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Thursday, July 22, 2021

In a press conference Monday, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore said their department’s preliminary investigation into a botched disposal of illegal fireworks on June 30 was due to an excess amount of explosives placed into a explosives disposal vehicle. The explosion occurred in South Los Angeles (L.A.), California, U.S. on East 27th Street, injuring seventeen and damaging vehicles and property.

Five members of LAPD’s bomb squad have been removed from duty, said Moore.

On June 30, LAPD officers discovered a cache of over 32 thousand lb (14,500 kg) of illegal fireworks at a South L.A. residence. Bomb disposal technicians responded by placing an estimated 16.5 lb (7.5 kg) of explosives, into a “total containment vessel”, or TCV, where they detonated the material. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), technicians actually detonated 42 lb (19 kg) of explosives. The vehicle failed to contain the explosion and the blast injured seventeen people and damaged thirteen nearby businesses, 22 residences, and 37 vehicles.

The TCV’s capacity was 15 lb (6.8 kg) for repeated use, or 25 lb (11 kg) for single use, according to Moore. The containment truck had been used by officials for ten years, with the June 30 blast its 42nd usage.

ATF special agents are also investigating the LAPD’s actions. They expect to complete their investigation in the next one to two months.

The owner of the home where the fireworks were discovered, 26-year-old Arturo Ceja III, was arrested by LAPD and apprehended on suspicion of unlawful possession of destructive devices and child endangerment. Fireworks are illegal to possess in the City of L.A., and in unincorporated areas of L.A. County. Ceja posted the US$500 thousand bail for release. He is due back in state court in October.

Federal prosecutors charged Ceja III with the illegal transportation of explosives without a license. Prosecutors allege that Ceja III purchased the fireworks from Area 51, a fireworks dealer in Pahrump, Nevada, on the border with California. He was released on US$25 thousand bond pending arraignment, scheduled for August 2.

L.A. Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. criticized the LAPD’s bomb squad in a statement saying, “[i]t’s clear there was negligence involved and this instance shows zero regard for the people that reside in our South LA community. Every individual that I have talked to including myself wonder if this would have been acceptable protocol in more affluent areas of the City.”

The city opened a resource center for affected residents at the YMCA on East 28th Street, where residents can file claims against the city and receive referrals to mental health services.

On Tuesday L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office received 56 claims against the city, saying, “We’re trying to speed this up as much as we can […] this is an all-hands-on-deck effort to make sure that anybody who suffered because of that explosion gets relief as fast as possible, because they deserve it”.

Callers to Tuesday’s L.A. Police Commission meeting called for the police department to make reparations to affected city residents and businesses. Moore told the commission there were over 200 applications for claims seeking assistance.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Japan’s government has declared its first ever “nuclear emergency” after pressure rises in the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, combined with a minor radiation leak, caused a 10 km radius around the plant to be evacuated. An attempt to relieve the pressure inside the containment vessels of the plant has been delayed.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company’s 40-year old nuclear facility, 270 km NE of Tokyo, reported mechanical difficulties with its cooling system, although the automated shutdown systems worked correctly. With the core reaction shut down the plant is no longer actively generating heat, but the fuel rods continue to generate excess heat and radiation and need constant cooling.

The cooling system runs a constant flow of water to take the heat away from the submerged fuel rods, but the pumping system requires electricity to operate even after the plant is no longer producing electricity itself—generally from back-up diesel or natural gas generators.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Aviation experts are warning that air traffic across western Europe may continue to be affected by an Icelandic volcano, which has been billowing clouds of ash and spreading it throughout the region.

Experts say that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, located in Iceland, continues to have “sporadic eruptions”; dark ash clouds have been moving south and east of the area, causing mass flight cancellations all over Europe, spanning from the UK to Russia over fears that the soot may be catastrophic to planes – such as causing engines to fail in-flight or severely reducing the pilot’s visibility.

The ash clouds are drifting between six to nine thousand meters above the ground, and are moving eastwards, over northern France and Austria and towards Russia at about 40 kilometers per hour.

Already, thousands of passengers have been left stranded around the world, unable to travel to and from various points in Europe. The continent’s air-traffic control center predicted 17,000 flights to have been cancelled on Friday alone, and indicated there would be further disruption today. The cancellations are costing airlines about US$200 million daily, the International Air Transport Association reports.

A global association of air traffic control companies commented that ash clouds would probably continue to affect flights for some time. “The knock-on effect of the volcanic ash plume over northern Europe is likely to disrupt European airspace for several days,” the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization said in a statement. “Traffic will have to be reorganized and rerouted and flights preplanned, all on a dynamic and quite unpredictable basis.”

“The skies are totally empty over northern Europe,” said Eurocontrol‘s deputy head, Bryan Flynn. The agency said more than half of Europe’s average 28,000 daily flights were cancelled yesterday, twice as many as were called off on Thursday.

In a special report, Wikinews takes a look at how different countries have been affected by this event.

All of Germany’s sixteen airports with international flights have been shut down today, including the busy Frankfurt airport. A spokesman for carrier Lufthansa says all of its flights were cancelled until no sooner than 20.00 local time (18.00 UTC). He said that there were no planes from the airline in the air anywhere on the globe. “There has never been anything like this,” he said.

Icelandic airports are open, despite being in such close proximity to the billowing volcano, as the winds are blowing ash clouds away from the vicinity.

The Icelandic Met Office’s Matthew Roberts, told the BBC that the volcano hasn’t been expending as much ash, and that the eruption was slowing down.

Icelandic officials are urging local residents with respiratory problems to refrain from going outdoors, and encourages the use of protective goggles and masks to those who do go out.

Most disruption in the country has actually been to ground, not air, traffic. Local police chief Kjartan Thorkelsson commented: “We had to close roads because of the ash yesterday [Thursday], even though it was not very thick.” He added that the ash “is particularly dangerous for animals, since it can go into water and the grass they eat, [but] [i]t is not as dangerous to humans”.

Experts suggest that occasional disruptions are possible throughout the next half year, should Eyjafjallajokull continue to erupt. Another concern is that it may trigger an eruption from the larger Katla volcano nearby, which has occurred every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted for the past few centuries.

Even countries as far away as Japan were affected by the ash clouds. A correspondent for the BBC, in Tokyo‘s Narita Airport, says that many travellers en route to Europe had to spend the night in the departure lounge because their flights were cancelled: “Airlines have handed out sleeping bags and blankets but there have been complaints there aren’t enough to go round. The longer the airports are closed the longer the backlog of passengers builds up,” he reports.

Polish authorities have suggested that they will delay the funeral of deceased president Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in Russia last week. Many world leaders planning to attend the funeral might be prevented from doing so due to the ash clouds. Poland was one of twelve to close down most or all of its airspace.

The president’s family, however, has insisted the ceremony, to be held in Krakow, proceed as planned.

The UK’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS), says that its restrictions on airspace in the country would remain in effect until no sooner than 13.00 UTC today. Travel bans for Northern Ireland and Scotland have been lifted, although NATS stressed that this does not necessarily mean flights to and from the area will actually resume.

Ryanair, meanwhile, cancelled all its northern Europe flights until 13.00 on Monday. British Airways called off all of its flights from London airports.

UK ferry operators saw a jump in bookings as stranded air travellers sought other ways to cross the English Channel.

A spokesman with the British Civil Aviation Authority commented that, [i]n terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11. The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve seen.”

A correspondent for Al Jazeera reporting from London Heathrow airport described stranded travellers’ attitude as being “increasingly frustrated”. He remarked: “Some sources I’ve been speaking to have been indicating that this will probably be extended further. There may be intermittent disruptions to flights for months to come.”

The Icelandic volcano may cause the US to experience volcanic sunsets. Vulcanologist Jay Miller claims, “Once it stops erupting it will take a few days to settle out. As long as there’s ash in the atmosphere or any pollutant for that matter, you’ll see these alterations in the color we see in the sky.”

Brian Toon of University of Colorado, Boulder, says: “It’s unlikely any of this volcanic ash will get as far as the United States. But it is possible. It’s just rare. It’s likely the stuff will get washed out before it ever gets here.”

American Airlines, in the meantime, announced it had cancelled 56 of its flights to and from Europe today, and the same amount yesterday; countries to which flights were not called off were Italy and Spain. US-based airlines make 337 flights between Europe and the US daily; of those, 280 were cancelled yesterday, the Air Transport Association of America says.

The Icelandic volcano has not caused many problems in Chile. SCL reported to El Mercurio that just a flight has been cancelled. The flight was operated by Air France, that may had went at the 16:00 local time to France. “We don’t know if this suspended flight will go, yet,” SCL reported, and warranted that “Air France is not going today.” SCL also stated that has not been cancelled any other flights, but that could change as the time goes by.

Monday, January 2, 2006

So more staff can be hired for Bolivia’s education, health and social programs, President Elect Evo Morales announced that he and his cabinet will take a 50% pay cut. The 46-year-old leader slashed his future salary of about $3600 a month to $1800.

Raising Bolivia from its situation as one of the poorest countries in the world is a primary intention of the president elect. “It’s a question of sharing the country’s situation among us all.” said Morales. “This is a democratic revolution and we will answer the Bolivian people’s call.”

Cabinet ministers and all 157 members of Morales’ party that were elected to Congress will also take a 50% pay cut, Morales said. The salaries of 157 substitute congressmen will be eliminated.

Morales, who is known across the country as “Evo”, is Bolivia’s first native Indian president. Growing up in poverty has marked his politics. He often says, “For a handful of people there is money, for the others, repression.”

Evo will soon move from his rented single room of a shared house to Bolivia’s presidential palace.

Morales also met with business and civic leaders on Tuesday in a conciliatory meeting. Morales said his government would create a stable legal and economic environment to attract investment and create jobs which was applauded by the Bolivian elite.

“I do not have a professional education, but it is important that we co-operate. You have the professional capacity, I have the social consciousness”.

Friday, February 19, 2021

A series of winter blasts have struck the US state of Texas in recent days, leaving at least ten people dead in the aftermath. On Wednesday, the second wave of the storms impacted utilities and water systems, with cities asking citizens to conserve water usage. Reports early Wednesday indicated more than two and a half million homes and businesses were without power. Texas is the only one of the 48 contiguous US states with its own separate power grid.

One media source indicated carbon monoxide poisoning killed a mother and her child in the city of Houston. A house fire killed a woman and three children in the city of Sugar Land. The storm has impacted shipments of COVID-19 vaccine, according to at least one report. Citizens were asked to conserve usage of electricity where possible. Reports from the city of Tyler indicate roads were nearly impassible on Monday and Tuesday due to ice and snow.

Earlier in the month, winter conditions contributed to a massive vehicle pile up in the city of Fort Worth, taking the lives of at least five people. Some victims were trapped in their vehicles for hours, awaiting rescue. During a press briefing, an emergency services official said this was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

A Queens, New York Imam pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials on Thursday. 38-year-old Ahmad Afzali, an Afghan national, made his plea in Brooklyn Federal court.

Afzali faces up to six-months in prison. Under the plea deal Afzali must leave the United States within 90 days of leaving prison. “I failed to live up to my obligation to this country, my community, my family, and my religion. I am truly sorry,” Afzali said in court.

The plea is related to the subway bomb plot surrounding Najibullah Zazi, who also pleaded guilty earlier last month to conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and material support for al-Qaeda.

Federal officials allege Zazi spent more than a year plotting the attack with co-conspirators and that he received bomb-making instructions in Pakistan in 2008. The U.S. government also says he bought components to build improvised explosive devices and traveled to New York City on September 10, 2009, to move forward with his plans. Zazi’s father was also arrested in September and charged with lying to federal officials. Zazi faces life in prison if convicted.

Friday, March 10, 2006

On February 8, the same day Super Size Me opened in Prague, a Czech film company’s volunteer known as Karel Gustav Bozan began a 1 month diet of Czech pub food and beer in a Czech version called “Super Spek Me”; which translates loosely as “Super Flab Me”.

Zuzana Pudilova of Aerofilms described the volunteer at that time: “He is a well-built man between 45 and 50. He is almost 2 metres tall, he is not exactly thin but until now he has had quite a healthy lifestyle.”

Karel ate typical Czech pub food for an entire month with three rules: no vegetables or fresh fruit (unless they came with a meal) no exercise, and lots of beer.

Karel’s menu consisted entirely of typical Czech dishes. Obesity therapist, Iva Malkova, had warned at the beginning of the project: “People in the Czech Republic eat much more fat, especially animal fat than is recommended.” Pub meals in the Czech Republic often consist of such fatty items as goose with dumplings or sausages.

Yesterday the results were announced; Karel lost six kilos, his cholesterol went down and so did his liver enzymes, triglyceride and uric acid levels. His blood pressure did not change. At his interview with Radio Prague he said: “I feel good, great! The food was varied and there were even enough greens in the garnish. As for beer, I tried to alternate brands but I always settled it with Pilsner. I liked the experiment, it was all paid for by the distributor, Aerofilms. I would do it again, maybe they will propose it to me!”

Zuzana Pudilova of Aerofilms said: “The result of the experiment is surprising – both for us and the experts who monitored it. The medical report says our volunteer has lost weight and his blood sugar has dropped. So we have come to the conclusion that fatty Czech pub grub is not all that bad for you – which I guess wasn’t meant to be the result of the experiment at all.”