Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The 6th annual RoboGames, a robot competition that takes place in the United States, was held this month with 403 robots from 18 different parts of the globe competing in the categories of combat, sumo, robo-one/androids, open, hockey, art bots and junior league.

This year’s medals went to the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, Canada, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia (see table below). Other participants were Australia, Austria, Colombia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Peru and Taiwan.

Although the host country carried off most of the medals, visiting countries stood out at some events, like Mexico at 1 lb autonomous combat, 500 g autonomous sumo, 100 g autonomous sumo and autonomous line follower, Brazil at 3kg sumo (both autonomous and radio-controlled), and the United Kingdom in the “best of show” and “walker challenge” modalities.

“Taking part gave us the opportunity to test our knowledge against students from other nations, and proved that we are at the same level or better than other students from famous schools”, said Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute student Erick Rodríguez who, along with his fellow team member Rogelio Baeza, took gold in the autonomous line follower event.

RoboGames, previously ROBOlympics, holds the Guinness Record for “world’s largest robot competition”. It was founded in 2004 by David Calkins to help robot builders exchange ideas and learn from each other.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda has appointed Timothy W. Casgrain as the new chairman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

“Mr. Casgrain’s credentials will bring strong leadership to the CBC,” said Oda. “I am confident that his experience and sound judgement will greatly benefit the CBC.”

Casgrain was born in Montreal, Quebec and studied at McGill University. In 1969, he served as a teacher in a small African town in Chad for two years. Some years later, he became an accountant. In 1976, he was chairperson of Skyservice Investments Inc., a Canadian aviation company and was Executive Vice President of the Brascan Financial Corp. In 1988, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of NBS Technologies.

Since then, Casgrain has served many other positions and has many other honours in his name. Casgrain has been a member of the Order of Chartered Accountants of Quebec since 1976 and is the president of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

Monday, March 13, 2006

The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission approved today the plans by Nanjing Automobile Group to revive the MG Rover brand.

Nanjing Automobile are planning to annually produce 200,000 cars, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gearboxes on the assembly lines purchased from MG Rover.

The first MG produced in Pukou in Nanjing in the east of China will be the sedan version of MG-75, in the first half of 2007.

Monday, November 2, 2020

The following is the sixth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

This month’s spotlight on the campaign trail: the Free and Equal Elections Foundation holds two presidential debates, three candidates who did not participate in those debates give their final pleas to voters, and three political pundits give their predictions on the outcome of the election.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Buffalo, New York —The preliminary hearing for a lawsuit against the Elmwood Village Hotel proposal has been pushed back to August 10, 2006.

The hotel would require the demolition of at least five properties owned by Hans Mobius, 1109-1121 Elmwood and would cause the closure of several businesses. Already, two businesses, Skunk Tail Glass and Six Nations Native American Gift Shop have relocated, outside the Elmwood Strip. Don apparel, H.O.D. Tattoo and Mondo Video still remain on Elmwood; however, Mondo Video is planning on moving to a new location. The hotel will be 72 rooms and will cost at least 7 million dollars to build. Savarino Construction Services Corporation would be in charge of building the hotel and Wyndham Hotels would operate it.

Attorney Arthur Giacalone says that the court date was pushed back because “the court apparently felt it did not make sense to proceed with oral argument on 7/27 if Savarino is going to re-start the process.” Giacalone also stated that the decision to adjourn until August 10 “was not my idea.” On July 13, 2006 Savarino announced that they were withdrawing the proposal to “resubmit” it to “shed the lawsuits” against the proposal.

Savarino was allegedly supposed to resubmit the proposal by the end of last week but so far has not done so. The final meeting of Buffalo’s Common Council for the summer occurred today. The Council will not meet again until September.

“If they [Savarino] took no action today, re the hotel, [that is, accepting the new application, or rescinding the prior rezoning resolution], nothing official will happen for the next 6 weeks or so,” added Giacalone also saying that if this is the case, “the court may not be willing to hear oral argument on 8/10 since we will still be up in the air about what’s going on.” Giacalone also states that he is unsure about “what they [the Common Council] did today.”

Despite the call for a “do-over” of the proposals process, Giacalone still states that his client’s position of the “pending lawsuit will not be ‘moot’ or ‘academic’ unless and until the Common Council rescinds its prior vote(s) that approved the rezoning” for the buildings on Elmwood and one property on Forest Avenues.

Sam Savarino, CEO of Savarino Construction has been contacted, but has not replied to any e-mails. Area councilman Joseph Golombeck has also been e-mailed, but also has not replied.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that four arrests have been made in a foiled plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), in New York City. The DOJ suggested the plot was interrupted in the early planning stages through cooperative law enforcement work in the United States and abroad.

The four arrested were identified by the DOJ in a press release Saturday as Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana, Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and past member of the Guyanese Parliament, Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad, and Abdel Nur, also a citizen of Guyana.

Defreitas, a former employee of JFK was arrested in Brooklyn, New York. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad. It was not made clear where Nur was arrested, however the DOJ indicated that the U.S. will initiate extradition proceedings for the three.

The DOJ alleged that the four began the planning in January, 2006 through to the present. It was revealed that law enforcement officials believed the targets included buildings, fuel tanks, and fuel pipelines at JFK, which were to be destroyed with explosives. The primary pipeline target was the Buckeye Pipeline, which distributes fuel to depots as far away as Pennsylvania. It also serves New Jersey and various boroughs of New York.

It was alleged by the DOJ that the plotters “tapped into an international network of Muslim extremists from the United States, Guyana, and Trinidad, and utilized the knowledge, expertise, and contacts of the conspirators to develop and plan the plot, and obtain operational support and capability to carry it out.”

Defreitas traveled from Guyana to JFK to allegedly conduct surveillance of the airport on four occasions in January 2007. According to the DOJ press release, the four plotters “obtained satellite photographs of JFK airport and its facilities from the Internet and traveled frequently between the United States, Guyana, and Trinidad to discuss their plans and solicit the financial and technical assistance of others.”

U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Roslynn Mauskopf described the scenario as “one of the most chilling plots imaginable.” She went on to say at a news conference in New York that “the devastation that would be caused …is just unthinkable.”