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Monday, February 9, 2009

Twenty-four people, among them seven children, were killed on Sunday after their airplane crashed in a river in Brazil. Four people survived the crash, including a 9-year-old boy. The aircraft, which was a twin-engine Embraer turboprop chartered by Manaus Aerotaxis, was carrying 26 passengers and two crew members when it crashed.

The pilots of the plane, which had departed from Coari, had supposedly contacted the air traffic control near their destination of Manaus to announce that they were turning back. The plane, however, then disappeared from radar. The plane made an emergency landing in the river Manacapuru, a branch the Amazon river in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manaus.

Rescue teams were dispatched immediately, and four passengers from the accident were recovered alive and in reportedly good condition. The rest of the passengers were found inside the plane. The rescue effort was made more difficult by nightfall and heavy rains.

According to passenger reports, one of the plane’s engines stopped shortly before the crash. Some survivors also said that they managed to jump out of a door in the back of the aircraft before impact.

The authorities, who are still investigating the cause of the accident, suspect that the plane tried to make an emergency landing at the Panamacapuru airport nearby, but ditched in the river instead after falling short by half a kilometer. Heavy rain was reported when the plane went down and bad weather is hampering the investigation. Operations to recover the wreckage have been suspended until the weather improves.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

The Minuteman bike path, which runs 12 miles from Cambridge to Bedford, Massachusetts, is now passable by bike through Arlington, after what the National Weather Service has called the fourth snowiest winter in Boston’s recorded history. The path has been covered in snow and ice since the Blizzard of 2005 covered it in late January.

The stretch of the path that crosses Lexington and Bedford is marginally rideable, particularly between Lexington Center and the bridge over Route 495, according to a sortie undertaken by Wikinews writer Pingswept. The first large patch of snow occurs just past the four-mile marker, near Trader Joe’s in Arlington.

The path is not plowed in Arlington, Lexington, or Bedford, though the city of Cambridge plows a short section near the southeastern terminus of the path at the Alewife subway station. In the winter, the path can be a “scenic trail for cross-country skiing,” according to the Friends of the Minuteman Bikeway website.

The bike path runs in the right-of-way once accorded to the Boston and Maine railroad. The conversion from abandoned railway to bike path occurred from 1991 to 1993. The path is named for its similarity to the route followed by Paul Revere and William Dawes on their rides to warn the Minutemen of Lexington about the impending arrival of British soldiers on April 19, 1775.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Thailand’s fugitive ex-premier, Thaksin Shinawatra is in the news again today, phoning supporters in the country and appealing for no celebration of his sixtieth birthday at Sanam Luang outside the royal palace in Bangkok. This follows some red-shirted United front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) supporters vowing to go ahead with the party despite Bangkok‘s Governor, Sukhumband Paribatra, saying he will deny any request.

According to Thailand’s English-language Bangkok Post, UDD leader Shinawat Haboonpad expressed determination to see the July 26 celebration go ahead, “… we will show our civil disobedience and ignore his order”.

The divisive impact of the populist Thaksin stretches back prior to him being ousted by a bloodless military coup in September 2006. As far back as 2005 figures within the Thai establishment were speaking against him; Thaksin used the courts to try and prevent dissemination of negative material, including the publication of a sermon by a respected Buddhist monk who compared him to Phra Devadhat, the Thai Buddhist equivalent of the devil. Bangkokians formed into the yellow-shirted anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) accusing the Prime Minister of corruption. Following the military intervention in 2006, and a groundswell of support among rural poor voters, the opposing pro-Thaksin groups formed into the UDD. Despite conviction in-absentia, Thaksin colours Thai politics, and has derailed efforts to stabilise the country’s political institutions.

This past week it has been the lead-up to the December 2008 dissolution of the pro-Thaksin People’s Power Party (PPP) government that has resurfaced. The then-Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat was barred from politics and his PPP dissolved by the country’s Constitutional Court following anti-Thaksin yellow shirts occupying Bangkok’s international airport and stranding as many as 300,000 tourists in the country. Now the country’s Foreign Minister, Kasit Piromya, a PAD leader, is facing pressure to step down for his part in the airport siege and blockade.

A report in Monday’s Bangkok Post indicates that Thai authorities continue to pursue Thaksin. The Interior Minister said that an attempt had been made to arrest Thaksin in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, but he had evaded capture and managed to return to Fiji where he remains in exile and a fugitive.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Held from March 16 to 18, Toronto Comicon 2018, in Ontario, Canada, featured dozens of retailers, a large artist’s alley, celebrity guests, cosplayers, and community groups. Wikinews was present and later spoke to some of the cosplayers.

Celebrity guests included Joonas Suotamo, the new Chewbacca actor for Star Wars; Mitch Pileggi of The X-Files; Mara Wilson of Matilda); Eugene Brave Rock of Wonder Woman; Megan Follows of Anne of Green Gables, Reign); and Marina Sirtis of Star Trek: The Next Generation; among others.

Many of the actors and artists were featured in Q&A sessions, including Follows, Brave Rock, and Hodor from Game of Thrones, Kristian Nairn.