News Briefs

Schulich strikes again

Seymour Schulich has launched a $100 million scholarship opportunity for undergraduate students attending Canadian and Israeli Universities. The initiative is focused on increasing enrolment in subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

David Goodman, director of the Schulich Leader Scholarships program, said the scholarship will be administered by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto.

“Mr. Schulich believes these types of graduates produce really wonderful outcomes in the workforce and will ultimately lead Canada and Israel to the forefront of these fields,” Goodman said.

Graduating high school students from both Canada and Israel planning on studying one of the STEM subjects will be eligible for the Leadership program. Those granted the scholarship will receive $60,000 which will be paid out in annual installments of $15,000 over four years. A total of 25 schools are going to be invited to take part in the program, 20 in Canada and five in Israel. Starting in 2012, 25 “leaders” will be chosen from each school to receive the scholarship, which will increase in number 50 in 2013 and 75 in 2014.

“Mr. Schulich believes [the recipients] would make exceptional leaders to various types of industry,” Goodman said. “[It’s] a great foundation for the economies and well-being of both Canada and Israel.”

—Joshua Schendel

Bribing BlackBerry users

Proud BlackBerry owners will be happy to hear Research in Motion has decided to offer its subscribers a number of premium apps, worth $100 in total, at absolutely no cost.

This decision comes at the heels of last week’s system outage that left millions of users around the world without network service. It was reported to have lasted three days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, one and a half days in Latin America and Canada, and one day in the United States.

“We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers,” Mike Lazaridis, RIM co-CEO, stated in a press release. “We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years.”

He added the company is taking immediate and aggressive steps to prevent anything like this from happening again.

RIM has not explained how they will prevent service from dropping yet again, but for those still emotionally attached to their BlackBerry, some of the free apps provided by RIM include the Sims 3, Bejeweled, Shazam Encore and Vlingo Plus.

—Jason Oncz

A healthy downtown

The London Health Sciences Centre has expressed an interest in collaborating with the City of London and Western to create a “synergistic innovative initiative between the education and health care sectors.”

The Centre has been the most recent candidate to throw their hat in the ring for space in the revamped downtown.

According to Julia Capaldi, communications consultant for the LHSC, the organization is enthusiastic about potential collaboration.

However, she stressed no formal plans have yet been made, and London’s downtown is only a potential area for this project.

“LHSC is only in the exploratory phase of this opportunity,” she said.

The impact of Western’s proposed downtown campus on potential LHSC interests are yet to be determined. “Ongoing discussions with the leaders of Western and the City of London [are needed] to make this possibility a reality,” she continued.

As it is tentative, estimates of cost and specific proposed placement of LHSC’s healthcare component are not yet known.

—Mason Zimmer

Shooter arrested

The prime suspect behind the shooting on Clarke Road on October 11 has been arrested.  40-year-old Thi Tran was killed in the incident.

The warrant for the arrest was issued early on Saturday. “Denzel Borden, age 19, was arrested on Saturday at around 6:30,” Dennis Rivest, media relations officer for the London Police, said. Borden faces several charges, including second degree murder, possession of a firearm while knowingly not being a holder of a license permitting such possession and possession of a dangerous weapon in a public space.

“He will be transferred back to London, and will be making a court appearance, probably today,” said Rivest. Being over 18 years of age, Borden faces any charges that would apply to an adult.

—Julian Panchaud