Top Stories
Thousands more evacuated in California, USA Study says carbon dioxide levels rising faster than anticipated The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected, according to a new study published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Featured story
BDSM as business: An interview with the owners of a dungeon This is the first of a two part series examining the BDSM business, which focuses on the owners of an S&M dungeon, what they charge, what goes on, what the clients are like and how they handle their needs.

Wikipedia Current Events
Space Shuttle Discovery successfully lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the United States. The Shuttle was carrying the STS-120 crew on an assembly mission to the International Space Station, as well as the Harmony module. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree dissolving the parliament, moving to strengthen his control after voters overwhelmingly approved constitutional changes in a referendum called by the president. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz rejects demand for probe by foreign experts in recent Karachi suicide bombings. The European Court of Justice rules against Germany's "Volkswagen Law" paving the way for Porsche to take over Volkswagen. President George W. Bush declares that an "emergency exists" in areas of California and authorises the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief. Over 1,000,000 people are forced to evacuate in southern California due to the wildfires.( More than 1,300 houses have been destroyed including 1,000 in San Diego County, California alone. The government of Somalia frees Idris Osman, the head of the World Food Program in Somalia, after six days in detention. Nike agrees to buy United Kingdom sportswear firm Umbro for £285m. A United States Government report states that the United States Department of State is unable to account for much of the $1.2 billion in funding that it gave to DynCorp International to train Iraqi police.

Laura Bush in Saudi Arabia to promote breast cancer awareness
United States First Lady Laura Bush was in Saudi Arabia today to promote breast cancer awareness. In the United States and other countries, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“Today I'm delighted to launch the U.S.-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research here in its birthplace: Saudi Arabia. Through this partnership, the Saudi Cancer Society will join with the Komen Foundation to conduct a comprehensive breast cancer education program. Saudi Arabia's medical expertise will be advanced through the collaboration between King Fahd Medical City and M.D. Anderson -- coordinated by Middle East Partnership Initiative, a project of the U.S. Department of State.	”— Laura Bush, October 23, 2007, press conference in Riyadh

Bush, on her first visit to the Saudi kingdom, was greeted by Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, son of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and honorary president of the Saudi Cancer Society.

She also attended the signing the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research agreement at a crowded auditorium at the King Fahad Medical City. This new program "will help build lasting friendships between Saudis and Americans [and] give hope to women across the Middle East," according to Bush.

Saudi Arabia is the third country in the Middle East to join such a program. Other organizations involved include: Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Laura Bush also visited with women affected by breast cancer at the Abdullatif Cancer Screening Center. "The cure for breast cancer can come from a researcher in Washington or a young doctor in Riyadh," she said.

Bush was scheduled to meet with King Abdullah in Jeddah later. The visit to Saudia Arabia is part of a four-nation tour, during which she visited the United Arab Emirates and will soon visit Kuwait and Jordan.

Pet parrot saves owners lives
It turns out that dogs may not be the only 'man's best friend.' A parrot in Munice, Indiana is being credited with saving the lives of its owners.

According to the owner 33-year old Shannon Conwell along with his 9-year old son were watching television when they both fell asleep on the living room couch when a fire began to spread through the house around 3:00 a.m. on Friday October 19.

The Amazon, yellow-headed Parrot named Peanut reportedly imitates the sounds of several objects and began to emit one very similar to a fire alarm, waking the family from their sleep.

"He was really screaming his head off. I grabbed my son and my bird and got out of the house," said Conwell who also said that the fire alarm was also going off, but the bird woke her and her son. Conwell said that there were several pieces of medical equipment inside the house that also make a lot of noise. The equipment was there due to an accidental finger amputation which occurred only a few hours prior to the fire.

A bedroom, the kitchen and the dining room were all severely damaged in the fire, but no one was injured or killed. The fire department says that they are currently investigating the incident and have not said what the cause was.

2007/08 UEFA Champions League: Arsenal vs. Slavia Prague
Arsenal equalled the biggest-ever UEFA Champions League win today with a 7-0 win against Slavia Prague. The win, which matched Juventus mark against Olympiacos CFP in December 2003, was the Arsenal's 12th consecutive win in all competitions. The win keeps Arsenal's UEFA Champions League record this season perfect. The rematch comes in 15 days in Prague.

2007/08 UEFA Champions League: CSKA Moscow vs. Inter Milan
Inter Milan beat CSKA Moscow in their Champions League match today in a game that saw Luis Figo became the 6th player to play at least 100 games in UEFA Champions League.

The Moscow club took the game to Inter with 18 shots and a 1st half lead. However, CSKA Moscow will look at this as a lost opportunity as only 5 of those shots hit the target.

The rematch comes in matchday 4 in 15 days With Inter being the home club at San Siro.

Thousands more evacuated in California, USA
Nearly 330,000 people in San Diego County, California located in the United States are being ordered to evacuate after massive wildfires started to spread and grow. As a result, U.S. President George W. Bush has declared a state of emergency in California clearing the way for federal aid assistance.

"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes. We send the help of the federal government," said Bush in a statement to the press.

Almost 1,500 houses have been burned to ashes and fires continue to threaten nearly 60,000 more. Firefighters now fear that the fires could merge into one giant blaze if the Santa Ana Winds continue sending close to if not over 500,000 people running for safety. One person has died as a result of the fires with 42 injured. 16 of those are reported to be firefighters who were battling the blazes.

"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around," said San Diego County Fire Battalion Chief, Bruce Cartelli. At least 13 wildfires have burned more than 356,000 acres (142,400 hectares) in areas stretching from San Diego, near the border with Mexico, to Malibu, near Los Angeles.

Air Station Miramar for the U.S. Air Force is also being evacuated with the base's planes and other military equipment being transported away from the raging fires to Arizona and places far north of the fires in California.

Space Shuttle Discovery launches for mission STS-120
Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launched this morning from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 11:38 EDT (UTC-4).

During the two-week mission, the shuttle will deliver the Harmony Module to the International Space Station as well as preparing the space station for future additions.

About two hours before the scheduled launch, NASA discovered and assessed the threat posed by a 4 by 1.5-inch (10.16 by 3.81-cm) chunk of ice that had formed on a pipe that connects the external tank and the space shuttle main engines. A strike from debris at launch was responsible for the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003.

WiMAX Forum will endorse M-Taiwan WiMAX Application Lab in Hsinchu and shows the highlights from WiMAX Forum PlugFest in Taipei
During the 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase and Conference, WiMAX Forum announced the highlights from WiMAX Forum PlugFest in Grand Hyatt Taipei last week and announced that WiMAX Forum will endorse the M-Taiwan WiMAX Application Lab (MTWAL) in Hsinchu Science Park at the Press Conference yesterday and the General Assembly of the WiMAX Forum Taipei Member Conference today. With this laboratory located in Hsinchu, the WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan will be enhanced more with the cooperation between academics (especially National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan), governmental organization, and companies in networking industry.

This laboratory provided an open environment where world-wide innovators can experiment and test WiMAX-related products and the stability of application solutions at Hsinchu Science Park. Currently, equipment and application developers will have the 1st priority in testing for the quality evaluation and knowing the sanctification of consumers before bringing them to market.

"Members of WiMAX shows the latest innovations at this showcase (WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase), I believed that MTWAL will provide a complete product testing environment and applications in the WiMAX access area with the support from governmental and industrial organizations in Taiwan."

"WiMAX is a brand new wireless network different from other similar industries, this service must be dominated with lots of different operators to maintain the basic infrastructure of WiMAX." Ron Resnick (Chairman of WiMAX Forum) remarked at the Press Conference.

"WiMAX Forum chose Hsinchu Science Park as the development basis of WiMAX with a unique characteristic in networking industry in Taiwan. We held a PlugFest last week for brand new WiMAX products with 200 engineers participating this test to evaluate the performance and test the quality. With this PlugFest, participants experienced rich services and good quality of new products. The PlugFest also had numbers of milestones including testing the leading advanced antenna technologies delivering the fastest speeds and broadest coverage."

"MIMO setups aren't achieved until mid-week historically, but in this PlugFest, lots of vendors completed this high-risk testing and demonstrated the data flow ability between different matrices, as well as several beamforming IOP set ups." Ed Agis (Chairman of the WiMAX Forum Certification Working Group) said.

According to WiMAX Forum, lots of vendors also participated the exhibition of 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase and demonstrated WiMAX technology solutions. Ron Resnick also remarked this information at the 2nd day Keynote of 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Conference. Mei-yueh Ho (Chairman of Council for Economic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Taiwan) also looked this MTWAL set up as a bright idea, and Steve Ruey-long Chen (Minister of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. Taiwan) praised this set up as a boost of WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan.

Study says carbon dioxide levels rising faster than anticipated
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected, according to a new study published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study said that rising levels of CO2, the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change, threaten to accelerate global warming. The study attributes the change in CO2 levels to increased use of fossil fuels and a decline in the amount of gas being absorbed by the oceans and land.

CO2 emissions have increased by an average of 3.3 percent per year since 2000, compared with 1.1 percent per year in the 1990s. The rate has increased 35 percent more than scientists had anticipated based on economic growth, according to Corinne Le Quere, one of the paper's authors.

"The causes of the acceleration are surprising," Le Quere said. "One is that we are not as efficient at using CO2 as we had anticipated, and the second cause is that it appears that the CO2 sinks are weakening." The main natural CO2 sinks are the oceans and plants.

The study attributed approximately half of the unexpected growth to an increase in the carbon intensity of the global economy, a measure of the amount of carbon emissions per unit of economic activity. "For 30 years we were becoming more efficient at using CO2 for producing energy and wealth, and this has completely stalled since 2000," Le Quere said, adding that increased use of coal by developing countries such as China and India was partially to blame.

The remaining unexpected growth was attributed to a decline in the ability of the oceans and land to absorb CO2. Most climate models do not account for a weakening of CO2 sinks, Le Quere said. Alan Robock, associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University, called the reduction of the oceanic CO2 sink "really shocking".

The study "raises some very important issues that the public should be aware of: Namely that concentrations of CO2 are increasing at much higher rates than previously expected and this is in spite of the Kyoto Protocol that is designed to hold them down in western countries," said Kevin Trenberth, the head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a lead author of the 2007 assessment report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC predicted in February of this year that temperatures would rise by up to 6.4 degrees Celsius over the next century. However, Le Quere suggested that this scenario might be overly optimistic. "There’s quite a significant difference from what was forecast,” she said. "It’s rather scary and the IPCC scenarios are, therefore, rather too optimistic — as if they weren’t bleak enough already. The whole thing is likely to mean mitigation is rather more difficult than was thought."

WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase & Conference starts for M-Taiwan and WiMAX applications
With WiMAX Forum Member Conference and professional exposition and seminars in Taiwan, the "2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase & Conference", supervised by Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. Taiwan and Science & Technology Advisory Group of Executive Yuan of R.O.C. Taiwan, organized by Industrial Technology Research Institute, WiMAX Forum, Taipei Computer Association, and Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, started on October 22 & 23 at Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) and Grand Hyatt Taipei.

This 2-in-1 activity invited not only governmental and industry people sharing the experiences with some applications of WiMAX infrastructure but also hardware companies to expand opportunity between Taiwan and global WiMAX players. On the conference, organizers also invited conference participants joining General Assembly Keynote focused on the development and supply chains of WiMAX infrastructure at WiMAX Forum Member Conference today.

In the showcase area, 76 companies exhibited Tiwonese-made WiMAX systems, components, applications, testings, and certifications. Organizers also set M-Taiwan and WiMAX Forum Members pavilions with different solutions and topics. On the other hand, Far Eastone Telecommunications Inc., and Tatung Co., Ltd. rented tour buses for the mobile WiMAX tour, and China Television Co., Ltd. set eSNG car in front of TICC main entrance.

Today in History
1260 – The Cathedral of Chartres in Chartres, France was dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX.

1648 – The second treaty of the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Münster, was signed, ending both the Thirty Years' War and the Dutch Revolt, and officially recognizing the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and Swiss Confederation as independent states.

1929 – The Great Depression: The New York Stock Exchange crashed on "Black Thursday", setting off a chain of bankruptcies and triggering a worldwide economic depression.

1945 – The UN Charter, the constitution of the United Nations, entered into force after being ratified by the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a majority of the other signatories.

1960 – A prototype of the Soviet R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile exploded on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR, killing at least 90 people.

October 24 is United Nations Day; Independence Day in Zambia (1964).

Quote of the Day

Two girls discover

the secret of life

in a sudden line of

poetry.

I who don't know the

secret wrote

the line. ...

I love them

for finding what

I can't find,

and for loving me

for the line I wrote,

and for forgetting it

so that

a thousand times, till death

finds them, they may

discover it again, in other

lines

in other

happenings.

~ Denise Levertov ~

Word of the Day

imperious; adj

Domineering, arrogant, or overbearing.

(obsolete) Imperial or regal.

About Wikinews
We are a group of volunteer journalists whose mission is to create a diverse community where citizens from around the globe (including you) can collaborate to report the news on a wide variety of current events. By making our content perpetually available for free redistribution and use, we hope to contribute to a global digital commons. Got news and no computer? Call the Wikinews Hotline +1-866-653-4265 (toll-free in the U.S.) +1-202-742-5918 (outside the U.S.) +44-871-218-6397 (U.K. / Europe)
License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Articles published in this Print edition were created by Wikinewsies. Other content released under the GNU Free Documentation License. To view a copy of the CC-BY license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor San Francisco, California, 94105, USA To view a copy of the GFDL, visit: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html Wikipedia Current Events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events Today in History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Quote of the Day http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page Word of the Day http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page
About Wikinews Print Edition
For more information about Wikinews Print Edition visit: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Print

Wednesday, October 24, 2007	Wikinews	Page 5

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit www.wikinews.org

October 24, 2007	The free-content news source that you can write!	Page 5

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit en.wikinews.org

Wikinews Back Page

2007-10-23T20:23:18