Sunday, August 16, 2009

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has launched Pakistan’s first international container train service from Islamabad to Istanbul via the Iranian capital, Tehran, as a trial project of the Economic Cooperation Organization to boost Pakistan’s trade with Turkey and Iran.

The train is carrying 20 containers on its first journey from Islamabad railway station, delivering 14 to Tehran and 6 to Istanbul and will cover 6,500 kilometres in two weeks.

Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said a successful trial phase of the freight train service would be followed by a passenger train service in an effort to boost tourism in the region.

There are also hopes the route will eventually provide a link to Europe and Central Asia.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Russell Korus is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Vaughan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his 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.

Friday, December 30, 2005

The Colorado College Tigers beat the Spartans of Michigan State University in men’s ice hockey on Friday, for the title of champions of the 41st annual Great Lakes Invitational ice hockey tournament at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

The Tigers, the team chosen to be invited into the tournament and appearing for the first time since 1965 in the tournament, led with a 5-0 lead during the second period, after which Michigan State switched goalies. The Spartans put freshmen Jeff Lerg into net, replacing Dominic Vicari, who was earlier given a penalty for his contact with a member of Colorado’s team in front of the net. Michigan State junior Tyler Howells scored two goals during the second period, and Colorado student Brett Sterling made the Tiger’s final goal for the night.

Colorado College took first place in the invitational, and Michigan State ended in second place, after their previous win over Michigan Tech at a score of 3-2. The Tigers previously beat the University of Michigan on Thursday, at a score of 6-1.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan beat GLI co-sponsor Michigan Tech University with a score of 5-3 for a third place finish in the invitational earlier in the day.

With 2 minutes remaining in the third period, the University of Michigan went one up over Michigan Tech, breaking the 3-3 tie. Michigan Tech pulled their goalie with one minute remaining to gain a man advantage, but the strategy failed and allowed the University of Michigan to get another goal resulting in the final 5-3 score.

The game secured the third place position in the invitational for University of Michigan, and fourth place for Michigan Tech.

The final standings in the tournament are:

1. Colorado College
2. Michigan State University
3. University of Michigan
4. Michigan Tech

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

In a new study announced on Monday and available in the current volume of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, an international team led by scientists from Brown University in the United States said the planet Mars once had the right water and temperatures to host simple life forms — just not on its surface. Mars’s rocky, subterranean layer once, for some hundreds of millions of years, had enough water and reductants to support some of the same kinds of microbial communities seen on Earth.

“We showed, based on basic physics and chemistry calculations, that the ancient Martian subsurface likely had enough dissolved hydrogen to power a global subsurface biosphere,” reported lead author and current Brown graduate student Jesse Tarnas. The paper does not claim life on Mars did exist but rather that conditions suitable for life are very likely to have lasted for an extended time. This habitable zone, located beneath Mars’s then-frozen surface, would have reached several kilometers into Mars’s surface, potentially protected by ice above.

The study showed that, during Mars’s Noachian period (4.1–3.7 billion years ago), radiolysis, the process by which radiation splits water molecules apart, produced enough hydrogen gas (H₂) for microbial organisms to live on so long as they remained within the area just beneath the cryosphere, the SHZ (subcryospheric highly-fractured zone). The concentration of hydrogen in the groundwater could have ranged from about 35 to about 55 millimoles per liter depending on whether ancient Mars was warm or cold, respectively, and higher if the subsurface medium also contained enough salt. The researchers determined this by establishing three factors. First, they examined data from the gamma ray spectrometer aboard NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, from which they inferred how much of various radioactive elements would have been present in Mars’s crust during the Noachian, and therefore how much radiation would have been available to split water and so produce hydrogen. They then built on existing models of water flow on Mars to determine how much groundwater would have been present. Third, they used climate and geothermal modeling to determine how much of that water would have been in liquid form and at a suitable temperature for living things.

In subterranean environments on Earth called subsurface lithotrophic microbial ecosystems, or SLiMEs, ecosystems sustain themselves not on plants that harness sunlight through photosynthesis but on microbes that harvest electrons from nearby molecules. Molecular hydrogen is an especially good electron donor.

One of the study authors, Brown Professor John Mustard, is on the team designing the next Mars Rover mission, scheduled for 2020. He and Tarnas recommended the Rover examine the sites of meteorite crashes, which may have excavated rocks from this possibly habitable depth that may hold traces of ancient life.

Friday, March 16, 2012

FC Barcelona defender Éric Abidal will be taken into surgery for a liver transplant in the next few weeks, his club announced yesterday.

The France international football player, 32, had previously undertaken surgery to remove a tumour from his liver in March 2011. He recovered from the initial operation in time to win the UEFA Champions League with his club in May. In a statement, FC Barcelona cited ongoing medical concerns as reason for the player’s admission. “Given the development of his medical condition, Abidal will undergo a liver transplant in the following weeks”, the statement read. It added: “The transplant is an option that has been considered since the beginning of his treatment, one year ago. At the express wish of the player, the club request the utmost respect for the right to privacy.”

His club did not estimate how long he will be out of action, and there is serious doubt as to whether or not Abidal will be fit in time to make the French side for the Euro 2012 Championships, set to be held between June and July in Poland and Ukraine. Teammates posted messages at social networking site Twitter to convey their goodwill for the defender. Forward David Villa, who is currently out of action with a broken leg, said, “All my strength for Abidal! You will get through it. You are very strong. We will all be by your side.” “You will return and you will do it like always, being the best”, wrote central defender Gerard Pique. “You are an example for everyone.”

Abidal signed with Barcelona in 2007, leaving his old club Lyon. So far this season he has made 20 first-team appearances for the Spanish side; he has not played since injuring his hip in an international friendly against Germany earlier this month.

After his recovery from his surgery in 2011, he said he “thought that [he] wouldn’t play again”, and told of how he sold all the cars he owned, donating the money to “the fight against illnesses with some associations that I have had contact with”.