.

“What’s most worrisome is that we haven’t hit the crescendo yet,” said Bill Groeneveld, the head trader for vFinance Investments. “Asset-management divisions are getting calls to just liquidate everything, and we haven’t seen the big players come back in at all.”

“This is one of the worst bear markets in the last 100 years; it started out with the credit crisis and the subprime [loans], but it is like a forest fire that has raced across the clearing and ignited other parts: Autos, auto parts, the insurance companies have been hit very hard. The credit crisis is causing an unraveling of industry after industry because the banks don’t lend,” said David Dreman, the chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management.

European markets were also lower today, with the London’s FTSE index losing 3.2% and the DAX index of Germany falling by five percent.

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Hiker missing from US state of Utah wilderness found in Australia

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

A man missing from a camping ground in southern Utah in the Western US since July 30 was found in Australia. His automobile was found in a campground of Dixie National Forest with a note that he would be back in a few hours. An extensive search and rescue operation was conducted to try to locate this hiker by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Utah.

Investigators in the Sheriff’s Office were able to track him down to Cairns, Queensland. Apparently before he was “missing”, he bought a one-way ticket to Australia. Bryan Butas, the missing hiker, apparently had been under a great deal of stress and “got sick of it all”, according to a telephone interview by the Associated Press.

Butas has been charged with insurance fraud, a second-degree felony, by Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap. This was because Butas plotted to obtain a $250,000 life insurance policy before faking his own disappearance. He has also been given a bill for $20,000 by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office for their search and rescue operations on his behalf.

His wife and children have since his disappearance moved to the wife’s parent’s home in Ohio. Butas’s parents came to Southern Utah to help in the search and were “embarrassed and shocked” to learn their son had merely run away from marital and financial difficulties, Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said.

Washington County Sheriff Sgt. Jake Adams said his investigation included tracing an application Butas made for a passport, his purchase of a one-way airline ticket to Australia, and the life insurance policy that names his wife and children as beneficiaries. On August 18, Adams said Butas’s mother called him to say her son had called home the evening of August 11, several days after the search was officially called off for the missing man. Butas asked his mother for money and an airline ticket home, which she sent.

Butas has since been checked into the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Brecksville, Ohio, according to Adams, but will shortly return to Utah.

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Children’s Education Ngo Supports Education Of Underprivileged Children

Many government setup educational facilities and Education NGO are working for the cause of education of underprivileged children. These NGOs help the children in learning and gaining education that lead to a better and sustainable life. Children education NGO are supporting the cause of educating the underprivileged kids to help them in understanding the value the learning process possesses. These NGOs provide free meals apart from imparting free education for a better future of the kids.

The children’s education NGO makes sure that the children attend the NGO education center or the government school in their locality on regular basis and monitor the quality of education and qualification of teachers teaching in these centers. The subjects are taught to the children in the local languages and English language has been implemented too in many NGO run schools. The quality of education is estimated through the growth and competency of the child studying at the center.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQDllvuy1I[/youtube]

Unlike kids of the well off families, these underprivileged kids cannot afford to get help from tuition centers for improving their performance at school. To ease the workload at schools, these NGOs have opened up education centers to help the children manage their schoolwork.

Poverty is not only related to hunger or homelessness. It relates to the consequences of being uneducated thus making the children incapable of coping up with problems of life and improving their social and financial status. Children’s Education NGO understands all aspects of poverty and emphasizes education as an effective remedy.

Arpan education is an NGO supporting underprivileged children in their schoolwork. It functions as a tuition center and takes the kids on frequent educational trips.

Article Source: sooperarticles.com/business-articles/non-profit-articles/childrens-education-ngo-supports-education-underprivileged-children-131620.html

About Author:

for more information visit….. arpaneducation.com/Author: Ashish Sahgal

Andrea Muizelaar on fashion, anorexia, and life after ‘Top Model’

Monday, November 26, 2007

In the 18 months since Andrea Muizelaar was crowned winner of the reality TV series Canada’s Next Top Model, her life has been a complete whirlwind. From working in a dollar store in her hometown of Whitby, Ontario, to modeling haute couture in Toronto, she had reached her dream of becoming a true Top Model.

But at what cost? Unknown to casual television viewers, Muizelaar had been enveloped in the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which inevitably became too much for her to bear. She gave up modeling and moved back to Whitby, where she sought treatment for her disorder, re-entered college, and now works at a bank. Where is she now? Happy and healthy, she says.

Recently Andrea Muizelaar sat down with Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman in a candid interview that stretched to nearly two hours, as she told all about her hopes and aspirations, her battle with anorexia, and just what really happened on Canada’s Next Top Model.

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Walloon region of Belgium officially recognises mosques

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Belgium’s French-speaking Walloon region has officially recognised 43 mosques, thus giving Islam the same rights as accorded to other religions in the region. They will be permitted to build minarets on their mosques, and Imams will be added to the government payroll, as is the case – for example – with Catholic priests.

Moves are afoot to apply for official recognition of a number of mosques in the other two main regions of Belgium: Brussels, and Flemish-speaking Flanders.

Most of the immigrant population in Belgium are Muslims, but until now the mosques were not yet officially recognised. The traditional faith in Belgium is Roman Catholicism. Other minor faiths are Protestant Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism.

Buddhists also recently applied for official recognition as a religion in Belgium.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Walloon_region_of_Belgium_officially_recognises_mosques&oldid=2045338”

Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Green candidate Russ Aegard, Thunder Bay-Atikokan

Monday, September 24, 2007

Russ Aegard is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

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Nonwoven Bags Are More Dangerous Than Plastic Bags

Since the plastic limit is put into practice, the businessman makes the bag as a promotional magic – bags become gifts when people buy food ,beverage bags and a magazine, or pay phone charges. These bags are easy- use, colorful, cute, it is popular among many consumers. But many people concerns that, since the widespread use of bags, when they participate in activities, go shopping, etc., they always receive free bags. Now there are many kinds of bags in houses and it seems too much. These bags are donated, old. Once broken, it will be readily thrown away.” Consumers believe that the quality of present bags are not so good, especially the nonwoven bags. Its robustness is worse than textile fabrics. Some are even bad than plastic bags, and they are not waterproof. Non-woven bags are easily cleaves from the right angle direction. The bags are so easily broken and thrown away frequently. Do they really play an environmental role?Now most of the bags are nonwoven bags. The raw materials are polypropylene or terephthalate glycol ester. But the raw materials of plastic bags are polyethylene .Polypropylene and polyethylene both are not degraded less than 50 years. When the temperature is high, polypropylene will release harmful substances. The weight and volume of non-woven bags is higher than normal plastic bags, it reaches more than 10 times. At the same time, some non-woven bags are decorated with buttons, sequins and some other small parts which can not be recycled. In conclusion, non-woven bags are not environmental than plastic bags which can be recyclable, and easily crushed.There are many companies and enterprises make the bags as gifts to do advertising, the one that covers t a layer of resin outside or with color pattern are not environmentally friendly. And the real green bags ask higher producing costs.Many people also say, plastic limit does not make the use of plastic bags in a limitation. And the one which is not biodegradable bags has spread to everywhere. People suggest that relevant departments should make clear about the requirements of the quality of recycle bags and make a seriously strict law to make it effect. In addition, experts advise that, non-woven material itself is plastic. If it is used in a long period with slow degradation process, the potential crisis is much danger than plastic bags. It may become another great pollution source as plastic bags. Source: www.cnmhc.com

Clashes in Nigeria kill hundreds, troops on alert

Monday, March 8, 2010

According to witness and media reports, at least two hundred people in Nigeria have been killed after pastoralists and villagers clashed near the city of Jos, which has been the source of repeated tension between Christians and Muslims.

Local authorities, however, contradicted witness reports, saying that there were eight casualties, as did Mark Lipdo, an aid worker for the Stefanus Foundation charity, who reported that at least a hundred people were dead.

Witness reports state that pastoralists started firing into the air in the village of Dogo Nahawa, about five kilometres south of Jos, at night, and attacked those who emerged from their homes. “They came around three o’clock in the morning and they started shooting into the air. The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” commented Peter Jang, who lives in the village, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, some of the victims were children.

Acting Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said he had placed national troops on “red alert” following the clashes. “The acting president has placed all the security forces in the plateau and neighbouring states on red alert so as to stem any cross-border dimensions to this latest conflict,” read a statement released by his office. Armed forces are already present in Jos.

“The security services are on top of the situation,” said Jonathan’s spokesman Ima Niboro in an email statement to the Bloomberg news service.

In January, at least 400 people were killed and a further four thousand injured in the city of Jos after tensions between Christians and Muslims.

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‘Each makes the other more difficult’: University of Sussex professor L. Alan Winters speaks to Wikinews on trade, COVID-19, Brexit

Friday, June 4, 2021

Earlier this month, Wikinews spoke with University of Sussex professor of economics L. Alan Winters regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU) in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the subsequent negotiations leading up to and following the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement of December 2020, which he has researched extensively. In a call, Wikinews spoke with Professor Winters about recent developments in UK trade policy to learn more about his observations.

Winters is professor of economics at the University of Sussex, as well as founding director and fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO). His career spans over 15 years, including as chief economist at the Department for International Development, director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank, CEO of the Migrating Out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium and advisor for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Three reports where Winters is listed as an author were used as reference during the interview: “COVID-19 will reinforce the Brexit shock”, “The Costs of Brexit” and “Taking stock of the new UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: governance, state subsidies and the level playing field”.

Winters was awarded the title “Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath”, styled C.B., on June 16, 2012 as part of the 2012 Birthday Honours.

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Honda Civic tops Canada’s list of most stolen cars

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The 1999 and 2000 year model Honda Civic SiR tops the list of Canada’s most stolen cars.

Consumer popularity also assures the cars will be popular with thieves. Its the second year in a row the Honda SiR has topped the list.

Rick Dubin Vice President of Investigations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada said “The Civics are easy targets.”

Dubin said that once stolen, the cars are most often sold to “chop shops” where thieves completely dismantle the vehicles. The automobile’s individual parts are worth more than the entire car.

The sheer numbers of the cars and their lack of theft deterrent systems make them thieves’ preferred choices.

1999 and 2000 Honda Civics do not come with an electronic immobilizer, however all Hondas from 2001 and onward are equipped with an immobilizer. Immobilizers will be mandatory on all new cars sold beginning September 2007. The devices enable an engine computer to recognize an electronic code in the key. If the code in the key and the engine don’t match exactly, the vehicle can’t be started.

In third place was the 2004 Subaru Impreza, while the 1999 Acura Integra came in fourth, with the 1994 Honda Civic rounding out the top five.

In sixth place, the 1998 Acura Integra, and the 1993 Dodge Shadow completed seventh.

When asked why early model vehicles are selected, he said that, “auto thieves continue to find it easier to steal older vehicles lacking an IBC-approved immobilizer. We’ve seen this trend developing for several years, and these results confirm it.”

Another Honda automobile, the 1996 year model Civic filled eighth place, with the 2000 German Audi TT Quattro in ninth.

The American 1996 Chevrolet/GMC Blazer rounded out the top ten.

None of the above cars had an electronic immobilizer.

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