A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, March 1, 2007.

Two paintings by renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso were stolen from the home of his granddaughter, according to the French authorities. The two oil paintings stolen were Maya With Doll and Portrait of Jacqueline; they were taken sometime between Monday, February 26 and Tuesday, February 27. The combined worth of the paintings is estimated at $66 million.

Sources

• “2 paintings by Picasso are stolen in Paris” — New York Times, March 1, 2007
• “Thieves nab $66M Picasso paintings” — CNN, February 28, 2007

Iran will probably participate in a security conference dealing with the situation in Iraq,according to Iranian official Ali Larijani. The conference, according to Iraqi prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki will be held March 10 in Baghdad. It will include the first high-level diplomatic contact between Iranian and U.S. officials in over two years; however, U.S. officials will not directly speak with Iranian or Syrian officials, according to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. The topics to be focused on will include the recent spate of lethal attacks by insurgents throughout Iraq, especially in Baghdad itself. Nations attending the conference include Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Other countries invited include France, Russia, China, and Turkey.

Sources

• Richard A. Oppel, Jr.. “Iran to Take Part in Iraq Security Conference” — New York Times, February 28, 2007
• “White House: U.S. won’t talk to Syria, Iran directly” — CNN, February 28, 2007

Monday, June 13, 2005

Welsh poet Dannie Abse (81) and his wife Joan (78) were involved in a car crash while driving from Golders Green to their holiday home in Ogmore-by-Sea, South Wales. Mrs. Abse died instantly; Mr Abse suffered a broken rib. The driver of the other vehicle was unhurt. The couple was returning from a poetry reading that they both had given.

Dannie Abse is an esteemed Jewish writer who lives in Glamorgan, South Wales. Joan Abse, his wife, was an art historian and writer. Dannie Abse is well-known for being a poet and a medical doctor. Abse, in fact, was a specialist at a chest clinic for over thirty years. But Abse is best known for his writings and has received numerous literary awards and fellowships. In 1989, he received an honorary doctorate from the Universities of Wales.

The couple worked together editing two books in the 1980s.

Joan Abse leaves behind her husband, a son, and two daughters.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

The Canadian film industry’s major awards night, the Genie Awards, takes place on Monday. The Genie Awards begun in 1949 as the Canadian Film Awards, and current nominations include the films L’Âge des ténèbres, Away from Her, Continental, un film sans fusil, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands With the Devil.

Notably absent from the nominations is the film Juno, an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. Most of the lead actors in Eastern Promises and Away from Her were not Canadian, and Eastern Promises was filmed overseas. The leads of Juno, in comparison, are all Canadian, and the movie was filmed in the country, despite the financial backing for the film being from an American source.

CAVCO is the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office, part of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The CRTC is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, a communications authority like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, Independent Television Commission (ITC) in the UK (excluding Wales), and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005File:Plastic bag stock sized.jpg

They are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. A report issued on Feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that Kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country’s environmental problems stemming from the bags’ popularity.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Ernest Krajniak from Chilton, Wisconsin in the United States has been charged with arson after a lit cigarette ignited gasoline soaked clothes, setting his apartment ablaze.

On Friday April 3, Krajniak, 47, cleaned his entire apartment with about five gallons of gasoline, wiping everything down with the soaked clothes. After he was finished, he piled the soaked clothes in the center of his bedroom, lit a cigarette and then threw what was left of the still lit cigarette, into the pile.

Krajniak never called the fire department and never pulled the alarm. Instead he yelled ‘fire’ a few times then walked to the police station where an ambulance took him to a local hospital for the treatment of minor burns. The fire department later arrived to put out the blaze and his apartment was extensively smoke damaged. 11 other apartments were also damaged, leaving the occupants without a place to stay for at least a week.

“I should have never used that,” said Krajniak during a court appearance on Monday. He admitted to knowing that gasoline was highly flammable. He was arrested and his bond has been set a US$2,500. Krajniak’s next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, April 13. According to WISinfo.com, Krajniak has no prior criminal record.

The careless smoking of cigarettes has been blamed for thousands of fires across the U.S. In January 2008, an unnamed elderly woman in Buffalo, New York was receiving oxygen for medical problems in her home and lit a cigarette and began to smoke it. The oxygen coming from her mask then facilitated the ignition of her clothing, setting her on fire.

In the U.S. in 2002, only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.

Monday, June 12, 2017

On Friday, Japan’s parliament, the National Diet, passed a law to allow Emperor Akihito to abdicate. The law gives Akihito three years to become the first emperor to abdicate since Emperor Kokaku in 1817, two hundred years ago.

The newly passed law, made in response to the country’s Imperial Household Law’s lack of abdication provisions, applies to only Akihito, aged 83. It prohibits Akihito’s successors from abdicating.

Akihito ascended to the 2,000-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne when his father Emperor Hirohito died in 1989. Having a cardiac surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, Akihito in a televised address last year said age and health were interfering with his duties. Per Japan’s current constitution, an emperor cannot make political statements, so Akihito did not explicitly mention abdication.

When abdication happens, under new law, Akihito’s son and heir apparent Naruhito will ascend the throne, becoming the country’s 126th emperor. Besides Naruhito, Akihito has another son and a daughter.

Emperor Akihito’s heir apparent Naruhito, born in 1960, graduated from Oxford University and married a Harvard University graduate Masako Owada in 1993. Portland State University professor Kenneth Ruoff told the BBC that, while Akihito and his wife have been active in social causes, Naruhito and Masako have done little in this regard. A Kyoto Sangyo University emeritus professor Isao Tokoro said Naruhito “has been educated,” is born, and is qualified “to be emperor[.]”

In 2006, the National Diet debated on allowing female ascendance, as the emperor lacked grandsons at the time, due to the current male-only royal ascendance laws. Then Hisahito, now 10, was born, and the debate lapsed.

Naruhito has only one child Aiki, 15, while his brother Prince Akishino, 51, has three children, including his only son Hisahito. Per current law, Hisahito is qualified to ascend after his uncle Naruhito and his father.

The royal family has 19 living members, including seven unmarried princesses and five males. Female royals, if marrying a commoner, would have to give up their royal status, leaving the royal family, while males would still be allowed to retain their royal status after marrying a commoner. Akishino’s daughter Princess Mako announced her plans last month to relinquish her royal status and leave the royal family in order marry a commoner Kei Komuro, a graduate student and law firm worker, both of them aged 25. In 2005, Mako’s aunt and Naruhito’s sister Sayako, formerly Princess Nori, married a commoner Yoshiki Kuroda, a town planner, and was forced to relinquish her status and leave the family.

A Temple University Japan professor Jeff Kingston said a national succession crisis has people raising concerns about female princesses leaving the royal family when getting married. Kingston added the family “[has] a shortage of male heirs.” Kingston also said ousting a female royal for marrying a commoner is “a very old-fashioned approach, totally out of sync with 21st-century norms” to many people around the world, including in Japan.

In a survey by Kyodo News conducted in May of about 3000 people at least 18 years old, 68 percent said the Imperial Household Law should be amended to allow future emperors to abdicate. 25 percent favored separately legislating each abdication. Four percent said abdication of emperors should never be allowed.

On questions involving female royals, 86 percent said to allow empresses; 59 percent supported both empresses and established branches of female lineages. 62 percent supported establishment of separate branches for princesses retaining their roles while marrying commoners; 35 percent opposed. 61 percent said female ascendance should be debated only after the abdication, while 28 percent said it shouldn’t wait for the abdication.

Early this year, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considered giving imperial status to branches of those who left the royal family. In the survey, 22 percent supported the idea; 72 percent opposed.

The Abe government has avoided the debate of female ascendance but recently passed a non-binding resolution attached to the newly passed abdication law to consider how to strengthen female royal status, possibly including allowing them to retain their royal titles and continue their duties, to compensate for the declining royal population.

Friday, November 17, 2006

A group of 13 teenage boys raped a 13-year old school girl in Zurich last weekend, reports the website of the German language newspaper 20 Minuten. The report says that the girl was raped repeatedly and the act was filmed on mobile phones.

Six of the suspects are Swiss nationals, two come from Serbia and Montenegro, one comes from Italy, two from the Republic of Macedonia, one from the Dominican Republic and one from Bosnia and Hercegovina. All live in Zurich.

All the suspects were arrested on Thursday. Police secured 3 mobile phones. Police say that securing the phones ensures the movies don’t get published on the Internet and cannot spark potential copycat acts.

The alleged act took place in the flat of an 18-year-old colleague of a 15-year-old friend of the victim. The victim and four of the arrested suspects attend the same school Schulhaus Buhnrain in Zurich Seebach.

According to 20 Minuten, the families of the perpetrators have now massively threatened the victim.

Verena Lang Temperli, a school official, told 20 Minuten that this case is a problem of society itself, not a problem of the school.

An anonymous source provided me with the document outlining use of force in the Ann Arbor Police Department. It is a FOIA-able document. I will quote the relevant sections. All bolding, underlining, etc. comes from the original document.

The PPCT/M.C.O.L.E.S. Force Continuum was designed to give officers a model in which to learn the various levels of subject resistance and the appropriate subject control response. This continuum is only a model, and the officer'(s) subject control response should be based upon:

• Physical size, strength, and weaponry of the person(s) compared to the officer(s).
• Nature of the encounter.
• Actions of the person(s).
• Exigent conditions (i.e., availability of back-up, number of persons involved).

For example, an officer may resort to the use of mace before using hard empty hand controls if the officer believes the use of hard empty hand controls would be ineffective.

1. Subject Actions
   1. Inactive Resistance: Resistance that may include psychological intimidation and/or verbal resistance (e.g., blank stare, clenching of fist(s), tightening of jaw muscles, etc.).
   2. Passive Resistance: Any type of resistance whereby the subject does not attempt to defeat the officer’s attempt to touch and control the subject, but still will not voluntarily comply with verbal and physical attempts of control (e.g., dead weight, does not react to verbal commands, etc.)
   3. Active Resistance: Any action by a subject that attempts to prevent an officer from gaining control of the subject (e.g., pulling/pushing away, blocking, etc.).
   4. Active Aggression: Physical actions/assaults against the officer or another person with less than deadly force (e.g., advancing, challenging, punching, kicking, grabbing, wrestling, etc.)
   5. Deadly Force Assault: Any force used against an officer or another person that may result in great bodily harm or the loss of human life.
2. Officer Response.
   1. Officer Presence/Verbal Direction: Identification of authority (i.e., uniformed presence, or identification as a police officer). Verbal Direction (e.g., for arrest or to control a subject’s movements.) Use of Restraint Devices (i.e., compliant handcuffing).
   2. Compliance Controls: Soft empty hand techniques (e.g., joint locks, pressure points, etc.). Compliance control devices (e.g., baton – when used as a compliance control device).
   3. Physical Controls: Hard empty hand techniques (e.g., strikes, take downs).
   4. Intermediate Controls: Intermediate weapons (i.e., impact weapons, including pepper spray or KEIP weapons).
   5. Deadly Force: Any force used by an officer that may result in serious injury or the loss of human life.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Roush Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth won his first race of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on Saturday during the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The win was his first since the beginning of the 2009 season. Throughout the course of the race there were five cautions and 31 lead changes among 13 drivers.

On the 214th lap, a three car accident occured, prompting Mark Martin, Regan Smith and Martin Truex, Jr. to drive to the garage for repairs. Afterward, Truex said: “We were struggling a little bit tonight…It’s unfortunate. We sure didn’t need to be wrecked.” Toward the conclusion of the race, Kenseth, who became the sixth different winner in the season, retook the first position after Kurt Busch pitted.

Afterward, he remained the leader to finish ahead of Clint Bowyer in second. Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Paul Menard followed in the next three positions. Marcos Ambrose managed the sixth position ahead of David Ragan in seventh. Jimmie Johnson followed Ragan in eighth, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr could only manage ninth. Kurt Busch rounded out the top ten finishers in the race.

After doing his victory lap, Kenseth said: “Especially after two years, I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to get here again.” Bowyer followed Kenseth’s statement saying: “I didn’t have anything for him. I was driving as hard as I could to stay in front of him. It was a solid run, one we can all be proud of.”

Following the race, Edwards became Drivers’ Championship leader with 256 points. Next, Kyle Busch is second with 247, four points ahead of Kenseth and Johnson. Busch and Earnhardt are fifth and sixth respectively with 240 and 235 points. Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, and Tony Stewart round out the top-ten point positions.

The 2011 season will continue on April 17, 2011 at Talladega Superspeedway for the 2011 Aarons’ 499. The race will be televised in the U.S. on the FOX Network at 1:00 p.m. EDT.