Saturday, April 23, 2011 Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old student at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music, was sentenced to death on Friday. Yao, from Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province, was convicted of homicide after stabbing a cyclist to death. On the night of October 20, 2010, Yao ran into 26-year-old cyclist and mother of a two-year-old,…
UK PM’s speechwriter awaits sentence
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 An English lawyer has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He faked a legal judgment and sent it to a father who was pleading in Taunton family court to be able to remain involved in his child’s upbringing. The lawyer, London barrister Bruce Hyman, now awaits his sentence. The…
U.S. Congress passes CAFTA with 2 vote House margin
Thursday, July 28, 2005 The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) early morning Thursday, with a narrow vote of 217 in favor, 215 against. Voting was held open for an hour, 45 minutes past the House’s 15-minute voting rule as the President along with other supporters lobbied into the…
NYSE to merge with Archipelago; NASDAQ to buy Instinet
Sunday, April 24, 2005 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced last Wednesday that it has agreed definitively to merge with Chicago-based Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx) and form a new publicly traded, for-profit company known as NYSE Group. This announcement was followed two days later by NASDAQ®, which independently announced a definitive agreement to purchase Instinet Group.…
Date announced for by-election to replace former New Zealand PM Clark
Monday, April 20, 2009 The government has announced 13 June as the date for the upcoming Mount Albert by-election. The by-election has been caused by former Prime Minister Helen Clark‘s departure to head the United Nations Development Program. While it is considered to be a safe Labour seat, the by-election is expected to be heavily…
Find me all the red balloons; MIT wins DARPA challenge
Monday, December 7, 2009 A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the challenge to find ten 8-foot (2.4 metre) weather balloons spread across the continental United States, just nine hours after the event’s start. In a test of the nation’s social networking skills, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency…
At least fifteen dead after stampede at Mali mosque
Friday, February 26, 2010 According to a government official, at least 26 people were killed in a stampede on Thursday at a historic mosque in the northwestern city of Timbuktu, Mali. “There were 26 killed and 40 wounded,” Oumar Sangare, the Internal Ministry spokesman, told Reuters. However, other news agency reports put the death toll…
Radja Nainggolan announces international retirement after being left out of Belgian football world cup squad
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 On Monday, Belgian midfielder Radja Nainggolan announced his retirement from international football after he was left out of the national team squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup upcoming in June. Radja Nainggolan, who plays for Italian club AS Roma, posted on Twitter saying, “Very reluctantly my international career comes to…
Edmund White on writing, incest, life and Larry Kramer
Thursday, November 8, 2007 What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York,…
Media speculate over possible presidential bid by Michael Bloomberg
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is prepared to spend one billion dollars of his own money for a 2008 White House bid, the Washington Times reports, citing his friends and “close associates” . However, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday made light of Senator Chuck Hagel‘s suggestion that Bloomberg could run as an…