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Ice levels at all-time record low in Arctic Melting opens up Northwest Passage for first time Flight data recorder recovered in Thailand crash; 89 confirmed dead The flight data recorder from One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 was recovered today after the jet crashed yesterday on landing during a storm at Phuket International Airport in Thailand. At least 89 people are confirmed to have been killed in the crash.

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Health organisations respond to Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo The World Health Organization (WHO), non-governmental aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist local health authorities with a recent outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

Wikipedia Current Events
Iraq and the United States have pledged a "fair and transparent" investigation into a gunfight involving private security firm Blackwater Security that left eight people dead in Baghdad. Ernest Bai Koroma is sworn in as the President of Sierra Leone after winning a run-off election held 10 days ago. Hilary Clinton, candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in the United States presidential election, 2008, announces a proposal for all Americans to have health insurance. President George W. Bush nominates Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales as the next Attorney-General of the United States. Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, warns of the possibility of war over Iran's nuclear program. Microsoft loses its appeal against a European Union antitrust ruling forcing it to pay a 497 million euro fine. The Supreme Court of Pakistan hears petitions as to whether Pervez Musharraf should remain as head of the Pakistani Army while serving as the President of Pakistan. 2007 Pacific typhoon season: The death toll from Typhoon Nari in South Korea rises to nine. A new species of bat, the Mindoro Stripe-Faced Fruit bat, is discovered on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Fifty-five foreigners are among the 88 people who died in the crash of Flight OG 269 in Phuket. The two flight data recorders are found for the flight while an official from One-Two-Go Airlines thinks that wind shear may have been responsible. Greek conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis early Monday declared victory in Sunday's general elections after early results gave his ruling New Democracy party a lead of over four percent over the opposition Pasok socialists.

US President Bush nominates Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General
United States President George W. Bush has today nominated Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General. If confirmed by the Senate, Mukasey, a former Chief Judge for the Southern District of New York, will replace Alberto Gonzales.

"He knows what it takes to fight this war effectively and he knows how to do it in a manner consistent with our laws and our Constitution," Bush said, while announcing Mukasey's nomination in the Rose Garden.

"I look forward to meeting with members of Congress in the days ahead and, if confirmed, to working with Congress to meeting our nation's challenges," Mukasey said in his comments.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who was among those who sought the ouster of Gonzales, said Mukasey "is certainly conservative," but "seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House - our most important criteria."

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "A man who spent 18 years on the federal bench surely understands the importance of checks and balances and knows how to say no to the president when he oversteps the Constitution, but there should be no rush to judgment. The Senate Judiciary Committee must carefully examine Judge Mukasey's views on the complex legal challenges facing the nation."

Michael B. Mukasey was nominated as a federal district judge in Manhattan by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. He took the bench in 1988 and served in that position for 18 years, including a 6-year tenure as Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York from 2000 to July 2006.

2007 ICC World Twenty20: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by 33 runs in the Super 8 stage of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Pakistan were 33-3 in the fifth over after Imran Nazir was caught at cover and Dilhara Fernando bowled both Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez. However Shoaib Malik (57) and Younis Khan (51) shared a partnership of 101 runs. Lasith Malinga took three wickets but Pakistan reached 189-6 after twenty overs.

Having made an early breakthrough when Upul Tharanga was dismissed with the second ball of the innings, Pakistan missed a chance three balls later when Sohail Tanvir dropped Sanath Jayasuriya. However Tanvir, bowling the following over, bowled Jayasuriya with his first delivery. Sri Lanka were reduced to 35-3 soon afterwards when Mohammad Asif bowled Kumar Sangakkara. Mahela Jayawardene (28) and Chamara Silva (38) shared a 53 run partnership while Tillakaratne Dilshan scored 38, but three quick wickets fell for four runs limiting Sri Lanka's chances. Shahid Afridi took 3-18 and Umar Gul took 2-14 for Pakistan as Sri Lanka finished on 156-9.

2007 ING Taipei Marathon warming up competition goes to Kaohsiung
On Saturday of September 15, ING Taipei Marathon South Taiwan Warming Up Competition goes to Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, not only 1615 professional runners but also international runners from Canada, Japan, UK, USA, Germany, and Ireland participated this event. And event organizer Chinese Taipei Road Running Association (CTRRA) presented limited "I Love Marathon" T-shirt for some of 3KM group runners.

Not only international runners, companies and enterprises such as China Steel Corp., CPC Corp. Taiwan, Taiwan Power Company, Chi Mei Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, NXP Semiconductors Taiwan, Corning Co., Ltd. (Taiwan), National Highway Police Bureau of Taiwan, Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Group, Kaohsiung Prison and Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office of Ministry of Justice of Taiwan also grouped and participated this event.

A great intensive competition is still in Men's Group between Wen-chien Wu and Tsu-chien Cheng, but Wu still held his honor and won back this championship with 27 minutes and 34 seconds; In the Women's Group, Chien-her Hsieh won with 31 minutes and 34 seconds, Yu-hao Wu won the champion with 40 minutes and 27 seconds in the Blind Group.

After this event, ING Antai and CTRRA announced that next stage of ING Taipei Marathon Warming Up will go to Taichung City at September 30.

A 1-year long strike against FMC Novamed: Women workers allege unfair treatment
In a free trade zone in Antalya, Turkey, 80 women workers of FMC Novamed are in strike for almost a year now, since September 26th, 2006. They allege not only low wages but also severe abuses on FMC's part.

Novamed, founded in 2001, is a factory managed by Turkish capitalists and located in the free trade zone in Antalya, Turkey. 95% of its workers are women. It is owned by Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), which is an international corporation with its headquarters in Germany. With factories in 12 countries and a total of 100,000 workers, FMC is a monopoly in the market of dialysis products.

Following is a list of some of the abuses as alleged by the woman workers of the union:

Married woman workers are not allowed to become pregnant without FMC Novamed's approval. Each worker is given a schedule, which specifies during which months they are allowed to become pregnant. If a woman worker becomes pregnant in "breach" of this given schedule, she is terminated without compensation.

Woman workers are required to get permission from the employer before getting married.

To "save energy" for their work at the factory, workers are being advised:

not to accept guests in their own homes when they are off the clock,

not to communicate or even have sex with their spouses when they are off the clock,

not to see each other when they are off the clock,

only to eat and sleep when they are off the clock.

Workers are treated inhumanely, and continuously humiliated regardless of whether they make a mistake or not.

Managers and supervisors call their workers to their office and accuse and humiliate them in such a way that there are few workers who come out of these accusation-performances without crying.

Workers are not allowed to talk to each other during work hours, as well as in the shuttle during their trips from and to work.

Workers are allowed inside the factory premises after being "sniffed" by their supervisors, because smoking during work hours is forbidden.

During work hours, there is only a 15-minute break and a 25-minute lunch break. During lunch, instead of food, the factory is serving tea and cookies.

An average shuttle trip from home to work may take as long as 2 hours because there are not enough shuttles allocated by the factory for the workers.

In 2005, FMC Novamed had 264 workers. Workers applied to the Labor Ministry of Turkey for a union license after its union members (162 then) became the majority among the factory's workers. However, they were sued for the license and due to the procedures of the lawsuit, the membership list of the union had to be given to the employer, FMC Novamed. Following pressure from the company, workers started to quit the union, and even the factory itself.

When the union finally managed to start negotiations with FMC Novamed, they were greeted by an attitude of indifference. As the negotiations were blocked, the union had to decide whether to strike. They were inclined to apply to "Grand Arbitrator Committee" (Yüksek Hakem Kurulu), a committee whose duty is to arbitrate between the employer and the employee when they cannot negotiate themselves and are bound for a strike.

However, in the meantime, FMC Novamed employed an unfamiliar anti-union strategy: the factory employed workers and enrolled them in the union, but interestingly not as strike-breakers. While the union workers voted for an arbitrator instead of going to strike, the factory-employed workers, now the majority, voted for the strike and won. In the end, those who voted yes for the strike kept on working during the strike, while those who voted no ended up in a forced strike: if they would not strike, their union license would be revoked...

FMC Novamed maintains that all the allegations by the union workers are a lie. According to Cem Günaltay, the Finance Manager for Novamed, the workers who are on strike and all the members of the union are lying. FMC's International Production Manager Antonio Raffa claimed that the union is insincere and hypocritical in its allegations.

According to Burn (2005, p. 170-172), Free Trade Zones are established in "Third World" countries because they are generally exempt from tax, labor, safety, health, and environment laws when they do business in these zones. In these zones, women are the preferred labor force because they can be hired for significantly lower pay and under significantly less desirable working conditions than men can. Often from rural areas and unaware of their rights, in a setting with high unemployment rates, left unprotected by their nation-state, and already oppressed by the harsher patriarchal conditions of their societies, women workers in a transnational factory have little choice other than to accept the questionable work conditions imposed on them.

Flight data recorder recovered in Thailand crash; 89 confirmed dead
The flight data recorder from One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 was recovered today after the MD-82 jet crashed yesterday on landing during a storm at Phuket International Airport in Thailand. At least 89 people are confirmed to have been killed in the crash, as rescue crews continued to recover bodies from the wreckage.

The cause of the crash was "probably weather related", Vutichai Singhamanee, director of the Civil Aviation Authority's flight standards bureau, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. There was a strong wind and heavy rain at the time.

Flying from Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, the plane landed at Phuket at around 3:40 p.m. local time (0840 GMT), skidded off the runway, ran into some trees and an earth embankment, broke in two and burst into flames.

The plane was carrying 130 people – 123 passengers, two pilots and five crew members. At least 79 of the people aboard were foreigners. Phuket is an island on the Andaman Sea, on the west coast of southern Thailand and is a popular destination for tourists. Survivors from Australia, Austria, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were being treated at local hospitals, The Nation reported.

The flight data recorder, or "black box", is to be sent to the United States for analysis. The US National Transportation Safety Board is assisting with the investigation in Thailand, which is routine for the NTSB because the crash involves a US-made aircraft.

Phuket International Airport was closed for the remainder of yesterday and most of today while the recovery of the wreckage continued.

The crash is the first major incident for Thailand's fledgling low-cost aviation sector, and the first fatal commercial aviation incident in Thailand since the crash of Thai Airways Flight 261 in 1998 in Surat Thani.

Founded in 2003, One-Two-GO is the domestic, low-cost subsidiary of Orient Thai Airlines, a small Thailand-based carrier that does mostly charter flights with a fleet of older Boeing 747s. The MD-82 involved in yesterday's crash is thought to be at least 24 years old.

Kimi Räikkönen wins 2007 Belgian Grand Prix
Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen won the FIA Formula-1 2007 ING Belgian Grand Prix on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps at Spa, Belgium. He and his teammate, Felipe Massa, showed the fastest times during most of the pre-race sessions, taking the front line as a result.

Both McLaren Mercedes drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were unable to compete with the red cars, tring their utmost to use a slightest mistake of their rivals, if any. Still, Kimi and Felipe were in full control of the race after making a significant gap to Alonso, number one of McLaren.

Start of the race resulted in a slight side touch between McLaren cars, with Hamilton forced to make an evasive manoeuvre out of the track, a reminiscent of the Hungary practice session incident between them.

Two German drivers Nick Heidfeld from BMW Saubers and Nico Rosberg from Williams-Toyota saw the chequered flag 5th and 6th. Mark Webber owned 7th place for Red Bull-Renault team.

Heikki Kovalainen's Renault closed the top eight after his highlighted struggle with Robert Kubica on the third part of the race.

Another highlight became Adrian Sutil's driving for Spyker-Ferrari, who was pushing hard on David Coulthard on the first part of the race. The young German driver finished 14th far ahead of both Super Aguri's and his teammate.

Alonso came closer to Hamilton in Drivers' Championship, and have now a gap of just 2 points between the teammates. The situation in Constructors' Championship after the World Motorsport Council ruling over McLaren on September 13 became clear for Ferrari with their 161 points, 71 points ahead of BMW Sauber.

Today in History
96 – Following the assassination of Roman Emperor Domitian, the Roman Senate appointed Nerva, the first of the Five Good Emperors, to succeed him.

323 – Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire, and ultimately leading to the conversion of the whole empire to Christianity.

1895 – Daniel David Palmer (pictured) gave the first chiropractic adjustment to deaf janitor Harvey Lillard, reportedly resulting in a restoration of the man's hearing.

1931 – The Mukden Incident: A section of the Japanese-built South Manchuria Railway was destroyed, providing an excuse for the Japanese to blame the act on Chinese dissidents, and thus giving a pretext for the Japanese annexation of Manchuria.

1961 – En route to negotiate a ceasefire between Katanga troops and United Nations forces, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, killing him and 15 others on board.

September 18 is National Day in Chile.

Quote of the Day

All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance; it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the single stroke of the pickaxe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and the last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are leveled and oceans bounded by the slender force of human beings. ~ Samuel Johnson

Word of the Day

ardor; n

Great warmth of feeling; fervor; passion

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