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Monday, December 15, 2008

Somalia’s parliament overwhelmingly voted Monday to keep Nur Hassan Hussein as their prime minister, blocking President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed‘s attempt at dismissing the prime minister and his “corrupt, inefficient” government.

President Yusuf announced his motion to dismiss Hussein on Sunday, saying his government was “unable to perform its duties” in matters such as dealing with the Islamic militants who have taken over most of the country. The latest dispute between the two involved efforts to reconcile with the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), the country’s main opposition group. The UN-sponsored peace process has been decried by Yusuf as dealing with terrorists.

Hussein countered that the president had no authority to strip the prime minister of his post, and that the transitional federal charter required the approval of parliament for such an action. “The president was speaking in his usual personal capacity, contrary to the rules and regulations,” Hussein said prior to the special parliamentary session in Baidoa.

Despite Yusuf’s hope that the parliament would endorse his decision, members of parliament were strongly supportive of Hussein’s government, with 143 members recognizing the government’s legitimacy, 20 rejecting its legitimacy and 7 abstaining. “Therefore the government of Hassan Hussein is legitimate,” said Aden Mohamed Nur, the parliamentary speaker.

Hussein, whom Yusuf appointed little more than a year ago after the resignation of Ali Mohamed Gedi, had previously survived a vote of no confidence in September, when he faced accusations of embezzling state funds.

“The only obstacle in front of my government was the president,” Hussein told members of parliament after the vote, “and since I have the confidence of the MPs I hope it will be effective henceforth.” Yusuf had no immediate comment on the vote, but he had previously stated he would comply with parliament’s decision if they chose to block his dismissal.

The relationship between the president and prime minister has grown increasingly strained over the issue of Islamic militancy. Yusuf has blamed the prime minister for the instability plaguing the politically fragile state, while Hussein has accused the president of trying to “sabotage” peace efforts between the transitional government and the ARS. Fighting between the Islamic opposition and Somali-backed troops from Ethiopia, the African Union, and the UN has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced millions.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said the dispute within the transitional government has the potential of undermining efforts for “further reconciliation, peace, and stability in Somalia.” The UN also issued a statement condemning the dispute, and demonstrators gathered in the streets of Mogadishu to denounce the president’s move.

Although moderate Islamists from the ARS have agreed to enter into reconciliation talks, hardliner insurgents have rejected the attempts at peace and continue to take over towns in the central and northern regions of Somalia. Since the fall of the Islamic Courts Union, organizations like Al-Shabaab have become leading insurgent groups. A spokesman for Al-Shabaab told reporters on Sunday that they intend to impose Sharia law on all of Somalia, and that a peace deal would never be accepted.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

A police officer has shot and killed his wife and two of their children at the train station in the French city of Noyon in the department of Oise, the local prosecutor said, after the wife had informed the officer of her intention to separate from him. Their sons were aged three and five; a third child, twin to the five year old victim, survived the attack and is in the care of child services. The killings took place around 11:30 local time (0930 UTC) on Sunday.

The wife, born in 1983, called the gendarmes (police) in the morning, and they arrived to find her explaining to their five children about the domestic argument which had escalated. The husband returned while the police were present, and they reported he seemed calm and did not interfere with the children being moved to a neighbor’s home, so they departed. The woman reportedly chose to leave her house when her husband was not there, and headed to the station, where the husband awaited them armed.

After assassinating his family, the police officer committed suicide. The wife’s family lived in Guiscard, near Noyon. The station at Noyon was closed after the incident. Late on Sunday, the police were searching for a witness who escaped after observing the events.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Monday, June 21, 2010

News Corp., the parent company of MySpace, announced Friday that Co-President Jason Hirschhorn has decided to leave the social networking website because he wishes to return to his home city of New York. MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.

MySpace was founded in 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe and purchased for $580 million by News Corps. at the height of its popularity in 2005. In recent years, however, MySpace has been losing out in monthly unique visitors to similar sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. According to comScore, an Internet marketing research company that tracks website traffic, Facebook attracted 519 million unique visitors in April of this year, and MySpace just 111 million visitors. In response, MySpace has been recently shifting its focus towards music, games, and videos, and plans to continue doing the same in the near future.

Meanwhile, another failing social network, Bebo, was sold for less than $10 million by AOL to hedge fund firm Criterion Capital Partners this week. AOL acquired Bebo for $850 million in 2008. MySpace’s reduced traffic and the departure of another executive have led industry insiders to draw comparisons between the two sites.

In April 2009, DeWolfe stepped down as MySpace’s Chief Executive Office (CEO). He was replaced by former Facebook Chief Revenue Officer Owen Van Natta, but Natta held on to that position for just nine months. In February 2010, Hirschhorn was promoted from his position as Chief Product Officer along with Chief Operating Officer Michael Jones to the position of co-president. The departure of Hurschhorn leaves Jones to continue on as sole president. MySpace have said they do not intend on replacing Hirschhorn.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Researchers say that ambidextrous children are at greater risk of difficulties at school, language problems, and disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those who are left-handed or right-handed. Dr Alina Rodriguez, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College, London, and a team of researchers from various European universities studied nearly 8,000 children from the north of Finland; 87 of these were ambidextrous (mixed-handed). Parents, teachers and the children themselves assessed language skills, academic achievement and behaviour. At ages 7 and 8, the ambidextrous children had double the rate of language problems and were twice as likely to have problems at school. At age 15 and 16, the proportion of those with ADHD symptoms was twice as many in the ambidextrous group, and their ADHD symptoms tended to be worse. Ambidextrous children in the study also had a higher rate of language problems.

The number of people who are ambidextrous is unclear, with estimates ranging from 1% to 5%. Scientists do not know why some people use both hands when the majority of people prefer to use one predominantly. The theory is that there is something different in the brains of ambidextrous people, although Rodriguez says that more work in the area is needed.

A person who prefers using their right hand will have a more dominant left hemisphere of the brain, which is the part of the brain for language skills. Rodriguez and her researchers have suggested that the right hemisphere of the brain of an ambidextrous child is weaker compared to that of a right-handed child, increasing their susceptible to problems with attention. Previous suggestions about the causes of ADHD include the possibility that a person’s right hemisphere has weaker function. Earlier studies have drawn links between dyslexia and being ambidextrous, and other studies are looking at the part that differences between the two sides of the brain play in language skills and psychosis.

Rodriguez emphasised that the research, published in the journal Pediatrics in the United States, did not show that all ambidextrous children would have such problems, pointing out that most of the children in the survey did not develop them. “Our study suggests that handedness is really a marker for atypical foetal brain development — showing that the brain is working in a different way to the norm”, she said, adding that other studies have shown atypical brain development to be associated with extraordinary creativeness. She also suggested that the results may assist schools and health care workers in targeting children at risk of problems.

Thursday, June 1, 2006

A fuel storage tank at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) caught fire today.

The 1-million gallon storage tank caught fire at about 8:30 a.m. local time (PDT) according to Ron Myers, a spokesman for the LAX fire department. Myers said that planes were not at risk and no flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted. No injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered.

The fire is said to have been caused by a spark from a welder performing work on the tank. Reports say the fuel container was mostly empty, but authorities are still investigating.