Sunday, April 8, 2007

Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has been taken to a Delhi Army Hospital after being injured in a car mishap in West Bengal. His condition is said to be stable. He has received injuries on the head and other body parts.

In statement, he said he would be back at work soon: “I am well but doctors have advised me 48 hours rest. I hope to be back to work after that period,” the Press Trust of India reported.

Mukherjee is one of the senior most politicians in the ruling Congress Party and is close to party supremo Sonia Gandhi. In a cabinet reshuffle in October last year, Mukherjee had been given the high profile post of India’s foreign minister which was lying vacant after the resignation of Natwar Singh. Until then he had been the minister for defence.

In view of this accident Mukherjee’s two day visit to Saudi Arabia where he was expected to call upon the Saudi king has been cancelled.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received Mukherjee at the airport when he was brought back from West Bengal.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

File:Elitexc-heat-kimbo-slice-vs-seth-petruzelli-300×214.jpg

Boxing regulators in the state of Florida have started a preliminary investigation into allegations of corruption and fight fixing after mixed martial arts fighter Seth Petruzelli defeated Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson in the main event of the EliteXC: Heat on Saturday, October 4, 2008.

Petruzelli, who was scheduled to fight Aaron Rosa on an untelevised undercard match, was approached by EliteXC officials to take on Ferguson, who fights under the nickname Kimbo Slice. Slice’s announced opponent, legendary mixed martial arts and professional wrestling veteran Ken Shamrock, was declared medically ineligible to fight after injuring himself during a Saturday morning workout session, requiring stitches to be applied to a cut over his eye. News of the injury and substitution was not made until after CBS Sports started broadcasting the show.

The show had been heavily promoted over the last two months on Shamrock’s reputation and the credibility of his name, along with the media buzz around Kimbo Slice. CBS Sports was expecting to cash in with a huge ratings success after securing a record-setting 4.85 million viewers on their inaugural broadcast of EliteXC, the highest ratings ever for a MMA broadcast. Fourteen seconds into the main event, however, Petruzelli scored an upset win over Slice. Petruzelli hit Slice with a right cross to Slice’s jaw that sent the phenom staggering backwards. Petruzelli moved in, as Slice was not defending himself, and finished off his opponent with a flurry of punches. The referee stopped the fight a few seconds later.

The controversy started the next morning after Petruzelli was interviewed on the “Monster in the Morning” radio show on WTKS-FM 104.1 in Orlando, FL and simulcast on XM Satellite channel 152. In the 18-minute interview, Petruzelli made the statement, “The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him. They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him.”

It was inferred through this statement that an EliteXC official approached Petruzelli and attempted to influence the outcome of the fight. Slice, whose fight strategy is largely based on punching power, had been training to face Shamrock, another noted strike artist. Petruzelli, on the other hand, has a much stronger ground offensive. Critics during the fight noted that if Petruzelli could force Slice to the mat that it would be a humiliating upset, but if Slice could maintain control through his striking it would be an easy win.

With the statement from Petruzelli about being paid to stand up and fight on Slice’s skill level, allegations of tampering with the fight began to arise within hours. EliteXC’s Jeremy Lappin, Director of Fight Operations, responded to MMA Weekly’s inquiries, saying “Press reports that EliteXC suggested or paid money to heavyweight fighter Seth Petruzelli to keep his fight against Kimbo Slice off the ground are false. Let me be perfectly clear with no ambiguity – that did not happen.” Lappin stated that they offered him a “Knockout of the Night” bonus if he could score a win by KO. Bonuses such as “Knockout of the Night”, “Submission of the Night” and “Match of the Night” are often offered to fighters who can deliver entertaining and crowd-pleasing performances. Lappin also stated, “Elite XC organizes and promotes fights. We have not, do not, and will not suggest or dictate fighters’ strategies or tactics. How the fighters perform in the cage is at the sole discretion of the athletes involved.”

Petruzelli also started making immediate amends the next day, blaming himself for misrepresenting his intentions. In a blitz of media interviews in an effort to retracts his statement, he said, “Honestly, when I woke up in the morning my words were jumbled and obviously my head was in a daze from drinking (laughs) the entire night. Reading the transcript, I actually now feel I worded it perfectly in what I wanted to say. I wanted to keep the fight standing and they offered a knockout bonus and I wanted to get the knockout bonus.”

Florida officials from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) did not appear to be interested in performing an investigation. In an interview with MMAWeekly.com, DBPR press secretary Alexis Antonacci said, “Our interpretation is that the comments made were in reference to the promoter asking [Petruzelli] to join a fight that he wasn’t originally scheduled for. We don’t believe any wrongdoing occurred.” The DBPR regulates all business and professional licenses in the state, including promotion of sports such as boxing, professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.

After being hounded by the media and fight critics all week long, the DPBR announced on Thursday that they would start a preliminary investigation. Communications director Jennifer Meale made a statement to the press. “While the Department of Business and Professional Regulation doesn’t have any reason to believe there was a problem with the Slice-Petruzelli fight, given the interest in it, the Department has begun a preliminary investigation to thoroughly review the circumstances of the fight.”

Pro Elite, Inc, the parent company of EliteXC, has struggled over the last year. The company is over $50 million in debt, with $24.4 million of that debt accrued in the first half of 2008. Trailing behind industry leader Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), EliteXC has rallied behind Kimbo Slice to drive up ratings on their specials with CBS Sports and Showtime Networks, attendance at live events and other merchandise sales. The October 4 broadcast drew in 4.56 million viewers, making it the third most-watched viewed event in MMA history to go along with its record-setting May 31 debut of 4.85 million viewers. Both events featured Kimbo Slice in the main event.

The corruption issue could go deeper than just fixing a fight for the company’s star fighter. Further fueling the allegations are the actions of EliteXC’s president, Jared Shaw. Immediately after the fight was stopped, Shaw rushed to the side of the cage and yelled to the referee that Slice was hit illegally.

“He spent a lot of money to build up Kimbo,” Seth Petruzelli said. “If I saw one of my guys I spent millions on getting his face pounded I’d get upset also.” Shaw later apologized for his actions, calling them improper.

EliteXC’s Lappin told ESPN, “We were not trying to protect Kimbo. He had been training to fight a guy in Shamrock who has a better ground game than Seth. If we were trying to protect Kimbo we would have sent him home. We put him in a dangerous fight.” Frank Shamrock, MMA color analyst for CBS Sports, and brother of Ken Shamrock, feels that EliteXC is looking out for Slice’s best interests. “As for Pro Elite, are they looking after their baby? I hope so. Are they conspiring to ensure he wins? I don’t think so.”

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Sunday, May 18, 2014

The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has warned that the state of the housing market in the United Kingdom is the current biggest domestic threat to the country’s economy, due to lack of house building, and regulatory issues.

In an interview to be aired on Sky News today, he said the housing market is the “biggest risk” to the economy and has “deep, deep structural problems”. Of house building he said: “There are not sufficient houses built in the UK. To go back to Canada, there are half as many people in Canada as in the UK, twice as many houses are built every year in Canada as in the UK and we can’t influence that.”

“We’re not going to build a single house at the Bank of England. We can’t influence that. What we can influence […] is whether the banks are strong enough. Do they have enough capital against risk in the housing market?”

Carney also said the Bank of England would look into the procedures used to issue loans and mortgages to see if they were being granted appropriately: “We’d be concerned if there was a rapid increase in high loan-to-value mortgages across the banks. We’ve seen that creeping up and it’s something we’re watching closely.”

Kris Hopkins responded to Carney on behalf of the government, saying the government “inherited a broken housing market, but our efforts to fix it are working”. “We’ve scrapped the failed top-down planning system, built over 170,000 affordable homes and released more surplus brownfield sites for new housing. We’ve also helped homebuyers get on the housing ladder, because if people can buy homes builders will build them. Housebuilding is now at its highest level since 2007 and climbing. Last year councils gave permission for almost 200,000 new homes under the locally-led planning system and more than 1,000 communities have swiftly taken up neighbourhood planning. It’s clear evidence the government’s long-term economic plan is working.”

Earlier this month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called on the UK government to “tighten” access to the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme introduced by George Osborne and the coalition government in 2013. ‘Help to Buy’ has also recently been criticised by three former Chancellors of the Exchequer — the Conservatives Norman Lamont and Nigel Lawson, and former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling. Darling said: “Unless supply can be increased substantially, we will exacerbate that situation with schemes like Help to Buy.”

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Having worked as an aide, advisor, and Executive Assistant to municipal and provincial politicians, Sheila White is running for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough-Rouge River riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Jim Cramer, CNBC’s host of Mad Money, plans to appear on The Daily Show Thursday, in the midst of an escalating feud between Cramer and the Comedy Central show’s host, Jon Stewart.

Jim Cramer has been the only CNBC employee to publicly respond to Daily Show segments strongly criticizing the television business news channel’s financial coverage during the growing global recession, particularly focusing on specific remarks by made by Cramer.

The feud began on March 4, when The Daily Show aired an eight-minute clip lampooning CNBC. The comedy news show featured several clips of pundits, focusing particularly on predictions or reports by CNBC reporters that The Daily Show argued were overly optimistic or too strongly slanted in favor of the companies being discussed.

In one clip, a CNBC host reported Merrill Lynch said it would not need capital, which The Daily Show followed with a list of billions in bailout money the financial services firm has required since September. In another clip, Jim Cramer is shown allegedly affirming “Your money is safe in Bear Sterns”, followed by a Daily Show statement that the global investment bank went under six days later.

“If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today,” Stewart said during the bit, “provided I’d started with a hundred million dollars.”

Although most CNBC reporters and executives declined to comment, Cramer defended himself in a column published Monday, claiming the clip was taken out of context. Cramer said he wasn’t talking about buying Bear Sterns stock, but simply reassuring a viewer that his liquidity held in Bear Sterns was safe.

“The absurdity astounds me,” Cramer said of the Daily Show bit. “The fact that I was right rankles me even more.”

Later that day, The Daily Show responded with another montage of clips, this time more specifically targeting Cramer.

“So Jim Cramer, I apologize,” Stewart said ironically, then promptly showcased video of Cramer suggesting the safety of Bear Stearns stock 5 days prior to the collapse of Bear Stearns on Mad Money’s Lighting Round. Provokingly, Jon Stewart then admitted, “He’s not saying literally ‘I’m asking you to buy Bear Stearns,’ for that you have to go back a full 7 weeks” this time showing video footage of Cramer on January 24, 2008, telling TheStreet.com TV viewers to specifically “buy Bear Stearns” stock 7 weeks before it collapsed.

The following day on March 10, Cramer responded again during a Tuesday appearance on the Today show, saying, “[Jon Stewart] is a comedian, and he’s decided to focus on some calls I made during a bull market. The guy is a comedian. Did I make a mistake? First of all, any time you recommend a stock and it goes down, you’ve made a mistake. Here’s a shocker: Almost every stock is down! Any stock you recommended is bad. You know, Warren Buffett, I could run tapes from him, he would look like a complete fool.”

The feud between The Daily Show and CNBC generated a significant amount of attention in the mainstream media. The Associated Press called the first Daily Show bit a “brutal takedown” of CNBC. Other publications, like New York magazine, defended CNBC, writing, “We doubt there’s a single news outlet that hasn’t made a misstatement regarding the economy in the past year.”

The Thursday Daily Show sketch ran the same day CNBC reporter Rick Santelli was scheduled to appear on the show, to discuss his vocal criticisms of President Barack Obama’s plans for dealing with foreclosures. Santelli cancelled the appearance, but Daily Show executives said the CNBC montage was not retaliatory and that they planned to show it before the cancellation was announced.

Monday, July 17, 2006

The New Zealand government has withdrawn its Criminal Proceeds and Instruments Bill from Parliament, putting on hold its plans to introduce a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture regime.

The bill was introduced to Parliament in June last year, and was removed from the Parliamentary Order Paper in the last week, before it had even received a first reading vote.

A spokesperson for the Minister of Justice refused to give a reason for the bill’s withdrawal, saying only that there were “a couple of procedural issues that need to be dealt with”.

The bill would establish a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture regime, which would allow the government to confiscate the assets of those suspected of involvement in serious crime. Suspected criminals would be required to prove on the balance of probabilities that their assets were legally acquired or else forfeit them to the crown. No criminal conviction would be required.

The scheme has attracted criticism from both sides of the House, with the Green Party calling it “an affront to the principles of justice and law”, and the National Party demanding a much tougher regime. Given the stated positions of parties on the bill, the most likely reason for its withdrawal is that the government does not have a majority to pass it in its present form.