Friday, May 8, 2015
An 18-year-old Victorian teen accused of plotting a terrorist attack on Anzac Day applied for bail at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. It is alleged that Harun Causevic and his associate, Sedvdet Besim, also 18, planned to run down and behead a police officer before stealing his gun to harm others at Anzac Day services in Melbourne.
Federal prosecutor Andrew Doyle stated the allegations made against Mr Causevic at the start of the hearing. Mr Doyle said Mr Causevic and Mr Besim had planned to carry out a terror attack in Melbourne if they weren’t able to access passports to head overseas.
Denis Scott, an Australian Federal Police agent, told the court how Mr Causevic had allegedly called AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers “dogs” during the process of trying to obtain a passport in March.
It was also revealed that Mr Besim had been speaking to a 14-year-old boy in the United Kingdom over the Internet. The boy had been portraying himself as an older man with experience in terrorism. Agent Scott told the court that these conversations were conducted through an online voice program, and that the two spoke about planning to carry out an attack on Anzac Day.
It was alleged that Mr Causevic was an accomplice in organising the terror plot in Melbourne. The court heard of a number of incidents where Mr Causevic’s extremist behaviours were put on show. In one instance he was involved in a car accident in which he allegedly told the driver involved that ISIS was “going to kill” Australia. It was also alleged that Mr Causevic had once spat on a police vehicle and waved an Islamic flag at officers.
During a search at Mr Causevic’s home police found weapons such as knives, a tactical vest and an Islamic flag. Agent Scott told the court that if bail was granted, Mr Causevic could put the safety of the public and police force in danger.
The defence argued that there was no evidence to show that Mr Causevic had been in contact with the boy Mr Besim had been speaking with in the UK. Evidence was given from some members of the Islamic Council of Victoria suggesting that Mr Causevic was capable of being guided away from extremist Islamic ideology if he is granted bail.
Magistrate Suzie Cameron is expected to make her decision on Mr Causevic’s bail application on Friday.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The name Robert Cailliau may not ring a bell to the general public, but his invention is the reason why you are reading this: Dr. Cailliau together with his colleague Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, making the internet accessible so it could grow from an academic tool to a mass communication medium. Last January Dr. Cailliau retired from CERN, the European particle physics lab where the WWW emerged.
Wikinews offered the engineer a virtual beer from his native country Belgium, and conducted an e-mail interview with him (which started about three weeks ago) about the history and the future of the web and his life and work.
Wikinews: At the start of this interview, we would like to offer you a fresh pint on a terrace, but since this is an e-mail interview, we will limit ourselves to a virtual beer, which you can enjoy here.
Robert Cailliau: Yes, I myself once (at the 2nd international WWW Conference, Chicago) said that there is no such thing as a virtual beer: people will still want to sit together. Anyway, here we go.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Alan Mercer is running for the Ontario Libertarian Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough—Rouge River 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.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
On Monday, Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo formally announced his retirement from football. A 2006 FIFA World Cup winner with Italy, Pirlo had announced his intentions to end the 22-year-career last month, and his final professional game ended in a 2–0 win for New York City FC (NYCFC) against Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer play-offs at Yankee Stadium.
“As my time in NYC FC comes to an end, I want to thank everybody for the kindness and support they have shown me in this incredible city”, 38-year-old Pirlo wrote on Twitter. Last month, the Italian told La Gazzetta dello Sport “You realise yourself that the time has come. Each day, you have physical problems and you can’t train as you would like to. At my age, it’s fine to say enough is enough.” ((it))Italian language: ?Ti rendi conto da solo che è arrivato il momento. Ogni giorno hai problemi fisici, non riesci più ad allenarti come vorresti perché hai sempre qualche acciacco. Alla mia età ci sta di dire basta.
Pirlo spent 20 years playing in Italy, making his professional debut for Brescia Calcio before moving to Internazionale in 1998. Three years later, in 2001, he made a switch to Inter’s local rivals, AC Milan. Pirlo spent a decade with Milan, and won two Serie A titles, and two UEFA Champions League titles — in 2003 and in 2007, just a year after Pirlo won the World Cup in Germany with Azzurri defeating France.
His contract with Milan expired in 2011, and then 32-year-old Pirlo moved to Turin and joined Juventus. He won four consecutive Serie A titles with the Old Lady. He was close to winning a third UEFA Champions League gold medal in 2015, but Juventus lost 3–1 against FC Barcelona in the final.
Having won six Italian league titles, two Champions League and Coppa Italia as well as a World Cup with the national team, Pirlo moved to Yankee Stadium in July 2015. Pirlo was substituted in during the 90th minute in his last match for NYCFC, losing 4–3 on aggregate in the MLS play-offs. NYCFC’s manager Patrick Vieira said, “He [Pirlo] had a fantastic career, not just on the field but off it because he’s a true gentleman. He’s a really good guy.”
byAlma Abell
Being injured can cost you thousands of dollars in medical bills, car repairs, time lost from work, and more. The costs depend on the type of accident and severity of your injuries, but in most cases it’s hard to be able to afford to cover all of the bills on your own. Most people have insurance to cover some costs, but it can still be expensive when you have to take time off of work or for things your insurance doesn’t cover. If the accident was directly caused by someone else, or caused by their neglect, you should not have to pay these costs.
When you have to make a claim with your insurance company, chances are your insurance rates will go up. That is because they now have to pay for coverage for you and, like any business, they need to recoup their losses. If your injuries were caused by someone else, however, you may not have to make a claim with your insurance company and risk your rates rising. You can make a claim with their insurance agency and let them suffer the consequences of their actions or inactions instead. Before you do this, however, you’re going to want to speak with a Personal Injury Attorney.
As insurance companies are businesses, they need to make money, and this includes when they are settling with someone who has been injured. They’ll review over any information you send them, such as your medical bills and your car repairs, and then send you an offer for the minimum amount they think you will accept. Unfortunately, this rarely covers all of the costs associated with the injuries. Most people, however, see the large number on paper and accept, ruining any chances of getting all of the money they need.
When you hire a Personal Injury Attorney, such as one from the Law Offices of Elan Wurtzel, however, you will not have to worry about this. They’ll go over all of the bills you have from the injuries, including time missed from work, and they will ensure that you receive all of the money you need in a settlement. If the insurance company refuses to give you the money you deserve, they will take them to court for you to get the money you need. Before you sign any papers and accept a settlement that’s way too low, contact an attorney for help. Find Lawyer Helpfor personal injury.
Monday, October 1, 2012
JJB Sports, British sports clothing and equipment retail chain, is to make 2,200 employees in the United Kingdom redundant as it enters administration.
In a £24m deal, Sports Direct have agreed to purchase and rebrand 20 stores as well as purchasing the brand, stock, website, the license to the Slazenger Golf brand and JJB’s Wigan headquarters. The deal with Sports Direct will keep 500 employees in work. In addition, 167 employees will continue working for JJB while KPMG, the appointed administrators, wind the company down.
The bulk of the money from the Sports Direct deal will go to pay back loans made by Lloyds Banking Group as well as money owned to the sports clothing brand Adidas and the American sports retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods, who had previously invested £20m in JJB. Shareholders are not expected to get any payout.
Former professional footballer and Wigan FC owner Dave Whelan, who founded the company in 1971 and sold his share in 2007, decided not to invest to save the business. To the BBC he said, “When I sold it — I sold it something like five years ago — just before that it was valued at a billion pounds. Now it’s completely worthless and it’s amazing how it’s happened.”
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Legendary boxing great Muhammed Ali died on Friday aged 74 in a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. A family spokesperson said Ali had been admitted with respiratory problems. The former heavyweight champion lived with Parkinson’s disease for decades, diagnosed in 1984.
Born on January 17, 1942 as Cassius Marcellus Clay, he changed his name to Muhammed Ali after his 1964 conversion to Islam. In his professional career, Ali won 56 out of 61 fights — including 31 consecutive wins. He won the World Heavyweight Championship three times and had also won an Olympic gold medal in the light-heavyweight category.
Often considered the greatest boxer of all time, Ali was the world heavyweight champion in the 1960s and 1970s. His famous fights with George Foreman in 1974 when he won his title back and against Joe Frazier are considered by many as two of the greatest fights in the sport’s history. Ali had also defeated Sonny Liston to claim the championship title.
Ali was also known as a political activist. He came under considerable controversy after his decision to refuse the Vietnam War draft.
He lit the flame in the 1996 Olympics hosted in Atlanta.
His funeral is to be in Kentucky.
Friday, April 15, 2005
The last British-owned volume car manufacturer, MG Rover, has closed down, with the loss of 5,000 jobs.
International accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCooper was brought in last week to put the company into administration. Today PwC announced that MG Rover’s only hope, the Chinese car company SAIC, had no interest in buying the ailing firm. With no further source of revenue, PwC has closed the company’s factory in Longbridge, Birmingham and has laid off 5,000 workers.
Some 1,000 workers will continue for a while to complete the remaining cars left on the production line.
The BBC reported PwC joint administrator Tony Lomas as saying “We’ll explore what we would describe as the break-up of the business, we will carry on with the interested parties who want to talk about pieces of the business.”. PwC said around 70 offers for various parts of the company had been made but no serious offers of money made.
Recent efforts to save the company had been centered on convincing SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.) to buy the company as a going concern, but the Chinese company stated it would only buy the company if it’s financial position could be guaranteed to be secure for at least two years. The British government could not make such a commitment due to European Union trade and competition rules.
The SAIC company did buy the designs for the 75 and 25 models and for the K-Series engines for £67m.
The Rover car company has a long but troubled history. It was formed in 1968 after a series of mergers of existing car manufacturers, and was nationalized in 1975 after it ran into financial difficulties. In 1979 a long-running deal to collaborate on developing new vehicles was established with the Japanese company Honda. In 1988 the company was privatized and was bought by British Aerospace. In 1994 British Aerospace sold the business to BMW, who then sold the Land Rover brand to Ford and finally sold the company in 2000 for just £10, retaining the well-known Mini brand for themselves. The MG Rover company was run by a private group until its collapse.
MG Rover has not launched a new model since the 75 was introduced in 1998 during the period of ownership by BMW. Their next newest model was the 25, originally launched as the 200 series some ten years ago. Rover also produced the 45, which dates from 1990, and the ZF sports car first launched in 1995. Sales of Rover cars accounted for just 3% of the UK car market in 2004.
Tony Blair announced a £150 million support package for the recently unemployed workers of the MG Rover plants, though it has been claimed that his generous offer may be more as a result of the nearby marginal seats in the upcoming elections than compassion on his part.
Submitted by: Jared Hobbs
A class of texts arose during the Late Vedic Period, circa 600-350 BCE, known as the Upanisads. In the Upanisads, meaning “hidden connections”, the Upanisadic writers attempted to find bandhus, or mental equivalences, between the Vedic ritual and the universe. This cosmic speculation led to a belief in the possibility of internalizing the Vedic ritual, thereby invalidating the need to behave in accordance with the strict rules of the Vedic society. The rules and societal structure actually became viewed as obstacles in the path to moksha, or liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. Some of these new schools of thought, although at the time considered heterodoxy, were eventually embraced as a legit form of religious life for people in the Vedic society, known as asceticism.
These ascetics, or sramanas (meaning “to strive”, as in performing austerities), renounced the Vedic society and culture as a reaction to the exclusive religious rights of the village brahmins and the roles played and debts owed as a householder. The different ideals embraced by the sramanas and the brahmins were further solidified by a growing separation in the views of what was considered proper dharma, or duty. Dharma, for the brahmins and orthodox practitioners were greatly centered around the role of the householder.
The householder is the ideal template for any religious person within the Vedic society. Their duties include the three debts: studentship to the Rsis (those to whom the Veda were revealed), spawning offspring to the ancestors, and the giving of sacrificial offerings to the gods. Becoming a student and performing the rituals gives purpose and payment to the Brahmins, allows multiple castes to perform their dharma and karma, and upholds Rti, the cosmic order. Giving birth gains one immortality through his son and continues the lineage of his ancestors. In this way, village life for all classes could continue in its customarily harmonious way. Females are extremely important to a male householder. A man is not complete without a wife and a son, and cannot perform the rituals. If one interprets such concepts as dharma, karma, and varna in the traditional ways, then they may feel impelled to pursue the life of the householder, because it is the established and most efficient means of performing one’s religious duties.
However, as the Upanisads and sramanical sects gained more precedence, so did the new understandings of dharma and karma in reference to samsara and the liberation from samsara, moksha. The life of the householder included the continual creation of mental samskaras, or karmic seeds, which was equivalent to certain rebirth within samsara. As the goal for the ascetic is liberation from samsara, the complete antithesis of a life in the village was embraced, and expressed as living in the wilderness, literally and metaphorically. Performing the Vedic ritual could not guarantee one moksha. Having children only further ties one into samsara. Seeking to know the atman as Brahman, the ascetic renounces society in order to find isolation to cease the turnings of the mind. In having done this, the renouncer rises above the desire for a son, for wealth, and the world. Thus, they become celibate and withdraw from society. Although withdrawn from society, they are dependent upon it, because they accumulate no wealth. And so they must beg. This antithetical lifestyle was met with opposition by the brahmins, who are invested and dependent upon householders.
The brahmin’s initial attempts to deter people from pursuing asceticism were highly polemical. For example, in the Mahabharata, one finds stories of ancestors suffering in hell-realms due to the withering of their family tree. This casts ascetical austerities in a selfish and harmful light. Later, compromises were made with the installation of the asrama system. This system refers to stages of life in which certain lifestyles are designated. The sramanical lifestyle is reserved for the elderly who have completed their domestic duties and fulfilled many natural desires. Preparing for renouncing and removing obstacles in the path to moksha occurs during the first three seasons of one’s life. Only then should one abandon his attachments to pursue the life of an ascetic. Even with the asrama system, texts were still written in praise of the householder, who lives a supposedly superior lifestyle. They offer sacrifices and perform austerities, whereas the mendicant wanderer only performs austerities. All people in the different stages of life depend upon the householder, much like the ocean upon which all rivers return.
The sramanas were not so-called silent sages, as they returned the volley to the brahmins. For instance, in a story of a discussion of the Buddha and his father, the father pleads with the young Buddha to accept the kingdom as the new ruler as the father becomes an ascetic during the proper stage of life. Noting the urgency of liberation, the Buddha replies that his father would not stop a man trying to escape from a burning house, and likely he should not stop a man from trying to escape from the cycle of death and rebirth. The ascetics felt the designation of renunciation to the last asrama was to liken it to a form of retirement, and to ignore the urgency of the need for liberation.
The brahmins then further argued that if it was indeed knowledge that leads to liberation, then it matters not whether one is a householder or ascetic, and one might as well remain a householder. The sramanas reply with a hypothetical situation to “prove” that householders can’t obtain the supreme knowledge. The dual opposition continues to the present, with no satisfactory conclusion, but a syncretic acceptance.
The village brahmins had comfortably asserted themselves as most pure and highest class of the vedic society, with certain exclusive religious rights. A reaction to this eventually arose as people began to embrace an ascetic lifestyle with a new interpretation of certain key concepts within the Upanisadic literature. Philosophic arguments ensued in regards to the lifestyle of the ideal religious person. In the end, no resolution was found, but was eventually settled with a syncretic tolerance.
About the Author: To obtain a larger grasp on Vedic topics such as the samskara novel, please visit Jared Hobbs at his blog for all topics spiritual, psychological, philosophical, and more! @
jaredbhobbs.com
Source:
isnare.com
Permanent Link:
isnare.com/?aid=593591&ca=Self+Help
Monday, August 28, 2006
The Pentagon is considering replacing the nuclear warheads on some ballistic missiles with conventional munitions so that they can be used for “pre-emptive” strikes against alleged terrorists, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told reporters after a meeting with Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov.
“If either of our countries or friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction or a capability that was that lethal, I think any president, whether of Russia or the United States, would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that target swiftly and accurately and precisely and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon, which they would not want to use.”, Rumsfeld said. He urged Russia to consider the idea too, but Ivanov said a pre-emptive strike was not the only solution.
The Pentagon has considered such strategies before. In February 2003 a similar plan was suggested, and in May 2006 it was recommended that Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) be used for such a purpose. Critics wondered what the risks would be for setting off accidental nuclear war: it would be impossible for another nation to tell whether a Trident II or Minuteman III launch was conventional — or nuclear-armed until it had actually detonated.
