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United States and North Korea to hold talks in New York According to the United States Department of State, officials for the U.S. government and the North Korean government are going to meet in New York on March 5 to the 6. Billboard holds benefit Oscar party for Children Uniting Nations Professional photographer John B. Mueller was at the Children Uniting Nations/Billboard Academy Awards afterparty red carpet, taking photos for Wikinews. It is one of the largest events, following only the Vanity Fair and Elton John AIDS Foundation Party in size.

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Liberals in Quebec gain support over separatist Parti Québécois Following an upcoming election in Quebec, the Parti libéral du Québec (Liberal Party of Quebec) are in the lead, well ahead of the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ), says a poll done by Montreal based newspaper Le Devoir.

Wikipedia Current Events
John McCain announces that he will be a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 Presidential election on the Late Show with David Letterman. Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister of Italy, survives a no-confidence motion in the Senate. Airbus announces plans to cut 10,000 jobs across Europe in the next four years. The European Union announces plans to make significant cuts to the European Union Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Strong wind blows a passenger train off the tracks near Turpan, Xinjiang, China, killing four and injuring 30 more. Authorities monitor a volcano on the island of Stromboli off the north coast of Sicily as lava pours down its slope for a second successive day. Cuba-United States relations: Carlos and Elsa Alvarez are sentenced to five and three year prison terms respectively after being convicted of spying for the Cuban government. Two paintings by Pablo Picasso, Maya with Doll and Jacqueline, have been stolen from the painter's granddaughter's apartment in Paris, France. A car bomb kills at least 10 people in Baghdad. Japan abandons its whaling hunt in the Southern Ocean for this year due to the damage caused to the Nisshin Maru. The Sri Lanka Navy kills at least fifteen members of the Tamil Tigers as they try to infiltrate the port of Trincomalee. Finance Minister of Thailand Pridiyathorn Devakula resigns over differences of opinion with the Prime Minister of Thailand Surayud Chulanont.

US study finds that delinquent students claim to begin sex lives earlier
An extensive study of adolescents conducted in U.S. revealed that claiming an early beginning of sex life is statistically correlated to delinquent behavior later. An examination of more than 7,000 teenagers revealed that those who had their first sexual experience earlier than their peers showed a 20 percent increase in delinquent conduct a year after.

Stacy Armour, a research student from Ohio State University, who took part in the study found a correlation between teens beginning their sex life later than their peers and their subsequent rate of delinquency. The research showed that adolescents who were late to begin sex life as compared to the average age of teens in their school, were 50 percent more unlikely to act delinquently.

The average age when adolescents begin their sex life would be between 11.25 and 17.5 years, according to the research that is found in Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The information concerning the average age of teenagers who just had their first intercourse was revealed for each of the schools that took part in the study. Every respondent had his data compared with the data of other peers within one school.

The overall data of the study revealed that a 58 percent increase in delinquent behavior was pronounced among those teenagers who stopped claiming to be virgins between first and second study. The research itself doesn't suggest that sex is interrelated with delinquency but it raises the problem that those teenagers who are more impatient to start sexual life are likely to show asocial behavior later.

Airbus announces job cuts of 10,000
Airbus, Europe's biggest aircraft manufacturer, has announced 10,000 job cuts over the next four years. The news comes as its parent company, EADS starts a major restructuring programme because the company is not efficient enough.

Louis Gallois, the Airbus chief executive, said the company expects to cut approximately 4,300 jobs in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in UK and 400 in Spain. About half of those cuts wiil be made among subcontractors and temporary workers. Actual Airbus employee reduction would be about 5,000, or 9% of the total European work force of 55,000 full-time Airbus employees.

Although Gallois said he hoped to achieve this mainly through attrition, the unions were displeased. Union officials said nearly 14,000 employees at four French sites had a two hour work stoppage Wednesday afternoon to protest the cuts.

"The response has been massive," said Julien Talavan, a spokesman for Force Ouvrière, the main Airbus union in France. "This is just the beginning," he said, hinting at future labor action.

This move comes after well-publicized delays on its A380 super-jumbo commercial airliner. The restructuring announcement also includes the proposed sale or closure of 3 plants.

United States and North Korea to hold talks in New York

According to the United States Department of State, officials for the U.S. government and the North Korean government are going to meet in New York on March 5 to the 6 to discuss "organizational issues and agenda-setting issues," said spokesman for the State Department, Sean McCormack who also added that no agreements are expected to be reached during the meeting.

"It is really a first meeting and first set of discussions. There will be some organizational issues, agenda-setting issues that they will tackle. So do not look at it as a meeting that is going to produce immediate results. Nobody is going come out the front door and wave a piece of paper with some agreement on it. But it is a good-faith act in implementing the agreement that was signed in Beijing, and we look forward to those consultations," said McCormack.

Officials for N. Korea are also going to stop over in San Francisco, California on March 1, where a speech will be given at an unnamed university. The officials will then meet with "non governmental groups" before arriving in New York on March 2.

New Zealand's anti-spam bill now law

Last night the New Zealand Parliament passed the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act, which now makes it illegal to send spam from New Zealand that does not include the sender's details, and an unsubscribe facility, which also applies to normal commercial e-mails and porn e-mails.

New Zealand previously had no defense from spammers sending spam from New Zealand, which accounts for around 10% of all spam internationally.

All members of parliament voted for the bill, except for two ACT MP's with their leader saying that it will place extra costs on small businesses who wish to market their services.

Critics are also damming the act, saying that it will do little to combat the spam, because most of it comes from other countries.

The law also prohibits spam instant messaging and spam text messages.

Spam in New Zealand accounts for 80% of all e-mails in the inbox.

David Cunliffe, minister of information technology, said, "This legislation enables Kiwis to join the global fight against spam. International cooperation to identify, shut down or block the sources of spam is an important part our anti-spam strategy."

Canadian PM announces C$200 million for Afghanistan aid

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Monday, announced CAN$200 million for the cleanup of war-torn Afghanistan.

The money will be used for hospitals and broken roads as well as other important projects that will help Afghanistan. The $100 million has been added to the $100 million already used in the country, which will be used over the next 10 years.

"Thanks to the Canadian Forces efforts, the fragile peace that reigns over most of the country has been extended to large parts of Kandahar province," Harper said during a news conference in Ottawa. "Now it's time to consolidate those security gains on the ground and use them to advance reconstruction because the long-suffering Afghan people desperately need hope for a better future for their families and communities."

"Afghanistan is a long way from home, but the issues we are addressing here — building democracy, reducing poverty, fighting terrorism, celebrating pluralism — matter for the entire world," Harper said. "Global security hinges on success in Afghanistan... Afghanistan is on the frontline of the international security challenge of the modern post-war world. We must build a successful alternative there in order to defeat extremism and terrorism everywhere."

About $120 million is already being spent for governance and development; $30 million for counter-narcotics; $20 million for policing; $20 million for de-mining; and $10 million for road construction.

Various political leaders in Canada want the soldiers to come home from Afghanistan. NDP leader Jack Layton wants the troops pulled out of Kandahar, where the Canadians are currently fighting, immediately. However, in earlier 2006, the Conservative government said the troops will stay untill 2009. Before Stéphane Dion was elected as Liberal leader, thirty Liberal MPs suppoted the motion but a majority of them opposed. Stéphane Dion, now leader, says if he were elected Prime Minister, he would pull out all 2,500 troops.

Canada's overal mission in the country is for humanitarian and peacekeeping as well as fighting for peace and an end to the war.

U.S. stocks plummet amid global sell-off

The biggest U.S. stock market index, the Dow Jones, plunged by more than 416 points by the closing bell on Tuesday, the worst single-day decline since the re-opening of the markets following the September 11th terrorist attacks. The slip followed a 9% sell-off in Chinese markets. Other stock indices, such as the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, dipped by 96 points and 50 points, respectively. It was the 7th largest single-day decline is U.S. history.

Analysts blamed the slide on a number of factors: (1) U.S. and Chinese stock exchanges had powered upward for too long and were due for a significant correction; (2) inflation and the prices of bonds and equities had become too high; (3) the U.S. is headed for an economic recession. Alan Greenspan indicated on Monday that the U.S. economy would not sustain its recent growth, where the Dow Industrials set day-to-day records and the White House signaled on Tuesday that it would revise its estimate of fourth-quarter 2006 GDP growth down to an annual rate of about 2.3 percent from an initial forecast of 3.5 percent and was increasingly nervous that the figure could come in even lower.

Around 3 p.m. EST, Reuters reported that the New York Stock Exchange had implemented on-floor tradition restrictions meant to curb the sell off.

The decline also occurred on the day that a plot to assassinate U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney failed in Afghanistan.

Canadian stock exchange plummets
The Toronto Stock Exchange experienced one of its biggest one-day point losses in the wake of a major (9%) stock sell-off in China. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 2.7%, falling 364 points eventually ending the day at 13,040. Despite this 'dramatic' drop, the main Toronto index is still above where it was eight weeks prior at the end of 2006.

“It was the biggest one-day percentage drop since April 2004. At its worst point, the index was down 457 points. Every sector was in negative territory, with resource stocks leading the charge down.”
– CBC News, Market sell-off: TSX tumbles 364 points, Dow drops 416

In recent, the TSX set seven record highs in nine trading sessions. Its benchmark index doubled since October 2002 as well as experienced a steady rise in commodity prices. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) witnessed even larger drops; the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a loss of 3.3%, fallling 416 points, making it its worst day in almost four years. At its lowest point of the day it dropped 4.3%, falling 550 points. The Nasdaq composite index dropped similarily 96 points to 2,432 for a 3.8% loss.

In total, 498 of the 500 U.S. companies represented in the S&P 500 index fell including all 30 Dow stocks.

Today in History
1700 - Sweden introduced its own Swedish calendar in an attempt to reform into the Gregorian calendar.

1872 - Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world, was established.

1896 - Ethiopia won the decisive Battle of Adowa over Italy, ending the First Italo-Abyssinian War.

1919 - Korea under Japanese rule: The Samil Movement began with numerous peaceful protests in Korea, but was brutally suppressed by the Japanese police and army.

1954 - The 15-megaton hydrogen bomb Castle Bravo was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in one of the worst cases of radioactive contamination ever caused by nuclear testing.

March 01 is Fast of Esther in Judaism (2007); Saint David's Day in Wales, Mărţişor in Romania and Moldova, Martenitsa in Bulgaria.

Quote of the Day

We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.
~ Tzvetan Todorov

Word of the Day

cantankerous; adj

Stubborn, cranky, or surly.

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2007-02-28T21:20:56