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Saturday, September 3, 2005

To help launch Cape Verde‘s first public university, the Brazilian government has made the promise to provide organizational advice and to train professors.

According to Fernando Haddad, Brazilian Minister of Education, Brazil will send its professors to the small nation off the African coast to train them in lecturing, marking, and other important skills involved in the profession.

Filomena Martins, Cape Verdean Minister of Education and Human Resource Enhancement, met with Haddad on August 22 to work out the details of the plan, which was first launched by Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in July 2004.

Cape Verde also hopes to increase the level of education for the university professors themselves. Of the 300 professors at the planned institution, only 3% have doctorates and only 21% have master’s degrees.

Brazil also helps Cape Verde reduce its debt through the Post-Graduate Student Agreement Program. PEC-PG encourages Cape Verdeans to become foreign exchange students in Brazil. In 2005-06, 20 students will participate, with the level increasing to 50 students in the next calendar year.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Kevin Ray Underwood, the suspect in the murder of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin of Purcell, Oklahoma, reportedly kept a weblog in which he joked about cannibalism, discussed the effects of not taking his prescribed medicine, and talked about “dangerously weird” fantasies.

Underwood was arrested Friday after investigators searched his apartment and found Jamie’s body in a plastic bin in his bedroom closet. Also reportedly found in his apartment were barbecue skewers and meat tenderizer, which law enforcement officials believe he intended to use to eat the girl’s flesh.

People who knew Underwood reported that he was a relatively unassuming man, seemingly trustworthy. His mother described him as “a wonderful boy” and said of Jamie, “I would like to be able to tell her family how sorry we are. I just feel so terrible.”

In the profile of his blog, entitled “Strange Things are Afoot at the Circle K” ([1]), Underwood described himself as “Single, bored, and lonely, but other than that, pretty happy.” Also on his profile page, he poses the question, “If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?” and answers, “The skin of last night’s main course.”

In an entry dated September 8, 2005, Underwood reportedly described 1998 as “the year that a large part of me died” and “the longest year of my life.” He reported losing contact with most of his friends, making an online acquaintance only to lose her again, and suffering panic attacks from being around people at college. Two of his friends also were involved in a car accident, one fatally injured.

He reported in that entry that in the last year he found himself becoming more and more detached from the world, never leaving his apartment except to go to work or his parents’ apartment. In an entry dated September 24, 2004, he reported that his fantasies were “just getting weirder and weirder. Dangerously weird. If people knew the kinds of things I think about anymore, I’d probably be locked away. No probably about it, I know I would be.”

In an entry dated February 4, 2006, he said that he had hardly left the apartment in almost two months, and that “a week or so ago, I spent my day off sitting here at the computer, barely moving from the chair, for 14 hours.”

His last blog entry was dated Thursday, April 13, 2006, one day after authorities believe Underwood killed Jamie Bolin.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

On Sunday, Manchester United announced the loan of their Spanish goalkeeper Víctor Valdés to Belgian club Standard Liège for the rest of the season.

Last year, Valdés signed an 18-month contract with the English club, but the three-time UEFA Champions League winner was given very little opportunity at Old Trafford. He made only two appearances for The Reds last season, after David de Gea was injured. Relations between Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal and Valdés were not good. Van Gaal did not pick him for the pre-season tour to the United States, saying Valdés was unwilling to play a game with the under-21 team.

This season, Valdés was not allowed in the locker room, and van Gaal prevented him from training with the main squad and the under-21 team. The official team photograph omitted him.

Valdés was a member of Spain’s squad for the World Cup in 2010 and for Euro 2012, collecting a winner’s medal both times. Per Manchester United’s statement, “Manchester United and Standard Liege have reached agreement for the temporary transfer of goalkeeper Victor Valdes, effective until the end of the current season. The deal is subject to formalities being completed.”

On Instagram, he posted a photo that read “Thank you all for your support during these months of hard work for me, i will never forget! See you soon!”

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Saturday, March 31, 2007

Three goals by Peter Crouch gave Liverpool a comfortable 4-1 win over rivals Arsenal on Saturday at Anfield. The two teams are in a battle for third place in the league at the moment, and both are in need of points to guarantee a Champion’s League berth for next season. Liverpool’s win puts them in third for the time being, but Arsenal have a game in hand still to be played out against Manchester City. Saturday’s match acted as a return to the Premiership for Peter Crouch after his broken nose kept him out for several games, and he played as a lone striker with Steven Gerrard acting as close support from midfield. Arsenal meanwhile played two strikers with Emmanuel Adebayor returning from suspension being paired with Julio Baptista.

Liverpool started the game very strongly, with Peter Crouch scoring after only four minutes. A back heeled one-two between Pennant and Arbeloa release Arbeloa on the right side, and his low cross found Crouch, who slotted the ball past Jens Lehmann. Arsenal responded positively with a header by Adebayor, but the ball flew just over the crossbar and landed on top of the netting. Baptista then had a chance on goal for Arsenal after he was found open by Adebayor, but the Brazilian’s shot was scuffed well wide of the net and failed to trouble Jose Reina. Arsenal would be made to pay for their missed chances minutes later as Crouch bagged his second of the afternoon when he headed in a cross from Fabio Aurelio.

Jens Lehmann was awarded a yellow card during the halftime break for allegedly spitting water at a Liverpool supporter, but the game continued without further incident. Steven Gerrard had the first of the chances in the second half, but his shot from just outside the box was directly at Lehmann. Arsenal then had their best chance through Adebayor, but he was unlucky to see his low drive cannon off the base of the post with Reina well beaten. Liverpool then increased their lead on sixty minutes when Agger directed Aurelio’s curling free kick into the back of the net past a diving Lehmann. Adebayor continued to threaten Liverpool’s goal however, and if not for a fingertip save from Reina, he would have pulled one back for Arsenal off a header. Arsenal would pull one back minutes later through William Gallas has he tapped home a corner from Cesc Fabregas. Arsenal put on pressure for a few minutes in an attempt to force a grand-stand finish, but it was to be Liverpool who would score next. Germain Pennant’s cross into the box found Crouch, and after some good control and a flick between his legs, the tall Englishman powered his third into the back of the net, sealing the victory for Liverpool.

Liverpool now travel to Holland to take on PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, the team that dropped Arsenal out of the same competition. Arsenal meanwhile have no competitions left but the Premiership to take part in, and their next game is at home to strugglers West Ham United.

Thursday, December 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC – According to a report issued by U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Henry A. Waxman (D–CA), the majority of abstinence-only sexual education programs in schools contain incorrect or misleading information.

The report found that over 80% of the curricula used by the recipients of the grants contained incorrect information, including the claim that condoms did not prevent the spread of STDs and that abortions have a high chance of causing sterility.[1]

These programs are funded by the federal government under President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative. According to the report, these abstinence programs—promoted by the administration of President Bush—are receiving increasing amounts of funding: nearly $170 million will be spent in 2005, which is more than double the spending on these programs in 2001.[2]

Under the faith-based initiative programs, the United States government allocates funds to religious and other community organizations that agree to carry out abstinence education programs which do not include coverage of any other methods of birth control or sexually transmitted disease prevention, as well as other criteria.

The timing of the report is significant in that it comes on the heels of research from Columbia University that found that nearly 9 of 10 teenagers who had pledged abstinence from pre-marital sex had broken their vows in the first six years since the pledges[3].

The Waxman Report and the Columbia University study describe some abstinence programs as factually wrong and/or ineffective. In a rebuttal, Dr. Alma L. Golden, a deputy assistant secretary in the Health and Human Services Department, said in a statement that Mr. Waxman’s report “misses the boat” and that it took information out of context “for purely political reasons.”[4]

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Catherine McGuigan, a resident in South Mimms, Hertfordshire, UK, found skeletons from over a century ago buried under her dining room.

She had hired builders for an extension for her cottage, where she has lived for eleven years, and at the beginning of April they found human bones in the ground.

Her cottage was built over a burial ground; from 1697 to 1820 the land was owned by the Religious Society of Friends. In the 1600s, members of the society, better known as Quakers, were persecuted for their beliefs and so were not allowed to be buried in consecrated church grounds. Instead burials, which were also sometimes for others not recognised as parishioners – such as homeless people, often took place in the countryside.

The Daily Mail states in its April article that the Religious Society of Friends have advised McGuigan that she “must cremate” the bodies, however Quakers have written an open letter to the Daily Mail, informing that for Quakers, there is “no specific advice on the disposal of bodies”, and that they had never expressed an opinion on how the discovered skeletons should be buried.

The cremation was rumoured to cost up to £32,000 – an £800 quote for cremation of a single body multiplied by 40, however as yet only ten bodies have been discovered.

The builders originally thought the bones were pieces of pipe, and McGuigan has now ordered coffins and is looking to holding a mass cremation or a burial in a nearby field.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Washington, DC – US President George W. Bush has chosen former Utah governor Mike Leavitt to succeed the outgoing Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Leavitt, 53, who took over the Environmental Protection Agency last year, will succeed Tommy Thompson if the Senate confirms him. He would oversee implementation of new prescription drug benefits for people on Medicare and Bush’s plans to allow religious groups to apply for federal funds to provide treatments for addiction.

Leavitt joined Bush’s cabinet in 2003, and has been called a ‘fine executive’ by the President. The move comes as the Bush administration is trying to find someone to fill the post of Secretary of Homeland Security, after nominee Bernard Kerik withdrew concerning immigration issues with a former nanny.

The department oversees Medicare and Medicaid for senior citizens, the safety of drugs and the nation’s food supply through the Food and Drug Administration and it administers the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thompson is the ninth cabinet member to leave after Bush’s re-election, and his departure was not seen as a shock by many Washington insiders. Those nine departures mark the largest second-term Cabinet overhaul in more than 30 years. Presidents Reagan and Clinton each had seven Cabinet changes for their second terms. The last to have nine was Richard Nixon in 1972. The Senate must confirm all of the nominees. Confirmation hearings have been scheduled for Margaret Spellings, nominated for education secretary, on January 6, and Condoleezza Rice, nominated for secretary of state, on January 18-19.