The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will make many of their marketable housing properties in the southeastern United States and elsewhere available to hurricane refugees. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said that an "overwhelming" response from government and private officials would make housing available as soon as the middle of next week. HUD housing centers as far away as Philadelphia and Detroit would be making properties available. HUD is considering offering these properties to displaced persons regardles
Yesterday, President George W. Bush authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve due to Hurricane Katrina's effects on oil refineries in the Gulf Coast.
The decision was made late Tuesday and announcement was made Wednesday.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve consists of 700 million barrels of oil located in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coast. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant to act as a cushion for the oil market during disruptions of energy.
Energy production was interuppted by Katrina as more than
A U.S. housewife was convicted on Sept. 1, 2005 of her husband's murder by a Hong Kong high court. On November 2, 2003, she apparently laced his milkshake with sedatives and beat him to death in their apartment while he was unconscious, sources say. Nancy Kissel was handed a unanimous life sentence verdict for murdering her banker husband in this infamous "Milkshake Trial", as it came to be known.
She sat expressionless and clothed in black throughout the trial, in which prosecutors painted a picture of her as a cold, calculating killer, who
The price of petrol (gasoline) continues to rise in Italy. Today, a singlelitre (0.22 US gallons) of unleaded fuel (called green petrol in Italy) has reached EUR 1.295 (USD 5.98 per gallon; CAD 1.91 per litre; prices in Canada vary from CAD 1.03 to 1.31).
There is constant speculation on the recent price rises, however much of this is the rise in oil prices which has reached USD 68.28 per barrel (1 barrel = 158.97 litres) of US crude. This has been helped by major market speculation, the war in Iraq, the recent hurricane in Louisiana (by stopp
The 30A protest in Sydney, Australia, occurred on Tuesday night in carnival style. The protest began around 5 p.m. at Customs Square, Circular Quay, with 1,000 to 2,000 people assembling to listen to speeches and music. After about an hour, the protestors marched along the Quay to the concrete and steel barricades preventing public access to the Opera House forecourt; where the carnival continued with music, drums, and dancing.
There were a wide variety of people present at the protest, including trade unionists, Christian groups, social just
A Palestinian man carrying explosives blew himself up during rush hour in Beersheba. This is the first act of suicidal bombing since the Israel pull out of the 25 Jewish settlements on the Gaza Strip.
Twelve hours after the blast, two groups jointly claimed responsibility for the attack. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades linked to Fatah and Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad identified the bomber as Alaa Zaakik, 25, from Beit Omar. Beit Omar is situated between Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has
In a study accepted for publication by the British Journal of Psychology, Dr. Paul Irwing (Manchester Business School, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology) and Prof. Richard Lynn (University of Ulster, Professor Emeritus) conclude that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests. The study also found that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees. When scores rose to 155, a level associated with gen
Russian businessman Xiao Li Bei has received permission to keep his deceased friend in an industrial freezer.
Police in the town of Novosibirsk discovered the body during a routine health and safety inspection of Xiao's warehouse. Xiao, of Chinese ancestry, told police that his friend died of natural causes two years prior.
Challenged in court on the issue, prosecutors allowed Xiao to continue on as he has, unless evidence contrary to the natural death claim arises. There is no Russian law against personally storing human remains.
Xiao comm
It was revealed today that George H. W. Bush will be attending the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney next week. Mr. Bush is a wealthy businessman and member of Skull and Bones. He has also been President of the United States and the head of the CIA, and is the father of the current US President George W. Bush.
The conference will be held at the Sydney Opera House. The Forbes website says that at the event "senior figures from the world's leading companies and institutions will discuss the best ways to nurture and capitalize on innovatio
Gmail, Google's popular e-mail service launched earlier last year, is now available to any American cell phone user via text messaging.
Cell phone owners can send Google their phone number, and are then sent an access code via SMS that enables them to open an account. Google has stated that the number is only used to "manage the number of accounts created per phone", and that it "will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes" without the user's permission.
The service is not necessarily free — cell phone service providers may charge for
Held Sunday, the first annual Brampton Day at Ontario Place let hundreds of Brampton residents have fun in Toronto, while experiencing some of their own community.
Entertainment on the stage included local rock band Frayed, Cuban singing by Alexis Martinez, blues and folk from Gayle Ackroyd, Carmen Spada's smooth jazz, bhangra dancing by the Koonja and the Punjabi Virsa Art & Culture Academy, and a Brampton Theatre performance of Man of La Mancha.
Many groups and community organizations were at the event, from the Farmers' Market to the Bramp
Organisers of a protest march planned to occur in Sydney next week are predicting thousands of people will attend. The protest is timed to coincide with the Forbes Global CEO Conference, which starts at the Sydney Opera House the same day.
The action is being promoted by various trade unions and peace and social justice groups, and co-ordinated by the 30A Network, which is an informal association of such groups. A number of reasons have been given for the protest, including the Iraq War, globalisation, and the Australian government's planned
