News for the unnewsed

By Morgan Haigler

Campus group organizes book drive

Biological Sciences graduate students at the University of Calgary started a campaign to collect 1,000 books to ship to Sambalpur, India. Patang, a youth leadership organization in India, is looking to establish a library in the area, but so far has been unable to collect many books. The students are looking for a variety of books in good condition, fiction and non-fiction, for all age groups. In addition, monetary donations will be accepted in order to cover the shipping costs of the books to Sambalpur. They will be collecting in the library and next to the Information Desk in MacEwan Student Centre until the end of the month.



Calgary electricity to be completely green by 2012

The City of Calgary has amended its long-term deal with Enmax to buy more green energy with the end goal of being 100 per cent green by 2012. Green electricity comes mostly from wind turbines, but also includes solar panels. This deal has been met with both praise and criticism. Environmentalists applauded Calgary for making the commitment to reduce its environmental footprint. However, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation condemned the city for using Calgarians’ tax dollars to buy more expensive energy. The city has not yet released the cost of the green electricity. It currently pays $40 million a year to Enmax.



Security crackdown on Canada’s airport and marine port workers

A deal has been made between the federal Transportation Department and the RCMP to crack down on organized crime in restricted areas. The deal will allow the RCMP to conduct background checks on employees at airports and marine ports when they apply for or renew their security passes. The RCMP released a report last year stating that they discovered over 60 employees at Canada’s eight largest airports with links to organized crime. They also found that these organized crime groups were using the airports for a number of their activities. The government has not released the estimated costs for these background checks or how they will ensure the new policy.



Bullet in woman’s head goes unnoticed for 12 years

An Albanian woman recently discovered she had a bullet in her head. Mrike Rrucaj said she was shot in her sleep in 1997 during the Albanian Civil War. The doctor who treated her told her the bullet went in and came right out of her cheekbone cleanly. But last week, Rrucaj collapsed in extreme pain after bending her neck. An x-ray revealed the 2.8 centimetre long bullet. A doctor at the Albanian military hospital does not blame the doctor who treated the woman in 1997 because it was a stressful time and non-serious injuries were not a primary focus.