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A compilation of brief news reports for Friday, March 2, 2007.

United States fast-food chain Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits has filed a $20 million dollar lawsuit against competitor Church’s Chicken.

Popeyes Chicken says fast-food chain Church’s Chicken was trying to steal customers.

AFC owned both companies for 12 years, till it sold Church’s in 2004. AFC claims that Church bought all 10 Popeyes restaurants owned by franchisee CVI. Popeyes Chicken says the sale of the 10 restaurants violated its franchise agreement with CVI.

The sudden buy-out in December 2006 led the restaurants to close in early January 2007.

“What Church’s chose to do, I do believe, was not honest competition,” said Ken Keymer, CEO of AFC Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Popeyes.

Church’s spokesperson chose not to comment on the issue.

Sources

• Kyle Arnold. “Popeyes file suit over Churchs’ buyout” — The Monitor, March 1, 2007
• Associated Press. “Popeyes Chicken sues Church’s Chicken” — BusinessWeek, February 28, 2007

The national body for scientific research in Australia, the CSIRO has announced that 93 species of shrubs and small trees of the w:genus Dryandra have been been merged into the genus Banksia in the series Dryandra. This increased the number of Banksia species from 80 to 173.

The plants are endemic to the southwestern corner of Western Australia and the former genus was named in honour of the Swedish botanist Jonas C. Dryander.

Sources

• A.Mast and K.Thiele. “The transfer of Dryandra R.Br. to Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)” — CSIRO, February 26, 2007

Thursday, January 5, 2006

According to the South African government’s Department of Transport, the number of fatalities on the country’s roads during December 2005 was 1,215. This is compared with 1,234 the previous year, where the total number of deaths in traffic accidents was 10,530.

Department of Transport spokeswoman, Collen Msibi, stated that 512 of the fatalities were pedestrians, 414 passengers, and 289 drivers. 2005 saw the number of vehicles on South Africa’s roads rise by nearly half a million to just under eight million with 779,000 new drivers adding to the dangers on the country’s roads.

“To deal with this high level of unsafety, traffic authorities will increase the number of patrol vehicles on the road, law enforcement officers and unmarked vehicles to do more spot checks and roadblocks,” Msibi said.

“Our analysis has revealed that most accidents are preceded by offences such as ignoring road signs, driving drunk, speeding, vehicles cutting in front of others, driving defective vehicles and fatigue.”

The road toll in South Africa is similar to that of South Korea, Mexico, Japan and Thailand. However, except for South Korea these countries have significantly larger populations.

The worst country in the world for deaths in road traffic accidents, is currently accepted to be China. Figures released for 2002 reveal that 250,007 people were killed in that year.

The South African government has acknowledged the problem since 2001. At that time they launched their “Arrive Alive” campaign, targeting vehicle condition, driver fitness, speeding and drunk driving.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has suffered what some consider a humiliating political defeat after the House of Commons dismissed a controversial government proposal to permit the detention of terror suspects for up to 90 days without bringing charges. Under current UK anti-terrorism laws, suspects can be held for up to 14 days without any charges being made against them.

Members of Mr Blair’s Labour Party used the vote to rebel against the proposal, with a crucial 49 tipping the balance to reject it by 322 votes to 291. It was the first Commons defeat for Mr Blair in his 8 years as Prime Minister. Later, a second proposal to extend the detention time limit for terror suspects to 28 days was passed by 323 votes to 290.

The police called for new powers after the bomb attacks in London on July 7, 2005. They argued that because anti-terrorist investigations can take considerable time, the new powers would have been justified. Critics are sceptical of these claims. Opponents believe that by effectively giving the government the right to imprison for up to three months anyone who it alleged to have been involved in terrorism, without having to present any charges in court to justify the detention, the bill could have led to abuses of power.

Leaders of the opposition parties were delighted with the results. Conservative leader Michael Howard said the vote had “diminished” the Prime Minister’s authority and that he should tender his resignation. Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, called Mr Blair a “lame duck”.

Speaking after the result of the vote was announced, Mr Blair accused those who’d opposed the measure of being “out of touch”, talking of a “worrying gap between parts of Parliament and the reality of the terrorist threat and public opinion”.

Former Conservative ministers Peter Lilley and Stephen Dorrell criticised the government for using senior police officers to lobby MPs over the vote. They characterised this as the “politicisation of the police”.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Having resisted financial-market pressure for months, Portugal has finally requested an International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union bailout.

The emergency loan, believed to total around 75 billion euros, comes three weeks after the country’s prime minister, José Sócrates, resigned following parliamentary rejection of his government’s proposed austerity measures.

Following recent sovereign debt crises in Greece and then Ireland, the Portuguese government’s actions have attracted harsh criticism in the European press. Applauding the request for foreign assistance, Britain’s The Guardian nonetheless lambasts Mr Sócrates for the tardiness of his decision. The British newspaper described Portugal as “the financial-market equivalent of a dead man walking” in an editorial dated April 7.

In Portugal, Público observed that “it will not be easy to accept more austerity, but it will be impossible to accept any more demagoguery, denial of reality, political incompetence or irresponsibility”.

The National Daily noted, however, that the “return of the IMF represents a stinging defeat for Portugal”. Indeed, the political intransigence since Mr Sócrates’s resignation on March 23 was widely viewed as doomed to failure from the outset. The Portguese request, pointed out Spain’s El País, “surprised no-one, but [had] been delayed for political reasons”.

These latest developments will no doubt fuel further criticism of the single currency. In Austria, Vienna’s Der Standard labelled the euro a “deceitful entity”, mocking the claim by European leaders that “States bailed out using taxpayers’ money will be able to repay their debts with restructuring”.

There have been widespread claims that a will to protect the euro has led Brussels to unduly downplay the gravity of the sovereign debt crisis sweeping the continent.

The emergency loan is expected to be delivered before Portuguese elections on June 5.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

In a press conference Monday, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore said their department’s preliminary investigation into a botched disposal of illegal fireworks on June 30 was due to an excess amount of explosives placed into a explosives disposal vehicle. The explosion occurred in South Los Angeles (L.A.), California, U.S. on East 27th Street, injuring seventeen and damaging vehicles and property.

Five members of LAPD’s bomb squad have been removed from duty, said Moore.

On June 30, LAPD officers discovered a cache of over 32 thousand lb (14,500 kg) of illegal fireworks at a South L.A. residence. Bomb disposal technicians responded by placing an estimated 16.5 lb (7.5 kg) of explosives, into a “total containment vessel”, or TCV, where they detonated the material. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), technicians actually detonated 42 lb (19 kg) of explosives. The vehicle failed to contain the explosion and the blast injured seventeen people and damaged thirteen nearby businesses, 22 residences, and 37 vehicles.

The TCV’s capacity was 15 lb (6.8 kg) for repeated use, or 25 lb (11 kg) for single use, according to Moore. The containment truck had been used by officials for ten years, with the June 30 blast its 42nd usage.

ATF special agents are also investigating the LAPD’s actions. They expect to complete their investigation in the next one to two months.

The owner of the home where the fireworks were discovered, 26-year-old Arturo Ceja III, was arrested by LAPD and apprehended on suspicion of unlawful possession of destructive devices and child endangerment. Fireworks are illegal to possess in the City of L.A., and in unincorporated areas of L.A. County. Ceja posted the US$500 thousand bail for release. He is due back in state court in October.

Federal prosecutors charged Ceja III with the illegal transportation of explosives without a license. Prosecutors allege that Ceja III purchased the fireworks from Area 51, a fireworks dealer in Pahrump, Nevada, on the border with California. He was released on US$25 thousand bond pending arraignment, scheduled for August 2.

L.A. Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. criticized the LAPD’s bomb squad in a statement saying, “[i]t’s clear there was negligence involved and this instance shows zero regard for the people that reside in our South LA community. Every individual that I have talked to including myself wonder if this would have been acceptable protocol in more affluent areas of the City.”

The city opened a resource center for affected residents at the YMCA on East 28th Street, where residents can file claims against the city and receive referrals to mental health services.

On Tuesday L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office received 56 claims against the city, saying, “We’re trying to speed this up as much as we can […] this is an all-hands-on-deck effort to make sure that anybody who suffered because of that explosion gets relief as fast as possible, because they deserve it”.

Callers to Tuesday’s L.A. Police Commission meeting called for the police department to make reparations to affected city residents and businesses. Moore told the commission there were over 200 applications for claims seeking assistance.

Monday, December 31, 2007

The electoral commission of Pakistan held a meeting today to decide whether the general election of the country will go ahead as planned next week on Saturday January 8, 2008. A firm decision is expected on Tuesday; however, according to CNN, Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilashad told The Associated Press that a recommendation has been made to the Government to delay the election. It has not been stated how long this electoral delay will be, as no new projected date for the election has yet been proposed.

Violent civil unrest has occurred across Pakistan following the assassination of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto; although this is now drawing to a close, its impact threatens to jeopardize the general election, combined with the aftermath of the state of emergency only recently lifted by President Pervez Musharraf.

Prior to her death Bhutto had accused Musharraf of attempting to rig the balloting and had called for a boycott. However, leaders of the PPP and other parties sympathizing with Bhutto’s view have now indicated that they will not boycott the election when it is held. It was announced yesterday that nominal control of the PPP will be held by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Mrs. Bhutto’s son; however his father, Asif Ali Zardari, has declared an intention to handle party affairs on behalf of his son, on the grounds that he is still “of a tender age” at 19 years old. Mr. Zardari has stated that the PPP will contest the poll.