Saturday, August 20, 2005

A power outage in Indonesia that left about 100 million people without electricity has caused a political crisis. The country’s state-owned energy monopoly, PLN, has not determined the immediate cause, and the country’s president has ordered the national intelligence agency and police to investigate.

The blackout appears related to deficiencies in Indonesia’s power generation capacity.

The power failure follows attempts to deal with the country’s growing energy crisis, including conservation and trying to allow private companies to provide energy, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2004. In January, the Indonesian government held a special energy summit to attract investment in their energy infrastructure. At the summit they set the goal of adding 22,000 megawatts to Indonesia’s present capacity of 23,000 megawatts, in order to support the country’s growth.

The World Bank and others have warned that without more investment in the country’s energy infrastructure an energy deficit will result. However, foreign investors remain wary of investing in Indonesia. “The power outage has resulted in worries over an energy crisis which could hurt the nation’s industrial sector,” said a trader on Indonesia’s stock market.[1]

The outage began at 10:23 a.m. local time, August 18, 2005, when power failed along the electrical system that connects Java, Bali, and Madura, causing outages in Java and Bali. Almost half of the country depends on the electrical grid that experienced failures. Some of the main lines on the grid are over 20 years old, according to PLN president Eddie Widiono.

The blackout caused traffic jams in Jakarta, forced cancellation of several international and domestic flights at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, shut down Jakarta’s electric train service, and disrupted hospital operations. Some larger hospitals were forced to delay surgeries while many smaller hospitals could not receive patients. About 1,800 officers were called into action by Jakarta’s metropolitan police to deal with short-term problems caused by the power failure.

Candles used in place of electric lighting started six fires in Jakarta alone.

Mulyo Aji, a PLN official, said more power failures are likely in the future as energy demand increases, without any corresponding new supplies of electricity scheduled to come online soon.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Toronto FC opened up the Nutrilite Canadian Championship with a 1-0 win against Montreal Impact at Saputo Stadium on Tuesday night.

Reds defender Marco Velez scored the only goal of the game, 1^st in tournament history. Velez jumped to head home a cross from Laurent Robert. The goal came in the 72^nd minute.

Montreal played for much of the 2^nd half with 10 men after defender Stefano Pesoli was sent off for a second yellow card.

Toronto FC striker Danny Dichio has been struggling with a groin strain in recent weeks and was forced to leave the game before half time. He was replaced by Jarrod Smith.

Toronto FC now prepare to face Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at BMO Field. Toronto FC play their next Nutrilite Canadian Championship game on July 1^st against Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field. The Impact’s next game is on Friday against the Portland Timbers at Saputo Stadium.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

United States Army Major General Harold J. Greene was killed yesterday afternoon in an apparent insider or ‘green on blue’ attack at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. His death marks the first death of a United States general since the September 11th attacks and the first on foreign soil since the Vietnam War. Along with the death of Major General Greene, fifteen others were wounded in the attack including a German brigadier general, eight US soldiers, a number of British soldiers, and three Afghan soldiers.

The attack started during a routine visit, when an individual, reportedly an Afghan National Army soldier, opened fire with a light assault rifle from inside a building, 100 yards (90 meters) away from where Greene and others were standing. Soldiers fired back and killed the attacker. The Pentagon Press Secretary, US Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby, said, “There are a number of casualties as a result of the shooting, perhaps up to 15, to include some Americans”. Kirby added, “Many were seriously wounded. Others received only minor injuries. The assailant was killed.”

An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesperson, General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said the attacker was a “terrorist dressed in an Afghan army uniform.” The Taliban acknowledged the attack and praised it, but did not claim responsibility for it.

Greene was serving as deputy commanding general of the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan at the time of his death. He was previously Deputy for Acquisition and Systems Management in the office of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology. Greene joined the Army as an officer in 1980 after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

In a statement Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno gave his condolences, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene’s family, and the families of our soldiers who were injured today in the tragic events that took place in Afghanistan. These soldiers were professionals, committed to the mission. It is their service and sacrifice that define us as an Army.”

Saturday, October 14, 2006

An American inventor has patented a pair of new time formats with a footprint less than 50% of that of conventional four-digit time. The more unusual of the two new formats, called “TWELV”, dispenses with numerals altogether. In place of clock hands or digits, the new clock uses color to convey the hour and a moon image to convey the minute, which moon slowly grows throughout the course of an hour from a narrow crescent to a full-fledged circle.

The second and more approachable of the new formats retains numerical digits to indicate the minute but uses colors to convey the hour.

Early critics question whether the aesthetic benefits of the moon-clock will be sufficient to encourage users to learn the color-based time-telling system. However, the size advantages of the new system may make it particularly suitable for mobile applications, particularly cell phones, wearable computers, and head-mounted displays.

Monday, December 31, 2007

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2007 if they asked you about it in, let’s say, 20 year’s time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2007, what would the question be? The year that you first signed on to Facebook? The year Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse fell apart? The year author Kurt Vonnegut or mime Marcel Marceau died, both at 84?

Let’s take a look at some of the international stories of 2007. Links to the original Wikinews articles are in bold.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

At least five to ten police officers in Afghanistan have been killed and at least 11 others were wounded after a suicide bombing in the southern part of the country in the town of Spin Boldak at a checkpoint.

Police officers were having lunch inside a room at the checkpoint when the bomber, who was also dressed in a police officer’s uniform, walked in and detonated his explosives. At least two rooms were destroyed, according to police.

“We were eating lunch around 1330, when a suicide attacker wearing police uniform entered the post and blew himself up,” said Bismillah Khan, commander of the local police in Spin Boldak who could only confirm that “five border police are killed and 11 are injured.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.