In depth: XM and Sirius merger

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In depth: XM and Sirius merger
Wikipedia has more about this subject:

On 19 February 2007, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio announced a move that will change the face of satellite radio in the United States and Canada: XM and Sirius will be merging, creating a single satellite radio provider.

This in-depth page will track Wikinews and outside articles to provide you with up to date information about the merger deal. As new actions regarding the merger occur, they can get posted below.

Contents

  • 1 Current Events
    • 1.1 2007
  • 2 More information
  • 3 Frequently asked questions
  • 4 Sources

Interview with Tony Ciufo, City Council candidate for Ward 10 in Mississauga, Canada

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Interview with Tony Ciufo, City Council candidate for Ward 10 in Mississauga, Canada

Friday, September 22, 2006

The upcoming 2006 Mississauga municipal election, to be held November 13, features an array of candidates looking to represent their wards in city council.

Wikinews contributor Nicholas Moreau has contacted as many candidates as possible, including Tony Ciufo, asking them to answer common questions sent in an email. There is no incumbent in the newly created ward; the sixteen resident competing for the position are Shah Rukh Alam, John Briers, Jamie Dookie, Dale D’Souza, Prag Euclid, Adnan Hashmi, Elias Hazineh, Jack Janiak, Fasal Javaid, Craig Lawrence, Sue M. McFadden, Patrick Mendes, Barbara Polis, Graziano Roti, Ali Tahmourpour, and Scott Wilson.

Wikinews Shorts: November 13, 2008

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Wikinews Shorts: November 13, 2008

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, November 13, 2008.

Contents

  • 1 Study shows that carrying excess fat around waist increases risk of early death
  • 2 EU abolishes rules banning oddly-shaped fruit
  • 3 Vase bought for £1 sells for £32,450
  • 4 Blackwater may pay financial penalties for improper arms shipments
 Contribute to Wikinews by expanding these briefs or add a new one.

A new study has found that people storing extra fat around their waist have a strongly increased chance of early death, even if their overall weight is average. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine today, found that for each addition 5 cm on the waist, the chance of early death is increased by between 13% and 17%.

In the study, 360,000 people from across nine countries in Europe were surveyed.

One of the study’s authors, Professor Elio Riboli of Imperial College London, commented on the findings. “We were surprised to see the waist size having such a powerful effect on people’s health and premature death,” he stated.

Sources


The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has today lifted its ban on unusually shaped fruits and vegetables, in what the EU’s agriculture commissioner has called “a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot”.

The regulation has previously been criticized as an example of the EU’s bureaucracy by critics of the organisation.

The products affected by the deregulation are apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocadoes, beans, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, cultivated mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in shell, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, ribbed celery, spinach, walnuts in shell, water melons and witloof/chicory.

Sources


A vase purchased at a car boot sale for £1 has sold for £32,450, following advice from experts on the BBC‘s Antiques Roadshow television program. The vase was sold in an auction at Christie’s.

The vase was found to be a 1929 work made by the French designer Rene Lalique.

Sources


Recent anonymous press briefings by US State Department officials indicated that its arms control division may punish Blackwater Worldwide for improper paperwork.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has the power to fine or agree voluntary penalties with exporters of certain weapons, who do not follow correct procedures. Blackwater Worldwide, a private military company, exported automatic weapons to Iraq that became the subject of a federal investigation first disclosed in 2007.Concern was expressed by the unnamed officials that paperwork errors may make the weapons untraceable, and that some reached Iraq’s black market.

Sources


Owner and manager of Moroccan factory arrested over 55-fatality fire

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Owner and manager of Moroccan factory arrested over 55-fatality fire
July 30th, 2018 in Uncategorized | No Comments

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Police have arrested the owner of a mattress factory in Hay Hassini, Casablanca, Morocco which burned down in a disaster that claimed 55 lives. His son, who was the factory’s manager, was also arrested.

Those killed — 35 of whom were women — were trapped inside by locked fire exits, which were barricaded to stop theft during working hours. “The people who died were either asphyxiated or burned,” commented a firefighter. 17 were wounded. Moustapha Taouil of the Casablanca civil protection service said the blaze was triggered by an inadequatly maintained electric saw on the ground floor. The initial fire quickly engulfed all four storeys of the building.

The Rosamor factory was clearly operating unsafely, officials said. “It’s a building with a ground floor and three upper floors specialising in making furniture, therefore there were highly inflammable products,” said Taouil. “We confirmed during our examination that the owners of the premises failed to respect legal requirements for this kind of industry including staff training… the owner in contravention of the law, locked staff inside the plant apparently to prevent theft of raw material. It was this that prevented them getting out. The fire was caused by lack of proper maintenance of certain machines and electrical installations.” He said a short circuit on the ground floor, which was filled with power saws, triggered the disaster.

As a result of the investigatons, “The plant’s owner, Adil Moufarreh, and his son Abdelali Moufarreh, who was the manager, have been taken into custody after having been questioned by police,” said an official.

28-year-old factory employee Fadila Khadija said “There was no emergency exit, the extinguishers were empty and the working conditions were difficult.” One source said that windows were also unusable as they were covered with iron bars. 20-year-old survivor Omar Elaaz said “I was working on the first floor as an upholsterer. The smoke came up from the ground floor where the foam rubber, wood and glue are stored. I used a gas bottle to break the wire mesh that protects every window.” 31-year-old upholsterer Hakim Hakki told of his own lucky escape and its effect on him from hospital: “I jumped from the third floor with four other colleagues while the women, who didn’t dare to follow us, perished in the inferno. God saved me but I’ll never forget those who died.”

The father of deceased 19-year-old Abdelazziz Darif said his son was paid 250 dirhams (20 euro/31 US dollars) per week and did not have social insurance.

More US recalls: Fish pool toy rips fingernail off child, numerous toys with excessive lead

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More US recalls: Fish pool toy rips fingernail off child, numerous toys with excessive lead
July 30th, 2018 in Uncategorized | No Comments

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled more products over the last few days, though not all because of excessive lead.

While American toy companies have been rocked in the last few months by numerous unsafe Chinese-made products, mostly due to excessive amounts of lead in paint, a few of the latest recalls were actually due to design flaws.

Also recently recalled are sunglasses and toy cars from the Dollar General chain of price-point retailers.

Kitchen Cabinet Knobs How To Pick Out The Best Knobs For Your Kitchen

July 30th, 2018 in Kitchen Home Improvement | No Comments

By George Mitchell

Your kitchen cabinet knobs are a lot more important to the design of your kitchen than you might think. Quite simply, even if the rest of your cabinets look great, your knobs can make or break them, so don’t overlook their importance.

Some people think of these items as one of the main parts of your cabinet design, and is very often used to bring out the rest of the cabinet. All I know is, get the wrong ones, and it can really hamper your kitchen design, even if you’ve done everything else right. Here are some tips to help you find the top kitchen cabinet knobs out there.

One of the more important things you can do is to first determine whether or not you want it to go against or along with your current paint job. In other words, if you have red cabinets, you can either choose to contrast it with white, or basically give it the same color as the rest of the cabinets so that it blends in. It just depends on how you want them to stand out, if at all.

However, whichever you choose, they have to go with your current cabinet design. This might sound obvious, but it can be very tempting to buy some nice looking knobs you see online, only to get them on your cabinets and realize they don’t go well at all.

Just because they look awesome on some picture online doesn’t mean they would work well in your kitchen, and therefore, make sure you think about whether or not they would match before you buy them.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTSes0kzJc0[/youtube]

Another important decision is the kind of material you use for your kitchen cabinet knobs. Nowadays, there are many options available to you, unlike in the olden days, where everybody basically was forced to go with brass.

Again, the overall look of the knob is affected by what kind of material you get, so don’t make this decision lightly.

It used to be that you had no choice about the shapes you wanted, but today you can not only get them in all kinds of shapes but also styles as well. You can go with the more modern look, the country knobs, rustic, etc.

Also, you can go for a more future kind of look with granite, and not only does this give it a solid look to it, but it’s also very durable, and can stand up to all kinds of wear and tear that are sure to be done on it.

You can go online and find all sorts of kitchen cabinet knobs available including weird shapes like leaves, animals, silverware shapes, etc. and the only limit to what kind you get is your own imagination. If you have younger people living there, you can get a more playful look, such as animal shapes, like I described above.

As I’m sure you can tell, if I had to sum it up, while I certainly can’t go through all the different knobs available, here’s the process I’d use to find the right one. First, sit down and go online and get a ton of ideas you can use.

Don’t edit during the brainstorming process, and just jot down anything and everything that catches you interest. Consider whether or no they would go with current cabinets and design you have. If not, discard them.

Then, I’d recommend you look for and buy them online to save yourself some money, and avoid the retail mark up price you’d pay at your local home improvement store. This will enable you to save as much as possible while still getting high quality.

Also consider buying used kitchen cabinet knobs, which are often times still high quality but much cheaper then new ones.

About the Author: Want to achieve your ideal kitchen design? For more info on cabinets,

kitchen cabinet knobs

, saving money on cabinets, etc, check out

kitchencabinetdesigntips.com

.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=355590&ca=Home+Management

Thailand orders Ample Rich directors to pay US$616 million taxes

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Thailand orders Ample Rich directors to pay US$616 million taxes
July 30th, 2018 in Uncategorized | No Comments

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Thailand’s anti-corruption body, the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) has instructed the country’s tax authorities to issue a tax bill to the company set up by ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The amount is US$616 million, or 20.89 billion baht.

The company Ample Rich is registered in the British Virgin Islands, however the AEC stated the company could not evade corporate tax due to their operations taking place within the Kingdom of Thailand.

With two of Thaksin’s children on the board of directors of the company, and earlier rulings on tax liability, the Bangkok Post reports that the total tax liability for the Shinawatra family has now risen to 27.44 billion baht.

The main reason given by the AEC for the tax bill is the underpriced selling of Shin corporation shares to the Thaksin children at 1 baht per share only days prior to the sale of the company to Temasek holdings. The actual sale of Shin Corp. sparked street protests in Bangkok as the then-Prime Minister was accused of profiting from selling a national asset after changing the law to allow the sale to be tax-free.

Blown for Good author discusses life inside international headquarters of Scientology

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Blown for Good author discusses life inside international headquarters of Scientology
July 30th, 2018 in Uncategorized | No Comments

Friday, November 13, 2009

Wikinews interviewed author Marc Headley about his new book Blown for Good, and asked him about life inside the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base“, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California. Headley joined the organization at age seven when his mother became a member, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005.

Better Home Plans By Modular Construction Process

July 30th, 2018 in Home Builder | No Comments

Better Home Plans By Modular Construction Process

by

John Ben

Challenging the traditional methods of construction, the concept of modular construction has been introduced for constructing new homes, offices and other buildings. Owing to the simple and economical construction process, less efforts are required for stationing an ideal building. The surplus material used in the process is recyclable, while surplus on the construction site is used for land-filling process. The material used in the building process is environment friendly, long lasting and non toxic nature, as a result individuals can get a low impact living home within their budget.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcmxth7tW7I[/youtube]

For designing environment friendly new homes, three essential factors to be considered are pre-fab, flexibility and environment. The concept of pre-fab restricts the typical problems faced in traditional construction site, as all the structural modules are built indoors. Material as well as construction schedules are unaffected by weather conditions, ensuring cost-effective homes. Further, flexibility ensures customization of designs, components, and material as per the clients\’ needs. At par with the set standards, all the structures are tested for plumbing, heating, wiring and other necessary systems. Moreover, owing to the modern construction techniques, these building have green advantage resulting in excellent insulation, minimized carbon emissions and less energy consumption. To analyze the space for home plans or office buildings, experts of the domain visit clients\’ premises. The parts of the modular buildings are manufactured one by one and packaged properly before dispatching them to the construction site. Being smaller in size, all these parts can be easily transported on trucks and trailers. Further, the home builder assembles all the parts, shaping it to form an actual building. Finishing touch is given by varnishing the parts and laying concrete in the requisite areas. The process of constructing these buildings is simpler due to the availability of raw material on-site. This further removes the transportation and fuel cost for bringing the material and components from far-flung areas. Owing to the faster construction process, these buildings, can be finished within a short span of time, depending upon building\’s size. Fast construction process, makes these modular homes a preferred choice of customers who want an early possession. Customers now-a-days prefer modular type of construction, as it minimizes the hassles of traditional on-site construction process. Easy installation, cost-effectiveness and environment friendliness further helps in saving natural resources and reducing down the wastage. This process is widely adapted due to the features like low maintenance, reduced construction time and minimum wastage. Customers also appreciate this type of home plans because they can get designs, sizes and patterns as per their likings. John Ben

is a journalist an author specializing in topics related to

New Homes

, Custom Home Builder, Manufactured Homes,

Home Plans

, etc.

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com

Toyota to suspend sales of Lexus GX 460 over new safety fears

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Toyota to suspend sales of Lexus GX 460 over new safety fears
July 30th, 2018 in Uncategorized | No Comments

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Japanese auto maker Toyota is to temporarily suspend sales of its luxury Lexus GX 460 SUV following an unfavorable verdict from Consumer Reports, which concluded “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk,” the first such warning in almost a decade.

After conducting its standard emergency handling tests on the 2010 version of the Lexus GX 460, Consumer Reports became concerned that the rear of the vehicle had a tendency to slide out, which in real life situations could lead to rollovers. However, the consumer organisation is also unaware of any such incidents with the 5000 GX 460s sold since its launch three months ago.

Already embattled with ongoing safety issues with its vehicles, Toyota has been quick to act, though it did claim that the car was safe to drive and that it had passed internal safety standards. According to Toyota, “Lexus’ extensive vehicle testing provides a good indication of how our vehicles perform and we are confident that the GX meets our high safety standards.”