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The new generic top-level domain, ".asia", met with an Internet landrush following the February 20 launch of the Asia-Pacific domain. Applications have not only come from Asian countries, but also from Europe and North America. Asia accounted for 35% of all applications with Europe and North America taking 40% and 24% respectively.
According to the DotAsia Organization, global application on launch were approximately 266,700. Currently Dotalliance Inc. & EuroDNS S.A. are the top two registrars.
—Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia.With the ".asia" domain having become notable, many more applications are expected before the closing date of March 12.
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This is a complete or partial translation of the article ".Asia全球搶灘潮 申請量單日逼近三十萬", from the Chinese language Wikinews, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
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Alabama Gov. Bob Riley beat back a Republican primary challenge from Roy Moore, the former judge who tried to put up a Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse.
In the weeks leading to Alabama's gubernatorial primaries, polls showed Riley had pulled ahead of Moore, the former state chief justice who became a hero to the religious right in 2003 when he was ousted over his refusal to remove a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.
Moore conceded in his hometown of Gadsden, telling supporters, "God's will has been done."
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Alabama Gov. Bob Riley beat back a Republican primary challenge from Roy Moore, the former judge who tried to put up a Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse.
In the weeks leading to Alabama's gubernatorial primaries, polls showed Riley had pulled ahead of Moore, the former state chief justice who became a hero to the religious right in 2003 when he was ousted over his refusal to remove a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.
Moore conceded in his hometown of Gadsden, telling supporters, "God's will has been done."
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The definition of what is and what is not a planet is being challenged by a newly announced discovery Friday. Astronomers from the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California said they found a chunk of ice and rock in the solar system larger than Pluto.
The object, given the temporary generic name of 2003 UB313, is about 9 billion miles away from the sun. It was first photographed in 2003 using the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. But it was an indistinguishable bright spot among a field of stars in an area of the sky where astronomers don't usually look at for planets or planet-type objects.
Solar system bodies found beyond the orbit of Neptune are called "trans-Neptunian objects". One of them, Pluto, is also classified as a planet. Up until now all other planet-like discoveries beyond Neptune, including Sedna, found by the same Palomar team in 2004, are called Kuiper Belt objects, or minor planets.
Using a photo taken on January 8, the Palomar team compared it with previous 2003 UB313 photos to triangulate the object's distance, brightness and orbit.
Using mathematical formulas, they found a range of sizes for 2003 UB313, with an estimated average showing the approximate diameter of the new body to be about 2,600 kilometers. But even at the smallest estimate scientists are certain 2003 UB313 is larger than Pluto's 2,250 kilometer diameter.
To determine size, Scientists deduce the relative size of a solar system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The reflectance of 2003 UB313 is not yet known for sure. Scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected away from its surface, but the amount of light the planet does reflect puts a lower limit on its size.
"Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology said in a NASA press release. "I'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size."
"We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown added.
The object is inclined by a whopping 45 degrees to the main plane of the solar system, where most of the other planets orbit. That's why it eluded discovery: nobody was looking there until now, Brown said.
Most objects in the solar system are just a few degrees from the main plane of the solar system, called the Ecliptic. Pluto, which is considered substantially different from the rest of the planets, is only 17 degrees from this main plane. Astronomers who study the sky for asteroids and comets usually look in the region of the sky that the rest of the planets occupy.
The brightness of this object is just barely fainter than the telescopes from earlier sky surveys were able to identify, so new advances in the making of telescopes has also played a part in this discovery.
Now that the discovery data has been released, the scientists will turn over their work to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which will review it, classify the object and approve a new name to replace the temporary 2003 UB313.
Sometimes the discoverers of a new planetary body get to choose its name, but not always. "We have a name we really like, and we want it to stick," Brown told reporters at a press conference. He said the team has submitted the name to the IAU but would not disclose their choice. In the 2004 naming of Sedna, Brown noted objects found in the Kuiper Belt are usually named after deities of the Underworld.
The astronomers have been using a code name of sorts for the discovery. The tongue-in-cheek nickname is "Xena" after the fictional main character of the television series of the same name. "Because we always wanted to name something Xena," Dr. Brown said in a New York Times report.
There has been controversy in the scientific community about what is and what is not a planet. Some purists insist the Solar system has only eight planets and that Kuiper Belt object including Pluto, Sedna and 2003 UB313 cannot be listed among the major planets.
A minor furor erupted when the IAU suggested removing Pluto from the pantheon of planets a few years ago. Because of that Pluto's status as a "planet" in addition to being a Kuiper Belt object was cemented. But with the discovery of 2003 UB313 the "planet or not" debate may rekindle.
"Pluto has been a planet for so long that the world is comfortable with that," Brown said in the teleconference. "It seems to me a logical extension that anything bigger than Pluto and farther out is a planet."
Offering additional justification, Brown said 2003 UB313 appears to be surfaced with methane ice, as is Pluto. That's not the case with other large Kuiper Belt objects, however.
"This object is in a class very much like Pluto," he said.
The new "10th planet" was not the only new discovery in the Kuiper Belt this past week. José-Luis Ortiz at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain announced the discovery of an object called 2003 EL61. This object, thought to be larger than Sedna, is the brightest trans-Neptune object next to Pluto.
Although some news media confused the discovery of 2003 EL61 with 2003 UB313, they are different objects.
2003 EL61 is so bright, it can be seen with high-end amateur-grade telescopes equipped with CCD cameras. Although this second discovery may not be as large as 2003 UB313, scientists have confirmed that 2003 EL61 has its own moon.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | Bigger than Pluto, possible 10th planet found | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%2210th_planet%22_discovered |
To encourage the performance of deaf athletes, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) recently announced the top 10 finalists for the "2007 WIDEX Sportsman and Sportswomen Award". Rajeev Bagga and Natalia Deeva were named by the jury as "Deaf Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year".
According to icCoventry from England and the ICSD, Bagga performed excellently in recent badminton matches, never losing important matches in his international career, which began in 1989. He was known as a good sportsman; always accepting referees' judgments, regardless of their accuracy.
Recently in the 2nd World Deaf Badminton Championships in Germany, Bagga offered to give up his silver medal in men's single class after the tragic news of his former Lithuanian teammate Andirus Jankus' death in a car accident. This touched the hearts of many people, both deaf and able.
Best Sportswoman, Deeva, participated in the "2007 World Deaf Swimming Championships" in Taiwan and broke 3 world records in the same day. Also in this championship, she won 4 gold medals.
This is a complete or partial translation of the article "Rajeev Bagga與Natalia Deeva 獲選2007世界最佳聽障男女運動員", from the Chinese language Wikinews, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
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The long-running family drama television show, 7th Heaven, will conclude the series (in production since 1996) with the 200th episode. 7th Heaven has been the WB's time slot on Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. for the past ten years, since August 26, 1996.
David Janollari, President of Entertainment for The WB, and Brenda Hampton, Executive Producer, discuss their finishing touches to the final season. Brenda Hampton states, "We owe a compelling and unforgettable final season to the Camden family and to the millions of viewers who helped grow this program into a huge hit"; and states, "Although we had anticipated this could be the last season, it was difficult breaking the news to the cast and crew," Aaron Spelling, Executive Producer, also notes, "Not many shows make it to 10 years and it's even rarer for a series to go out on top after 10 seasons."
7th Heaven achieved the top 20 viewers of The WB of all times. At the "birth of the twins" in the episode, In Praise of Women, on February 8, 1999, the show got the highest viewer ratings of 12.5 million viewers, making it number one in the time slot against all viewers.
7th Heaven dealt with several social aspects of real life situation/issues ranging from "teen suicide and sibling rivalry to violence in schools". Episodes also touched on subject matters of the Iraq War and the death of "real-life American serviceman who was killed in Afghanistan". 7th Heaven also achieved over a dozen honors and awards from various organizations.
7th Heaven had many honored guest stars such as Wayne Newton, Richard Lewis, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Ashlee Simpson. Other guest stars appear from other shows on the network, such as: Felicity, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, and Charmed.
Stephen Collins as Reverend Camden sincerely states, "7th Heaven has been a gift", "Plus making a bit of TV history while watching our wonderful cast grow up in real time, has been the experience of a lifetime."
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On March 7, voters in the US state of Oklahoma will decide on State Question 820, the Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
If the initiative passes, adults 21 and older could own up to an ounce (28.35 grams) of recreational marijuana and cultivate "not more than six (6) mature marijuana plants and six (6) seedlings" in their homes, and some convictions for marijuana possession could be expunged.
The state's profits earned by taxing marijuana transactions would fund the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, while the rest would be split between: the state's fund pool (30%), programs in public schools to improve student success, extracurricular activities, and decrease drug abuse (30%), governmental and nonprofit programs to counter drug abuse (20%), courts (10%), and the local government where the transaction occurred (10%).
Wikinews emailed interview questions to the Yes campaign on January 6; Michelle Tilley, their Campaign Director, responded on January 11. The following is the interview with Tilley.
First, can you briefly explain what you see as the main problem(s) with Oklahoma's current marijuana laws?
██ Legal for recreational use██ Legal for medical use██ Illegal((Michelle Tilley)) Oklahoma currently allows residents to apply for a medical marijuana license, with a doctor’s referral, from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. This means that marijuana is illegal for adults to consume or possess for non-medical purposes.
State Question 820, which the people of Oklahoma will vote on this March 7, 2023, proposes to safely legalize, regulate, and tax recreational marijuana for adults over 21 years of age.
Legalizing marijuana for adults over 21 would have a significant and positive economic and fiscal impact for the state. Passage of SQ 820 would lead to the collection of tens of millions in new tax revenue in the first year of implementation and hundreds of millions in the first five years. This revenue could offer a significant boost to Oklahoma’s underfunded public schools, law enforcement agencies, mental health programs and other priorities. Furthermore, local economies, in every town, large and small, would benefit from good paying jobs and new sales tax dollars that will stay in local communities.
Passage of SQ 820 would also represent a positive alignment of Oklahoma’s public safety priorities: Law enforcement would be able to devote their limited resources away from low level marijuana offenses, focusing instead on serious crimes. Meanwhile, Oklahoma would become a more just state, because 820 allows Oklahomans with old convictions for low level marijuana crimes to remove those offenses from their criminal history, making it easier to find gainful employment and move on with their lives.
Finally, SQ 820 would provide a sensible and safe regulatory framework. Under SQ 820, all marijuana products would be tested, safe, and only available to adults aged 21 and older (unless you have a medical marijuana card). Each product will be analyzed to determine potency and screened for unsafe contaminants. All marijuana and related products will be tracked, traced, and accurately labeled in an inventory system from seed to sale.
((WN)) What would Initiative 820 do to rectify these problems?
((Michelle Tilley)) See above
((WN)) How would you respond to claims that legalizing marijuana would create a "slippery slope" towards total legalization of drugs, and, in fact, do you think that would be a bad thing?
((Michelle Tilley)) SQ 820 does not propose to legalize any substances other than marijuana.
((WN)) What or who are some businesses, organizations, or individuals supporting Initiative 820 who voters might not expect to support it, and why are they?
((Michelle Tilley)) State Question 820 is supported by:
((WN)) Lastly, why do you think Initiative 820 will succeed?
((Michelle Tilley)) SQ 820 will succeed because Oklahomans want more resources for priorities like education; we want the economic boost that comes with supporting a new, multi-billion dollar industry; and we want to reap the public safety benefits that come with refocusing law enforcement on dangerous criminal activity instead of minor marijuana offenses. This is a commonsense proposal that will help make Oklahoma a stronger, more prosperous and more just state.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "A commonsense proposal": Wikinews interviews Michelle Tilley, Campaign Director for Yes on 820 | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22A_commonsense_proposal%22:_Wikinews_interviews_Michelle_Tilley,_Campaign_Director_for_Yes_on_820 |
A year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a U.S. Army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, including Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, a liaison officer of a unit called Able Danger, has spoken on the topic. By analysis of non-military data, several of the terrorists with direct links to top Al-Qaeda leadership were identified.
Able Danger also used publicly available information from government immigration agencies.
Description on CNN of the technology involved:
On the Sean Hannity Show Wednesday, Shaffer said there were direct links to top Al-Qaeda leaders. He repeated that on Thursday.
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A year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a U.S. Army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, including Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, a liaison officer of a unit called Able Danger, has spoken on the topic. By analysis of non-military data, several of the terrorists with direct links to top Al-Qaeda leadership were identified.
Able Danger also used publicly available information from government immigration agencies.
Description on CNN of the technology involved:
On the Sean Hannity Show Wednesday, Shaffer said there were direct links to top Al-Qaeda leaders. He repeated that on Thursday.
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false | U.S. Army intelligence had detected 9/11 terrorists year before, says officer | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Able_Danger%22_Detected_9/11_Terrorists_Year_Earlier |
An "aggressive" strain of Avian Flu has been detected in two tufted ducks in Oskarshamn, Southeast Sweden.
This makes Sweden the ninth country in the EU to confirm Avian Flu on their soil.
Some 35–40 wild birds were found dead. The birds were brought to Uppsala, where an analysis confirmed the presence of an "aggressive" form of Avian Flu. Tests at a laboratory in the UK will later eventually confirm whether the birds died of the lethal H5N1.
Sweden's Minister of Agriculture, Ann-Christin Nykvist, said at a press conference the discovery was "serious but not unexpected." Sweden has been on high alert since the virus was found on the German island Rügen in the Baltic Sea.
Two security zones are being established around the location where the birds were found. Dead birds will be destroyed and domestic stocks in the affected area will be monitored.
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Two small girls, who were reported as kidnapped on Saturday in the French western town of Bouillé-Ménard (Maine-et-Loire), have been found safe in their village.
A kidnap alert was issued by French Ministry of Justice to be broadcast on radio, television and by print media, the first alert to be issued since the system was instituted in February.
The girls, Emeline and Melissa aged 10 and 8 years old respectively, were reported as missing at 3 p.m. CEST (1300 UTC) on Saturday and were found with neighbours. Police officer Bertrand Delpierre told LCI television the exact circumstances of the disappearance were going to be examined in detail.
"They seemed to be following, against their will, an individual of European type of an average height and size," read a statement from the Ministry of Justice. The statement also said that the suspect had tattoos on his arms, one of which appears to be that of a ram. About 200 officers had been working on the case.
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The Internet-based group "Anonymous" has released statements on YouTube and via a press release, outlining what they call a "War on Scientology". Church of Scientology related websites, such as religiousfreedomwatch.org have been removed due to a suspected distributed denial-of-service-attack (DDoS) by a group calling themselves "Anonymous". On Friday, the same group allegedly brought down Scientology's main website, scientology.org, which was available sporadically throughout the weekend.
Several websites relating to the Church of Scientology have been slowed down, brought to a complete halt or seemingly removed from the Internet completely in an attack which seems to be continuous. The scientology.org site was back online briefly on Monday, and is currently loading slowly.
On Monday, the group released a video titled: "Message to Scientology" on YouTube concerning their intentions to attack the Church of Scientology. A robotic voice on the video begins with "Hello leaders of Scientology. We are Anonymous," and continues by explaining their motivations: "Over the years we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent and your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed." The message goes on to state that the group intends to "expel Scientology from the Internet". As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed 370,347 times, favorited 2,473 times, and is currently YouTube's top third video of the day.
—The Michigan DailyThe "Message to Scientology" video was highlighted as the "YouTube Video of the Week" by The Michigan Daily. Commenting on the video, the piece states "if this video is any indication, it seems like the assailants mean business". In a blog post on USA Today's website, Jess Zielinski wrote that it was "not a shock that hackers hold a grudge against Scientology," and in a followup post on another USA Today blog, Angela Gunn wrote that "those of us who remember ... the adventures of Operation Clambake are fascinated to see this kind of thing flare up again". Blogging for Wired magazine, Ryan Singel wrote about the incident in a piece on Wednesay titled "War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology -- There Can Be Only One". Singel wrote that the Project Chanology wiki page "directs Anonymous members to download and use denial of service software, make prank calls, host Scientology documents the Church considers proprietary, and fax endless loops of black pages to the Church's fax machines to waste ink". According to Wired, "The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond to a call for comment".
The viewpoints expressed in the video are echoed on the "Project Chanology" website, an open source of information and direction for those within Anonymous, which talks of tactics such as blackfaxing and prank calling alongside other "real-life" methods of attack. The satirical website Encyclopedia Dramatica also has a similar page devoted to "Project Chanology".
—"Anonymous" - Press Release"Anonymous" released a statement on Monday in the form of a press release, "Internet Group Anonymous Declares "War on Scientology": "Anonymous" are fighting the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center". In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".
The attack was reportedly motivated by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. After the Church of Scientology lodged a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube, the site took down the video. The Tom Cruise video is still available on Gawker.com, which has stated it will not remove the video "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."
—Gawker.comGawker.com discussed the actions of the "Anonymous" group, in a post on Monday titled "Scientology vs. the Internet: Why Kids On The Internet Are Scientology's Most Powerful Enemy". Gawker.com briefly outlined actions of other anonymous users critical of Scientology, including actions taken in the past by users of YouTube, Digg, and YTMND "This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare."
A poster on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) was critical of the actions by the "Anonymous" group. In a post titled "Open Letter to Anonymous" Jeff Jacobsen, webmaster of lisamcpherson.org, posting as "cultxpt" wrote that "It's understandable that people get upset over the things the Church of Scientology has done online and off", pointing out that the Church of Scientology had "tried to shut down a.r.s.", and "spam our newsgroup to this day". In 1999 "sporgery", a form of nonsensical spam tactic, was used as an attempt to disrupt discussion on the newsgroup. Previously in 1995 Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, attempted to remove the a.r.s. group from Usenet. Kobrin sent a rmgroup message which stated: "We have requested that the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup be removed from all sites". This later led to a declaration of war by the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, and an increase in popularity of the a.r.s site. This initial conflict came to be known as "Scientology versus the Internet".
The post from Jacobsen went on to criticize the actions of the "Anonymous" group, stating: "We're supposed to be the good people," and stated that contrary to the Anonymous group's tactics, "Our weapons as critics are reason, evidence, argument, and free speech".
—Andreas Heldal-Lund, Operation ClambakeOn Tuesday, the founder of Operation Clambake, a non-profit organization and website critical of Scientology based in Stavanger, Norway, released a statement about the attacks by "Anonymous". Andreas Heldal-Lund was critical of the "Anonymous" groups actions, stating: "The author of Operation Clambake does not condone such activity. Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card. They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy." Heldal-Lund went on to emphasize the right of all people and organizations to freedom of speech - including the Church of Scientology: "Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion."
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The Internet-based group "Anonymous" has released statements on YouTube and via a press release, outlining what they call a "War on Scientology". Church of Scientology related websites, such as religiousfreedomwatch.org have been removed due to a suspected distributed denial-of-service-attack (DDoS) by a group calling themselves "Anonymous". On Friday, the same group allegedly brought down Scientology's main website, scientology.org, which was available sporadically throughout the weekend.
Several websites relating to the Church of Scientology have been slowed down, brought to a complete halt or seemingly removed from the Internet completely in an attack which seems to be continuous. The scientology.org site was back online briefly on Monday, and is currently loading slowly.
On Monday, the group released a video titled: "Message to Scientology" on YouTube concerning their intentions to attack the Church of Scientology. A robotic voice on the video begins with "Hello leaders of Scientology. We are Anonymous," and continues by explaining their motivations: "Over the years we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent and your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed." The message goes on to state that the group intends to "expel Scientology from the Internet". As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed 370,347 times, favorited 2,473 times, and is currently YouTube's top third video of the day.
—The Michigan DailyThe "Message to Scientology" video was highlighted as the "YouTube Video of the Week" by The Michigan Daily. Commenting on the video, the piece states "if this video is any indication, it seems like the assailants mean business". In a blog post on USA Today's website, Jess Zielinski wrote that it was "not a shock that hackers hold a grudge against Scientology," and in a followup post on another USA Today blog, Angela Gunn wrote that "those of us who remember ... the adventures of Operation Clambake are fascinated to see this kind of thing flare up again". Blogging for Wired magazine, Ryan Singel wrote about the incident in a piece on Wednesay titled "War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology -- There Can Be Only One". Singel wrote that the Project Chanology wiki page "directs Anonymous members to download and use denial of service software, make prank calls, host Scientology documents the Church considers proprietary, and fax endless loops of black pages to the Church's fax machines to waste ink". According to Wired, "The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond to a call for comment".
The viewpoints expressed in the video are echoed on the "Project Chanology" website, an open source of information and direction for those within Anonymous, which talks of tactics such as blackfaxing and prank calling alongside other "real-life" methods of attack. The satirical website Encyclopedia Dramatica also has a similar page devoted to "Project Chanology".
—"Anonymous" - Press Release"Anonymous" released a statement on Monday in the form of a press release, "Internet Group Anonymous Declares "War on Scientology": "Anonymous" are fighting the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center". In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".
The attack was reportedly motivated by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. After the Church of Scientology lodged a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube, the site took down the video. The Tom Cruise video is still available on Gawker.com, which has stated it will not remove the video "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."
—Gawker.comGawker.com discussed the actions of the "Anonymous" group, in a post on Monday titled "Scientology vs. the Internet: Why Kids On The Internet Are Scientology's Most Powerful Enemy". Gawker.com briefly outlined actions of other anonymous users critical of Scientology, including actions taken in the past by users of YouTube, Digg, and YTMND "This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare."
A poster on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) was critical of the actions by the "Anonymous" group. In a post titled "Open Letter to Anonymous" Jeff Jacobsen, webmaster of lisamcpherson.org, posting as "cultxpt" wrote that "It's understandable that people get upset over the things the Church of Scientology has done online and off", pointing out that the Church of Scientology had "tried to shut down a.r.s.", and "spam our newsgroup to this day". In 1999 "sporgery", a form of nonsensical spam tactic, was used as an attempt to disrupt discussion on the newsgroup. Previously in 1995 Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, attempted to remove the a.r.s. group from Usenet. Kobrin sent a rmgroup message which stated: "We have requested that the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup be removed from all sites". This later led to a declaration of war by the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, and an increase in popularity of the a.r.s site. This initial conflict came to be known as "Scientology versus the Internet".
The post from Jacobsen went on to criticize the actions of the "Anonymous" group, stating: "We're supposed to be the good people," and stated that contrary to the Anonymous group's tactics, "Our weapons as critics are reason, evidence, argument, and free speech".
—Andreas Heldal-Lund, Operation ClambakeOn Tuesday, the founder of Operation Clambake, a non-profit organization and website critical of Scientology based in Stavanger, Norway, released a statement about the attacks by "Anonymous". Andreas Heldal-Lund was critical of the "Anonymous" groups actions, stating: "The author of Operation Clambake does not condone such activity. Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card. They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy." Heldal-Lund went on to emphasize the right of all people and organizations to freedom of speech - including the Church of Scientology: "Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion."
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Anonymous" releases statements outlining "War on Scientology" | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Anonymous%22_performs_denial_of_service_attacks_on_Scientology_websites |
The Internet-based group "Anonymous" released a new video on YouTube Monday, announcing international protests outside Church of Scientology centers set for February 10. The video "Call to Action" uses the same computer synthesized voice as a previous video titled "Message to Scientology", which was posted to YouTube last Monday. The "Message to Scientology" video has been viewed over 1,400,000 times, and the "Call to Action" video has already been viewed over 237,000 times.
Anonymous is taking action against the Church of Scientology in response to what it sees as suppression of freedom of speech on the Internet. The group was first motivated after the Church of Scientology issued a copyright infringement claim to YouTube regarding a promotional video of Scientologist Tom Cruise speaking about his beliefs and using Scientology jargon. The Church of Scientology also issued a legal complaint to the website Gawker.com which is also hosting the video, but Gawker has stated it will not take the video down because it is newsworthy.
Anonymous set up a movement called "Project Chanology" to coordinate their efforts, and took down several Church of Scientology websites through denial-of-service attacks. Members of Anonymous have also participated in prank calls to Church of Scientology centers, as well as protests or "raids" outside Scientology buildings, and have posted some of their exploits to YouTube.
—Anonymous, "Call to Action".In the "Call to Action" video, Anonymous denies that they are composed solely of "super hackers", stating "Anonymous is a collective of individuals united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing, that someone must bring light to the darkness, that someone must open the eyes of a public that has slumbered for far too long." The video goes on to state "We want you to be aware of the very real dangers of Scientology," citing what they term "gross human rights violations".
Specific controversial events in Scientology history are cited in the video, including Operation Freakout and Paulette Cooper, and Operation Snow White. Operation Freakout was the name of a Church of Scientology operation whose goal was to "get P.C. [Paulette Cooper] incarcerated in a mental institution or jail or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks." Paulette Cooper had written a book critical of Scientology called The Scandal of Scientology. Operation Snow White was the name of a Church of Scientology operation where members of the Church's secretive Guardian's Office infiltrated United States government agencies in Washington, D.C. including the I.R.S. The F.B.I.'s investigation into Operation Snow White led them to discover the planning of actions taken against Paulette Cooper.
The video concludes by inviting the viewer to "take up the banner of free speech" and protest with Anonymous world wide. In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that cities where unknown activities are planned on February 10 include New York City, Montreal, Houston, London, Melbourne, and Los Angeles.
On Friday, two spokespersons for the Church of Scientology commented on the recent actions of Anonymous. A spokesman told News.com.au "These types of people have got some wrong information about us," and Church spokeswoman Yvette Shank told Sun Media that she regarded members of Anonymous as a "pathetic" group of "computer geeks". On Monday, Radar reported that the Church of Scientology has asked the U.S. Attorney General's office in Los Angeles, the F.B.I., and the LAPD to start a criminal investigation of possible criminal activity related to the Internet attacks. A source told Radar that the Church of Scientology is arguing that the Internet attacks are a form of "illegal interference with business." Radar also reports that the Church of Scientology is emphasizing its status as a religious organization in the United States, in order to assert that the Internet attacks can be classed as hate crimes.
—Mark Bunker, XenuTV.com.On Saturday, Mark Bunker of the website XenuTV.com posted a video to YouTube criticizing the illegal actions of Anonymous and suggested legal methods for them to retaliate against the Church of Scientology, including peaceful protesting, writing letters to their government representatives, and persuading the United States government to take away the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status. In the video, Bunker states "I'm mainly concerned because you shouldn't be doing things that are illegal, you just shouldn't. It's not morally right, and it's not right when Scientology does it, it's not right when we do it." Bunker's video post has been viewed over 156,000 times. On Sunday, Bunker posted a follow-up video to YouTube where he gives advice to Anonymous on how to peacefully picket. He also provides viewers with resources and weblinks to more information on how to hold a peaceful protest. He concludes this video by imitating Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi mind trick technique and voice from Star Wars, stating "And if I may, as Obi-Wan, tell you: You will do nothing illegal ".
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Anonymous" plans to protest Church of Scientology on February 10 | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Anonymous%22_plans_to_protest_Church_of_Scientology_on_February_10 |
The Internet-based group "Anonymous" has released statements on YouTube and via a press release, outlining what they call a "War on Scientology". Church of Scientology related websites, such as religiousfreedomwatch.org have been removed due to a suspected distributed denial-of-service-attack (DDoS) by a group calling themselves "Anonymous". On Friday, the same group allegedly brought down Scientology's main website, scientology.org, which was available sporadically throughout the weekend.
Several websites relating to the Church of Scientology have been slowed down, brought to a complete halt or seemingly removed from the Internet completely in an attack which seems to be continuous. The scientology.org site was back online briefly on Monday, and is currently loading slowly.
On Monday, the group released a video titled: "Message to Scientology" on YouTube concerning their intentions to attack the Church of Scientology. A robotic voice on the video begins with "Hello leaders of Scientology. We are Anonymous," and continues by explaining their motivations: "Over the years we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent and your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organisation should be destroyed." The message goes on to state that the group intends to "expel Scientology from the Internet". As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed 370,347 times, favorited 2,473 times, and is currently YouTube's top third video of the day.
—The Michigan DailyThe "Message to Scientology" video was highlighted as the "YouTube Video of the Week" by The Michigan Daily. Commenting on the video, the piece states "if this video is any indication, it seems like the assailants mean business". In a blog post on USA Today's website, Jess Zielinski wrote that it was "not a shock that hackers hold a grudge against Scientology," and in a followup post on another USA Today blog, Angela Gunn wrote that "those of us who remember ... the adventures of Operation Clambake are fascinated to see this kind of thing flare up again". Blogging for Wired magazine, Ryan Singel wrote about the incident in a piece on Wednesay titled "War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology -- There Can Be Only One". Singel wrote that the Project Chanology wiki page "directs Anonymous members to download and use denial of service software, make prank calls, host Scientology documents the Church considers proprietary, and fax endless loops of black pages to the Church's fax machines to waste ink". According to Wired, "The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond to a call for comment".
The viewpoints expressed in the video are echoed on the "Project Chanology" website, an open source of information and direction for those within Anonymous, which talks of tactics such as blackfaxing and prank calling alongside other "real-life" methods of attack. The satirical website Encyclopedia Dramatica also has a similar page devoted to "Project Chanology".
—"Anonymous" - Press Release"Anonymous" released a statement on Monday in the form of a press release, "Internet Group Anonymous Declares "War on Scientology": "Anonymous" are fighting the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center". In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".
The attack was reportedly motivated by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. After the Church of Scientology lodged a copyright infringement complaint with YouTube, the site took down the video. The Tom Cruise video is still available on Gawker.com, which has stated it will not remove the video "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."
—Gawker.comGawker.com discussed the actions of the "Anonymous" group, in a post on Monday titled "Scientology vs. the Internet: Why Kids On The Internet Are Scientology's Most Powerful Enemy". Gawker.com briefly outlined actions of other anonymous users critical of Scientology, including actions taken in the past by users of YouTube, Digg, and YTMND "This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare."
A poster on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) was critical of the actions by the "Anonymous" group. In a post titled "Open Letter to Anonymous" Jeff Jacobsen, webmaster of lisamcpherson.org, posting as "cultxpt" wrote that "It's understandable that people get upset over the things the Church of Scientology has done online and off", pointing out that the Church of Scientology had "tried to shut down a.r.s.", and "spam our newsgroup to this day". In 1999 "sporgery", a form of nonsensical spam tactic, was used as an attempt to disrupt discussion on the newsgroup. Previously in 1995 Helena Kobrin, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, attempted to remove the a.r.s. group from Usenet. Kobrin sent a rmgroup message which stated: "We have requested that the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup be removed from all sites". This later led to a declaration of war by the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, and an increase in popularity of the a.r.s site. This initial conflict came to be known as "Scientology versus the Internet".
The post from Jacobsen went on to criticize the actions of the "Anonymous" group, stating: "We're supposed to be the good people," and stated that contrary to the Anonymous group's tactics, "Our weapons as critics are reason, evidence, argument, and free speech".
—Andreas Heldal-Lund, Operation ClambakeOn Tuesday, the founder of Operation Clambake, a non-profit organization and website critical of Scientology based in Stavanger, Norway, released a statement about the attacks by "Anonymous". Andreas Heldal-Lund was critical of the "Anonymous" groups actions, stating: "The author of Operation Clambake does not condone such activity. Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card. They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy." Heldal-Lund went on to emphasize the right of all people and organizations to freedom of speech - including the Church of Scientology: "Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion."
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Anonymous" releases statements outlining "War on Scientology" | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Anonymous%22_releases_statements_outlining_%22War_on_Scientology%22 |
Reports are emerging that eight people suspected of hijacking the 4,000-tonne Maltese registered vessel MV Arctic Sea have been arrested by the Russian Navy, and are being detained on the frigate Ladny.
Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov confirmed that none of the detainees were members of the crew, and had boarded the vessel after approaching in a small dinghy, "using the threat of arms [and] demanded that the crew follow all of their orders without condition".
The vessel was found on Sunday off of the Cape Verde Islands, following over a week of searching. The vessel was previously last seen off the coast of France near Brest. There was much speculation as to the whereabouts of the vessel, after it did not arrive in Béjaïa, Algeria as scheduled on August 4, 2009.
The ship is said to be carrying a cargo of Finnish timber that is worth $1.8 million.
According to the Estonian Security Police, among those detained were four Russians who were naturalized Estonian nationals, two Latvians and two Russians.
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| Suspected hijackers of Arctic Sea detained by Russian Navy | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Arctic_Sea%22_hijackers_arrested |
Asteroid 2004 XP14, a half-mile wide chunk of hard rock travelling at 40 000 miles an hour, will miss the Earth by a few hundred thousand miles, Monday.
Dr David Asher from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland said if the rock, discovered in 2004, were to hit the Earth the result would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," he said.
Amateur astronomers with 6-inch telescopes would be able to follow the speeding space debris in Europe and North America at its closest approach to the planet at 0425 UTC.
At this time it would be at a safe distance of 268,624 miles from Earth - closer to the Earth than the Moon would be at its farthest extent in its orbit.
2004 XP14 is named as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), along with 782 known others by Astronomers at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard.
Zipping about in the solar system no PHAs have yet been found on direct collision course with the Earth. Still, "For something of this size to come this close is unusual," said Don Yeomans, the head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program."
An expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said it was the closest approach by such a massive object for over 80 years - since 1925.
Before 2004 XP14's exact orbital path around the sun was known with more precision, there were concerns it would hit the Earth.
In the near future Jon Giorgini said such cosmic uncertainty would be much less and the public less alarmed. "In the next 20 to 30 years, we'll have a complete catalog of hazardous objects," Giorgini said.
Edward Lu and Stanley Love, of Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas also have allayed fears about a collision. In a 2005 article in Nature they theorised a "gravity tractor" could move any known threat within a year.
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Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. | "Armageddon" rock misses Earth by Moon's distance | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Armageddon%22_rock_misses_Earth_by_Moon%27s_distance |
MP3s for the people? The Pirate Party, a new Swedish political party first publicized in January, wants to legalize sharing music, movies, and other copyrighted content using the Internet. What may seem like a doomed effort by a small group of idealists is attracting significant media attention, in part due to a recent police raid on The Pirate Bay, an extremely popular BitTorrent tracker (see Wikinews coverage).
The Pirate Bay allows people to download content listed in its database using the BitTorrent protocol (including the latest Hollywood movies or computer games) and has gained something of an international cult status, in part for its public and irreverent responses to legal threats received from copyright lawyers of major corporations. The site was reopened days after the raid on Dutch servers (but is now back in Sweden again). Rickard Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party, argues that regardless of the legal outcome in the case, the web site demonstrates that copyright law in its current form is not sustainable.
Adopting the moniker of the maligned "Internet pirates", the party argues for drastically limiting the scope and enforcement of copyright law, abolishing patent law, and protecting privacy in what it sees as a "control and surveillance society". The party is hoping to garner enough votes in the September election to become a small but important faction in the next Swedish parliament. Rickard Falkvinge found some time in between interviews and party work to answer our questions.
There are rumours that the Swedish government was indirectly acting on behalf of the U.S. MPAA in shutting down the site. Do you feel that your government is beholden to U.S. interests?
Oh, the MPAA said so themselves in a press release, it's more than a rumor. Check their press release "Swedish authorities sink Pirate Bay". [Ed.: see below]
And yes, this particular fact has caused something of an uproar in Sweden. It's widely believed that Swedish authorities were more or less ordered by a foreign power to act forcefully against an entity that was in, at worst, a legal gray area according to Swedish law.
The raid must have boosted your recognition. How many members do you currently have, and how successful has your fundraising effort been so far?
Our member count is at 6540, no, 6541, no wait, 6543... well, you get the picture. Our members register themselves on our website after paying the membership fee electronically, which helps reduce our admin load considerably.
Fundraising brought in 108,000 SEK [Ed.: approx. 14,700 USD or 11,600 EUR], enough to buy 3 million ballots, which is some kind of at-least-we're-not-starving minimum. We're not full, but we're not starving, either. Following the raid on the Pirate Bay, we have received another 50K in donations. My sincere thanks to everybody who wants to help out; we are now looking into getting more ballots to make sure we don't run out on election day. (10 million ballots was our initial full-score aim.)
Do you think you will be able to cover future expenses such as radio and television ads?
Following the raid on the Pirate Bay, and our tripling of the member roster, we don't need advertising. We've been mentioned almost every news hour across all channels on national television in the last week.
Also, the established parties have now started to turn, following our success. Parties representing almost half of the elected parliament are now describing today's copyright situation as not working. They still don't understand why, though, they are just echoing what we say without understanding what the words mean. We'll get around to teaching them — them and the voters alike.
This might be hard for people not following the Swedish media to grasp, but we have made a big splash. Today, our Minister of Justice was quoted as saying that he's open to changes to copyright laws that would make file-sharing legal, with the headline "Bodström (his name) flip-flops about file sharing." Immediately underneath were the Pirate Party's comments to his suggestions. Let's take that again: when a minister makes a statement about file sharing, media calls us for comments, and publishes them next to that statement. That's how big we have become since the raid on the Pirate Bay.
The Minister of Justice later denied having made that statement to the press that reported it.
We will never be able to pay for television ads, the way I see it. Unless a very wealthy donor comes on stage. (If any such person is reading this, we have planned how to spend up to $375,000 in a cost-efficient way up until the elections, on the chance that donations appear. That spending does still not include any TV ads.)
Are you aware of similar initiatives in other countries?
Some are trying, but none have achieved the necessary momentum and critical mass that we have. We expect that momentum to happen once we get into Swedish Parliament and show that it can be done.
[Ed.: A United States variant of the party was recently launched. See also: Intellectual property activism category on Wikipedia]
The name "Pirate Party" seems to identify the party with what is currently defined as a crime: piracy of software, movies, music, and so on. Will a name like "Pirate Party" not antagonize voters, given that the label is so negatively used? How about potential allies abroad who argue for a more balanced copyright regime, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Creative Commons?
Oh, it is a crime. That's the heart of the problem! The very problem is that something that 20% of the voters are doing is illegal by punishment of jail time. That's what we want to change. Where the established parties are saying that the voters are broken, we are saying it's the law that is broken.
Besides, it's a way of reclaiming a word. The media conglomerates have been pointing at us and calling us pirates, trying to make us somehow feel shame. It doesn't work. We wear clothes saying "PIRATE" in bright colors out on the streets. Yes, we are pirates, and we're proud of it, too.
Also, the term is not that negative at all in Sweden, much thanks to the awesome footwork of the Pirate Bureau (Piratbyrån), who have been working since 2003 to educate the public.
If you are elected, and have the opportunity to become part of the next government of Sweden, do you intend to focus only on the issues in your platform (IP law and privacy)?
Our current plan is to support the government from the parliament, but not be part of it. If we're part of it, that means we get a vested interest to not overthrow it, which puts us in a weaker position if they start going against our interests.
Overall, our strategy is to achieve the balance of power, where both the left and right blocks need our votes to achieve a majority, and then support the issues of whichever government that agrees to drive our issues the strongest. Basically, we sell our votes on other issues to the highest bidder in exchange for them driving ours.
Have you already made any contacts in Swedish politics?
Contacts... I'm not sure what you mean. Several of us have been shaking hands with some of the established politicians, particularly in the youth leagues, if that's what you mean.
I was thinking along the lines of exploring possible modes of cooperation with established political parties — are you already taken seriously?
We are taken seriously by most of the youth leagues and by at least one of the represented parties. In particular, which is what counts, we are now taken seriously by national media. However, we can't tie contacts that explore modes of cooperation quite yet — since our strategy depends on holding the balance of power, we need to not express a preference for whom we'd like to cooperate with, or we'd put ourselves in a weaker bargaining position.
What is your position on moral rights, as recognized by European Union copyright laws: the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work. Do you think these rights should be preserved?
We safeguard the right to attribution very strongly. After all, what we are fighting for is the intent of copyright as it is described in the US constitution: the promotion of culture. Many artists are using recognition as their primary driving force to create culture.
Publishing anonymously or pseudonymously happens every day on the Internet, so no big deal there either.
The right to integrity, however, is an interesting issue. We state that we are for free sampling, meaning you can take a sound that I made for my tune and use it in your own tunes, or for that matter, a whole phrase. That's partially in line with today's copyright law on derivative works; as long as you add your own creative touch to a work, you get your own protection for the derivation. We want to strengthen that right.
You might want to consider the alternative. In the 50s and 60s, a lot of rock and roll bands started doing covers of old classical music. This would almost certainly have been considered to violate the integrity of the original artist — and was considered to do so by many — but in the eyes of many others, it was instead great new culture of a previously unseen form and shape.
So I don't have a definite answer on the integrity issue. While I am leaning towards the promotion of new culture taking precedence over a limitation right, there may be unconsidered cases.
Do you feel that trademark law is adequate as it is?
Yes. We have not seen any hidden costs to trademarks that outweigh the benefits of reducing transaction costs on a market where seller and buyer are not personally acquainted.
How do you intend to deal with EU treaties which define certain legal frameworks for the protection of intellectual works?
What can they do? Fine us? Send us an angry letter?
Come on, countries need to think more like corporations. If the fine is less than the cost to society, which it is in this case, then the right thing to do is to accept the fine with a polite "thank you".
Actually, national media just called me about this very question; the Department of Justice has stated that we can't allow file sharing, as it would break international treaties. My response was that it is more important to not have 1.2 million Swedes criminalized, than it is to avoid paying a penalty fee.
Do you think that weaker intellectual property laws would lessen the amount of products released in Sweden by foreign companies, such as Hollywood studios?
As long as they believe that they will have a revenue here that exceeds the cost of operations, they will keep coming here. Anything else would be wrong from a corporate standpoint.
Besides, you need to remember what we are doing is to change the map according to what reality looks like. We do not want to change people's behavior. We want to change the law so it reflects what the world actually looks like.
So, as they apparently make a profit today, I expect that to continue.
Do you feel that the music industry in its current form will still be needed in a world where non-commercial copying is permitted?
It's not so much if they are needed where non-commercial copying is permitted, rather if they are needed when they're not necessary any more to be the middle man between consumer and artist.
The music industry will lose its current chokepoint, because they don't add any value to the end product any longer. They will probably survive as a service bureau for artists, but they will not be able to control distribution.
It's actually quite simple: if they get their act together and provide a service that people want to buy, they will remain. If not, they will vanish. Today, they have legislated that people must buy their service regardless of whether it adds value or not, and that's not gonna hold in the long term.
Why fight against intellectual property laws, instead of focusing your energy on creating freely licensed content, such as Creative Commons films or open source software?
I want to raise the issue a level, to show that it's not about payment models or what level of control the copyright holder chooses to exert over his or her work.
Let me put it this way: we have achieved the technical possibility of sending copyrighted works in digital, private communications. I can send a piece of music in e-mail to you, I can drop a video clip in a chat room. That technology is not going away, leaving us with two choices.
So — if copyright is to be enforced — if you are to tax, prohibit, fee, fine, or otherwise hinder the transmission of copyrighted works in private communications, the only way to achieve that is to have all private communications constantly monitored. It's really that large.
Also, this is partly nothing new. We've been able to do this since the advent of the Xerox copier — you could photocopy a poem or a painting and put it in a letter in the mail. Again, the only way to discover or stop that would have been for the authorities to open all letters and check their content.
So we're at a crossroads here. Either we, as a society, decide that copyright is the greater value to society, and take active steps to give up private communications as a concept. Either that, or we decide that the ability to communicate in private, without constant monitoring by authorities, has the greater value — in which case copyright will have to give way.
My choice is clear.
The Pirate Bay was shut down and re-opened days later on a Dutch server. According to a Swedish newspaper report, traffic has doubled since then. How long do you think the cat and mouse game will continue?
Until one of two things happen: The authorities realize they can't enforce laws that require monitoring all private communications, especially given the large international level of grassroots support, or [they] actually start monitoring all private communications.
Politics of Sweden on Wikipedia.
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Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. | "Avast ye scurvy file sharers!": Interview with Swedish Pirate Party leader Rickard Falkvinge | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Avast_ye_scurvy_file_sharers!%22:_Interview_with_Swedish_Pirate_Party_leader_Rickard_Falkvinge |
The 3D science fiction epic romance Avatar has surpassed Titanic—also by director James Cameron—as the highest-grossing international film of all time.
Avatar has overtaken Titanic by a margin of more than 15 million US dollars, with both films grossing in excess of $1.843bn. The film has been the most popular film in box offices around North America and Europe for six weeks, with United Kingdom takings for this weekend alone in excess of £5.1m. In the United States, the film has pushed The Dark Knight into third place.
Avatar's victory has been put down to the higher prices many viewers have had to pay to see the film in 3D, as well as inflation over time (as the figures have not been adjusted for such). If the figures are adjusted for inflation, it is beaten to the top spot by Gone with the Wind. In the adjusted chart, Titanic makes it only to number six, with other members of the top ten including Star Wars, The Sound of Music, and E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial.
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| 'Avatar' becomes highest-grossing film of all time | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Avatar%22_becomes_highest-grossing_film_of_all_time |
After the United States agreed to the changes proposed by India this morning, the so called Bali Roadmap has been agreed on, to applause from all parties. The decision was made at this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. The Roadmap establishes a time frame and scope for reaching a post-2012 climate change agreement. This includes setting, for industrialized nations, targets for reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Numerous observers and parties had voiced that they see this as being of great importance prior to and during the conference.
Following the reopening of the plenary at midday, India reiterated its position that part of a paragraph needed to be reformulated. The EU went on to state that in the spirit of negotiations, they agreed with the proposed changes. After some further statements by other nations, the US said that they can not accept the changes, as they would considerably change the balance of the text. This was met with loudly audible booing in the plenary. Some time later, after a number of other nations voiced their opinions and the American delegation could be seen busily debating and writing, the US said they would agree to the consensus position after all. Standing ovations and cheers welcomed this change in position, which allowed the President of the Conference soon thereafter to declare the document decided.
India this morning had raised objections on one of the central documents of what constitutes the Roadmap. This had made a decision impossible for the time being, as the conference can only pass items unanimously. The objection regarded the phrasing of how nations with developing industries are to take action to slow and reduce their GHG emissions. The President of the Conference, the Indonesian Environmental Minister, had declined the request, stating that the proposal he had made was very finely balanced. The President had then suspended the session so that further consultations could be made.
No progress was made when the meeting was reopened about an hour later, with China stating that negotiations of the so called Group of 77 and China with the Indonesian Minister of Finance were still ongoing. China then accused the UNFCCC secretariat of deliberately opening the plenary session at a time it knew that their Ministers were in talks. The Chinese delegate went on to demand an apology by the secretariat, and the meeting was again suspended.
Ministerial negotiations had continued through the night until the early morning hours yesterday and the climate conference had been scheduled to decide on the last outstanding items this morning.
Yesterday evening Yvo de Boer of the UNFCCC had said that the parties were "on the brink of agreement", when he was asked where negotiations currently stand. With almost all open matters having been agreed on by a group of 40 ministers, one of the last outstanding points then was still the question of guideline numbers for GHG cuts.
Some of the issues that had still been open the day before yesterday (for example how deforestation was to be addressed and the matter of financial support for developing countries to send and support negotiators to the UN climate conferences), had apparently been addressed to everyones satisfaction during yesterdays informal talks. But the talks were still on with regard to preambular text of a document that states how further action to mitigate climate change is to be taken, the inclusion of a 25-40% range for reductions in GHG emissions for industrialized nations by 2020 from 1990 levels being contested.
The draft decision proposed by the President of the Conference today however, no longer included the numbers, but did make reference to the latest report by the international body of scientists that is charged with assessing the current state of knowledge on climate change. This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had presented its Synthesis report earlier this year.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Bali Roadmap" agreed on, applauded | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Bali_Roadmap%22_agreed_on,_applauded |
Four years ago, on February 9, a major Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza published a report detailing a hoax in Polish Wikipedia entitled Henryk Batuta. The author of the report was Konrad Godlewski; several weeks later, Godlewski began editing Polish Wikipedia. The results of his work include one featured article – pismo chińskie (Polish for "Chinese character") – as well as various articles relating to China.
During our interview, Godlewski discusses memes, hoaxes, and the Batuta Army – the creators of the hoax his paper reported on. From February this year, a special project on the Polish Wikipedia, BATUTA, saw a makeshift taskforce work on improving the quality of content. BATUTA stands for "Bezwzględna Akcja Troskliwego Uźródławiania Tysięcy artykłów", roughly translated as "Ruthless Action of Carefully Adding References to Thousands of Articles".
((Wikinews)) You are the author of the first news story about the Henryk Batuta hoax, uncovered four years ago in the Polish Wikipedia. Do you remember when did the authors of the hoax first come to you? Was it just before the publication or earlier? The hoax was uncovered on January 20 and the story was published on February 9, so there was a period of time between those two dates...
((Konrad Godlewski)) I found them myself. Accidentally. I was looking for new, interesting stories about the Internet. My newspaper colleague Robert Sankowski told me he had heard somewhere about a friend of a friend who had been doing some huge scam in Wikipedia. Step by step, I had traced that person. This was a few months before the publication, back in late 2005. A representative from Batuta's Army asked me to hold on with publication, even though the article had already been visible in Wikipedia for many months.
((WN)) Did you follow the process of deletion of the article?
((KG)) Yes, for the last few days. The Army from the very beginning wanted to test Wikipedia's defense mechanisms. It was then when I had a meeting with them and they told me about their views. They knew their hoax was nearing its end and they wanted to close it somehow.
((WN)) In your story you wrote they wanted to show how thoughtless the people of Warsaw were when it came to names of streets and neighborhoods. Now it turns out it was more about Wikipedia and its mechanisms.
((KG)) It was about a number of things at the same time. It was easy to notice the hoax was created by really smart people. Testing Wikipedia was one of the aspects of this entire thing.
The second one was the attitude towards streets and generally Poland's communist past. As one could easily guess, Batuta's Army had rather right-wing political views, most probably close to IPN [e.d. note: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej/IPN, English: National Memory Institute is a governmental agency in Poland conducting both criminal investigations and scientific research into the country's communist past], which fights against communist streets' namesakes.
And there was a third reason. As I'm sure you remember, in the 90s, conspiracy theories concerning Jews were popular in Poland. As some of the people of such origin had changed their names, the conspiracy theory made people see Jews nearly everywhere. Such lists were printed on paper and later they got published on the Internet.
((WN)) It's a bit strange. Having right-wing views, the Army caused the right-wing websites, which copied the hoax from Wikipedia, to get discredited as an effect of this.
((KG)) Not all right-wing people are uneducated individuals with antisemitic views.
((WN)) The same IP number (which is dynamic but from a narrow range) which was used to create the hoax, is still being used today to edit Wikipedia. For example, quite recently someone tried to smuggle in a biography of "Hipolit Pieściuk – sculptor and social activist". Google shows no information on this biography. They've added just text, not an article. Does it mean they have not give up on Wikipedia? Your article in "Gazeta Wyborcza" ended with the words "Batuta's Army is asking for anonymity and claims that Henryk Batuta is not their last word".
((KG)) I haven't heard about Hipolit. As far as I know, Batuta's case actually turned up to be their last word. As far as I know those people have made careers and they now have more serious things to care about.
((WN)) So they don't want to reveal themselves?
((KG)) I imagine it wouldn't look good in their CVs. There are people who think of such scam as a point of honor. I don't think that's the case with Batuta's Army. Anyway, this case had also had an effect on me. Before the Batuta story I had made a few trial editions in Wikipedia. But later something turned me on. I thought there was a group of idealistic people who want to make humanity happier with their meticulous work. And someone tried to make idiots of them.
((WN)) So you've started to develop articles up to featured article standards.
((KG)) Don't exaggerate. I've written just one such article. But thanks to this, I've realized how important Wikipedia had become. I don't think there is single journalist who doesn't use it. ((WN)) Would you reveal your Wikipedia nickname?
((KG)) Yes, it's actually my high school nickname – conew. Sadly, after some time I stopped. My family got bigger and I didn't have enough time to make all of humanity happier.
((WN)) When we were talking soon after your publication, you wrote to me you had hoped there would be some positive effects of your story. Do you think you've initiated a landslide change?
((KG)) I don't think it was a landslide. But still, I do acknowledge the fact that Batuta's case has become something of a milestone in the development of Wikipedia. I had a chance to about it with Jimmy Wales. It was in the time when the German Wikipedia was testing new, stricter editorial guidelines.
However, I think the most important was the impact on the other side – the readers. Even the best editorial system lets some mistakes pass undetected. I know it, I've worked in several newspapers. Batuta's case reminds us the old truth: dubito ergo sum. There are mistakes in respected encyclopedias and books as well. Sometimes those are "Dawkins-like" mistakes, if you remember the chapter about memes in "The Selfish Gene".
My favorite example is the one about Michał Boym, Polish Jesuit and one of the first sinologists. He had done a great job with his descriptions of Chinese plants and animals. His works were later published in Europe. Sometimes his text were stolen from him and published under other people's names. There was a case of "green-furred turtle". Boym wrote about it because it was extremely bizarre: a turtle with green fur. In fact it was a kind of seaweed growing on the turtle's shell. Boym described it in his Latin text as "viridium". And printers from Vienna made it "vindium" which can be translated as "floating in air". This slight typing mistake made people in the West believe there were flying turtles in China. What's more, there were pictures showing this unusual thing.
((WN)) Batuta also started to mutate and it happened at the very beginning.
((KG)) That's because Wikipedia's articles are the best example of memetics at work. The articles are like some living organisms transferred to a new environment – with time they evolve, adapting to the requirements such as neutral of point of view, proper language, verifiability and, most importantly, factual truth.
((WN)) In the printed edition of "Gazeta Wyborcza" your text was accompanied by a photo, supposedly showing Henryk Batuta. It actually did not appear in the Wikipedia article, but even Jimbo mentioned that photo when he was explaining this situation to the journalists.
((KG)) Oh yes. The photo was the idea of the editor of that day's edition. It's a petty it is now stuck somewhere in Gazeta'sarchives because it a really great job by the photo editor. Maybe Wikipedia should ask "Gazeta" for permission to use this little masterpiece.
((WN)) When I read some recent texts about Batuta I often come across different mutations of the story. The most common is the one which says the journalists were the ones who uncovered the hoax, in spite of the fact that your text was published several days after the uncovering made by the Wikimedians themselves.
((KG)) That's correct. It is quite common to attribute different things to the journalists because of their job which is to go around, look and investigate. I've seen Batuta being quoted in many publications on Wikipedia and the Internet. This is part of a broader problem of credibility of sources. It's horrifying but we are surrounded by the half-truths and lies.
((WN)) Roman, Władysław, Marek – the names of the members of Batuta's Army were obviously false as well?
((KG)) Yes, they were "alternative".
((WN)) Was the term "Batuta's Army" created after you had already begun to talk? Or maybe they came to you already with this term?
((KG)) Batuta's Army was invented by the hoax' creators as we spoke. Probably they wanted it to sound like some well-know political terrorist organizations like IRA or Red Army Faction. It was a kind of joke.
((WN)) News about Batuta became a "good meme" and later it began to live a life of its own. Many legends originated from this story. Do you think it will become a "hard" urban legend?
((KG)) I had thought so, but fortunately the Wikimedians woke up right in time and put an end to this. Today the original Batuta article is like an antibody in a vaccine – accompanied by a secure commentary, it can be used by anyone for the sake of his/her own immunity against such a "virus". However, another "Jewish conspiracy" theory is still thriving. It has something to do with Batuta's article, as in the hoax he was a communist activist with you-know-what origin. The theory I'm talking about was made popular by Okhrana (Russian secret police from the tzars times) with the publication of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". It has made its way as far as to Japan. Recently I've been following its spread in China. A book called "The Currency Wars" has recently been published there. The author used to work at American financial institutions. When he came back to China, he wrote the book describing how America's finances are under control by a group of friends with common ancestry.
I don't think there's any way of defense against a good hoax. I'm sure at least a few such Batutas are hiding somewhere in Wikipedia. It's a classical evolutionary arms race.
((WN)) When media published a story about a hoax concerning a false product (medicine for hangover), they praised the company for visionary marketing, despite the fact it came down to a deception. Why in the conflict between citizens and business, the media represents the corporations?
((KG)) Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I don't think you can simplify it to such an extent. This is a chain: journalist – editor – publisher – owner. Each of the elements has its own motivations and there is little in common between them. That's maybe with the exception of desire for profit. But there are also some journalists who work mainly for their ideals.
I don't remember in detail that particular case, but a tendency to deceive is part of the human nature. What's more, people enjoy being deceived, they appreciate manipulation as long as it's witty and funny. One of the authors compared Batuta's case to provocations which are the basis of the modern conceptual art. The artist gets into the public space and shocks people in order to make them react, to make the viewer part of the game.
((WN)) Maybe it's my oversimplification indeed. And maybe that's because Wikipedia itself is being perceived as if it was a corporation. I remember when Google's Knol was launched and one of the media stories called Knol David and Wikipedia Goliath.
((KG)) It's a question of marketing and public relations. Google, as any modern company, spends a lot of money to create and maintain the image of both itself and its products. And Wikipedia is a bunch of Internet users who tries to set its own order by democratic means. It's part of democracies' nature that they need years to earn their own ethos, image and culture of organization. Just compare Polish and British democracy.
((WN)) OK, so I classically thank you for talking to me.
((KG)) Thank you.
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This is a complete or partial translation of the article "Jak autor publikacji o Henryku Batucie wikipedystą został - wywiad z Konradem Godlewskim", from the Polish language Wikinews, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
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| Wikinews interviews journalist Konrad Godlewski, who uncovered BATUTA hoax | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Batuta%27s_case_became_something_of_a_milestone_in_the_development_of_Wikipedia%22_-_interview_with_Konrad_Godlewski |
Four years ago, on February 9, a major Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza published a report detailing a hoax in Polish Wikipedia entitled Henryk Batuta. The author of the report was Konrad Godlewski; several weeks later, Godlewski began editing Polish Wikipedia. The results of his work include one featured article – pismo chińskie (Polish for "Chinese character") – as well as various articles relating to China.
During our interview, Godlewski discusses memes, hoaxes, and the Batuta Army – the creators of the hoax his paper reported on. From February this year, a special project on the Polish Wikipedia, BATUTA, saw a makeshift taskforce work on improving the quality of content. BATUTA stands for "Bezwzględna Akcja Troskliwego Uźródławiania Tysięcy artykłów", roughly translated as "Ruthless Action of Carefully Adding References to Thousands of Articles".
((Wikinews)) You are the author of the first news story about the Henryk Batuta hoax, uncovered four years ago in the Polish Wikipedia. Do you remember when did the authors of the hoax first come to you? Was it just before the publication or earlier? The hoax was uncovered on January 20 and the story was published on February 9, so there was a period of time between those two dates...
((Konrad Godlewski)) I found them myself. Accidentally. I was looking for new, interesting stories about the Internet. My newspaper colleague Robert Sankowski told me he had heard somewhere about a friend of a friend who had been doing some huge scam in Wikipedia. Step by step, I had traced that person. This was a few months before the publication, back in late 2005. A representative from Batuta's Army asked me to hold on with publication, even though the article had already been visible in Wikipedia for many months.
((WN)) Did you follow the process of deletion of the article?
((KG)) Yes, for the last few days. The Army from the very beginning wanted to test Wikipedia's defense mechanisms. It was then when I had a meeting with them and they told me about their views. They knew their hoax was nearing its end and they wanted to close it somehow.
((WN)) In your story you wrote they wanted to show how thoughtless the people of Warsaw were when it came to names of streets and neighborhoods. Now it turns out it was more about Wikipedia and its mechanisms.
((KG)) It was about a number of things at the same time. It was easy to notice the hoax was created by really smart people. Testing Wikipedia was one of the aspects of this entire thing.
The second one was the attitude towards streets and generally Poland's communist past. As one could easily guess, Batuta's Army had rather right-wing political views, most probably close to IPN [e.d. note: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej/IPN, English: National Memory Institute is a governmental agency in Poland conducting both criminal investigations and scientific research into the country's communist past], which fights against communist streets' namesakes.
And there was a third reason. As I'm sure you remember, in the 90s, conspiracy theories concerning Jews were popular in Poland. As some of the people of such origin had changed their names, the conspiracy theory made people see Jews nearly everywhere. Such lists were printed on paper and later they got published on the Internet.
((WN)) It's a bit strange. Having right-wing views, the Army caused the right-wing websites, which copied the hoax from Wikipedia, to get discredited as an effect of this.
((KG)) Not all right-wing people are uneducated individuals with antisemitic views.
((WN)) The same IP number (which is dynamic but from a narrow range) which was used to create the hoax, is still being used today to edit Wikipedia. For example, quite recently someone tried to smuggle in a biography of "Hipolit Pieściuk – sculptor and social activist". Google shows no information on this biography. They've added just text, not an article. Does it mean they have not give up on Wikipedia? Your article in "Gazeta Wyborcza" ended with the words "Batuta's Army is asking for anonymity and claims that Henryk Batuta is not their last word".
((KG)) I haven't heard about Hipolit. As far as I know, Batuta's case actually turned up to be their last word. As far as I know those people have made careers and they now have more serious things to care about.
((WN)) So they don't want to reveal themselves?
((KG)) I imagine it wouldn't look good in their CVs. There are people who think of such scam as a point of honor. I don't think that's the case with Batuta's Army. Anyway, this case had also had an effect on me. Before the Batuta story I had made a few trial editions in Wikipedia. But later something turned me on. I thought there was a group of idealistic people who want to make humanity happier with their meticulous work. And someone tried to make idiots of them.
((WN)) So you've started to develop articles up to featured article standards.
((KG)) Don't exaggerate. I've written just one such article. But thanks to this, I've realized how important Wikipedia had become. I don't think there is single journalist who doesn't use it. ((WN)) Would you reveal your Wikipedia nickname?
((KG)) Yes, it's actually my high school nickname – conew. Sadly, after some time I stopped. My family got bigger and I didn't have enough time to make all of humanity happier.
((WN)) When we were talking soon after your publication, you wrote to me you had hoped there would be some positive effects of your story. Do you think you've initiated a landslide change?
((KG)) I don't think it was a landslide. But still, I do acknowledge the fact that Batuta's case has become something of a milestone in the development of Wikipedia. I had a chance to about it with Jimmy Wales. It was in the time when the German Wikipedia was testing new, stricter editorial guidelines.
However, I think the most important was the impact on the other side – the readers. Even the best editorial system lets some mistakes pass undetected. I know it, I've worked in several newspapers. Batuta's case reminds us the old truth: dubito ergo sum. There are mistakes in respected encyclopedias and books as well. Sometimes those are "Dawkins-like" mistakes, if you remember the chapter about memes in "The Selfish Gene".
My favorite example is the one about Michał Boym, Polish Jesuit and one of the first sinologists. He had done a great job with his descriptions of Chinese plants and animals. His works were later published in Europe. Sometimes his text were stolen from him and published under other people's names. There was a case of "green-furred turtle". Boym wrote about it because it was extremely bizarre: a turtle with green fur. In fact it was a kind of seaweed growing on the turtle's shell. Boym described it in his Latin text as "viridium". And printers from Vienna made it "vindium" which can be translated as "floating in air". This slight typing mistake made people in the West believe there were flying turtles in China. What's more, there were pictures showing this unusual thing.
((WN)) Batuta also started to mutate and it happened at the very beginning.
((KG)) That's because Wikipedia's articles are the best example of memetics at work. The articles are like some living organisms transferred to a new environment – with time they evolve, adapting to the requirements such as neutral of point of view, proper language, verifiability and, most importantly, factual truth.
((WN)) In the printed edition of "Gazeta Wyborcza" your text was accompanied by a photo, supposedly showing Henryk Batuta. It actually did not appear in the Wikipedia article, but even Jimbo mentioned that photo when he was explaining this situation to the journalists.
((KG)) Oh yes. The photo was the idea of the editor of that day's edition. It's a petty it is now stuck somewhere in Gazeta'sarchives because it a really great job by the photo editor. Maybe Wikipedia should ask "Gazeta" for permission to use this little masterpiece.
((WN)) When I read some recent texts about Batuta I often come across different mutations of the story. The most common is the one which says the journalists were the ones who uncovered the hoax, in spite of the fact that your text was published several days after the uncovering made by the Wikimedians themselves.
((KG)) That's correct. It is quite common to attribute different things to the journalists because of their job which is to go around, look and investigate. I've seen Batuta being quoted in many publications on Wikipedia and the Internet. This is part of a broader problem of credibility of sources. It's horrifying but we are surrounded by the half-truths and lies.
((WN)) Roman, Władysław, Marek – the names of the members of Batuta's Army were obviously false as well?
((KG)) Yes, they were "alternative".
((WN)) Was the term "Batuta's Army" created after you had already begun to talk? Or maybe they came to you already with this term?
((KG)) Batuta's Army was invented by the hoax' creators as we spoke. Probably they wanted it to sound like some well-know political terrorist organizations like IRA or Red Army Faction. It was a kind of joke.
((WN)) News about Batuta became a "good meme" and later it began to live a life of its own. Many legends originated from this story. Do you think it will become a "hard" urban legend?
((KG)) I had thought so, but fortunately the Wikimedians woke up right in time and put an end to this. Today the original Batuta article is like an antibody in a vaccine – accompanied by a secure commentary, it can be used by anyone for the sake of his/her own immunity against such a "virus". However, another "Jewish conspiracy" theory is still thriving. It has something to do with Batuta's article, as in the hoax he was a communist activist with you-know-what origin. The theory I'm talking about was made popular by Okhrana (Russian secret police from the tzars times) with the publication of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". It has made its way as far as to Japan. Recently I've been following its spread in China. A book called "The Currency Wars" has recently been published there. The author used to work at American financial institutions. When he came back to China, he wrote the book describing how America's finances are under control by a group of friends with common ancestry.
I don't think there's any way of defense against a good hoax. I'm sure at least a few such Batutas are hiding somewhere in Wikipedia. It's a classical evolutionary arms race.
((WN)) When media published a story about a hoax concerning a false product (medicine for hangover), they praised the company for visionary marketing, despite the fact it came down to a deception. Why in the conflict between citizens and business, the media represents the corporations?
((KG)) Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I don't think you can simplify it to such an extent. This is a chain: journalist – editor – publisher – owner. Each of the elements has its own motivations and there is little in common between them. That's maybe with the exception of desire for profit. But there are also some journalists who work mainly for their ideals.
I don't remember in detail that particular case, but a tendency to deceive is part of the human nature. What's more, people enjoy being deceived, they appreciate manipulation as long as it's witty and funny. One of the authors compared Batuta's case to provocations which are the basis of the modern conceptual art. The artist gets into the public space and shocks people in order to make them react, to make the viewer part of the game.
((WN)) Maybe it's my oversimplification indeed. And maybe that's because Wikipedia itself is being perceived as if it was a corporation. I remember when Google's Knol was launched and one of the media stories called Knol David and Wikipedia Goliath.
((KG)) It's a question of marketing and public relations. Google, as any modern company, spends a lot of money to create and maintain the image of both itself and its products. And Wikipedia is a bunch of Internet users who tries to set its own order by democratic means. It's part of democracies' nature that they need years to earn their own ethos, image and culture of organization. Just compare Polish and British democracy.
((WN)) OK, so I classically thank you for talking to me.
((KG)) Thank you.
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This is a complete or partial translation of the article "Jak autor publikacji o Henryku Batucie wikipedystą został - wywiad z Konradem Godlewskim", from the Polish language Wikinews, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
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| Wikinews interviews journalist Konrad Godlewski, who uncovered BATUTA hoax | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Batuta%27s_case_have_become_something_of_a_milestone_in_the_development_of_Wikipedia%22_-_interview_with_Konrad_Godlewski |
Traffic is bumper to bumper on Houston interstate highways as citizens try to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita. Houston Mayor Bill White urged citizens in low areas of the city to "begin making their evacuation plans" in preparation for what is currently the 3rd strongest hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic Ocean and the worst to enter the Gulf of Mexico.
Acting U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director David Paulison was quoted saying "I strongly, strongly urge Gulf Coast residents to pay close attention to this storm. It's already a Category 4, a huge storm, it's in warm waters and there's a potential for it to increase more," at a briefing in Washington DC. The storm was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane on Thursday, the strongest category of storm. Recently, Rita has lost intensity since entering cooler waters and facing wind shear from an opposing weather front, and is now a Category 4 storm.
Houston, Texas lies 50 feet above sea-level on average, but the area is still prone to flooding as the region is very flat and supported by multiple bayous. In 2001, following Tropical Storm Allison, large areas of Houston remained flooded after receiving 10 inches (250 mm) of rain, causing over $US 5 billion in damage. Meteorologists fear that Rita could cause similar, if not worse damage.
Located 50 miles away from the inland city of Houston, and situated on the Gulf’s coastline, lies Galveston, Texas at a mere 8 feet above sea level. The island city, with a population of nearly 60,000, built a 10-mile-long, 17-foot-high solid granite barrier next to the sea as a defense against hurricanes.
The National Hurricane Center currently predicts a storm surge from Rita in the 15 to 20 feet range, along with strong battering waves. The city manager of Galveston, Steve LeBlanc said, "Galveston is going to suffer. And we are going to need to get it back in order as quickly as possible. I would say that we probably have 90 percent of our residents have left the island. It feels like a ghost town to me, and that's a good thing."
Rita is expected to slow down and linger after making landfall in the region. That could possibly mean even more damage from heavy rainfall accumulations. The governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, said the rain is a threat to New Orleans. Anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rainfall are expected there, when earlier predictions estimated that 3 inches of rainfall would be enough to cause more flooding in the city.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | Houston mayor urges evacuations as Hurricane Rita moves closer to shore | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Begin_making_evacuation_plans%22_says_Houston_Mayor |
The Chicago city council passed an ordinance on Wednesday a week ago that requires retailers such as Target, Home Depot, and other big box-store operations to pay a higher wage than the state minimum and offer benefits to their employees within Chicago city limits. The mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, opposes the ordinance, though he has yet to state whether or not he intends to exercise his veto power. Because of the ordinance, Target has already put on hold the building of one store in Chicago's south side and other new developments are in jeopardy.
The ordinance applies to stores of at least 90,000 square feet operated by companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Starting in July of 2007, employees of these stores have a minimum wage $9.25 per hour and $1.50 per hour in benefits. By 2010, this will rise to $10 and $3, respectively. After 2010, the increases will be tied to the cost of living.
The current state mandated minimum hourly wage rate is $6.50 for an Illinois employee.
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Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. | Ordinance in Chicago requiring "big box" stores to pay higher wages passes | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Big_Box%22_Ordinance_in_Chicago |
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is now at the centre of controversy when, on Thursday, a live microphone caught him describing a voter he had talked to as being a "bigoted woman".
The incident occurred after Brown, encouraged by his advisors to interact with ordinary people more often before next week's parliamentary elections, went for a walkabout in the town of Rochdale, located near Manchester. There, he spoke with Gillian Duffy, aged 65, who challenged him on topics such as health and education, before asking about immigration: "All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" she asked him.
Brown responded by saying that "[a] million people come from Europe, but a million people, British people, have gone into Europe." The prime minister, upon finishing the discussion, said it was "very nice to meet you" and returned to his car.
Unbeknownst to him, however, the Sky News microphone attached to his lapel was still turned on and picked up the conversation that followed inside the vehicle: "That was a disaster ... they should never have put me with that woman," Brown said. "Whose idea was that? It’s just ridiculous." When an aide asked what Duffy had said, Brown responded: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour [...] I don't know why Sue [an aide] brought her up towards me."
—Gordon BrownThe PM, upon being informed what had happened, returned to Duffy's home to personally apologise. "Sometimes you do make mistakes and you use wrong words, and once you’ve used that word and you’ve made a mistake, you should withdraw it and say profound apologies, and that’s what I’ve done," he said. During an interview with the BBC, Brown is seen with his head in hands as the comments were replayed.
Duffy, speaking to reporters immediately after having talked with the PM, described Brown as being "very nice", but later said she was "very upset" when informed what Brown had said off-camera. "Why has he come out with words like that? He's supposed to be leading the country and he's calling an ordinary woman who's come up and asked questions that most people would ask him," she said in an interview with the BBC.
"[...] It's going to be tax, tax, tax for another twenty years to get out of this national debt, and he's calling me a bigot," later adding: "I want to know why — them [sic] comments I made there — why I was called a bigot."
A spokesman for Brown said: "Mr Brown has apologised to Mrs Duffy personally by phone. He does not think that she is bigoted. He was letting off steam in the car after a difficult conversation. But this is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters."
Some political analysts have said the gaffe may hurt Labour's chances in the upcoming elections; the party had managed to narrow the Conservatives' lead in recent opinion polls.
The Conservatives responded to the incident — dubbed by some media outlets as "Bigotgate" — with Shadow chancellor George Osborne saying that "general elections [...] do reveal the truth about people."
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, meanwhile said: "You should always try to answer the questions as best you can. He has been recorded saying what he has said and will have to answer for that."
Andrew Russell, a politics lecturer for Manchester University, commented on the situation. "A politician in a stronger position could recover from this. What we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position."
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Bigoted woman": controversial Gordon Brown remarks caught on air | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Bigoted_woman%22:_Gordon_Brown_gaffe_caught_on_air |
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is now at the centre of controversy when, on Thursday, a live microphone caught him describing a voter he had talked to as being a "bigoted woman".
The incident occurred after Brown, encouraged by his advisors to interact with ordinary people more often before next week's parliamentary elections, went for a walkabout in the town of Rochdale, located near Manchester. There, he spoke with Gillian Duffy, aged 65, who challenged him on topics such as health and education, before asking about immigration: "All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" she asked him.
Brown responded by saying that "[a] million people come from Europe, but a million people, British people, have gone into Europe." The prime minister, upon finishing the discussion, said it was "very nice to meet you" and returned to his car.
Unbeknownst to him, however, the Sky News microphone attached to his lapel was still turned on and picked up the conversation that followed inside the vehicle: "That was a disaster ... they should never have put me with that woman," Brown said. "Whose idea was that? It’s just ridiculous." When an aide asked what Duffy had said, Brown responded: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour [...] I don't know why Sue [an aide] brought her up towards me."
—Gordon BrownThe PM, upon being informed what had happened, returned to Duffy's home to personally apologise. "Sometimes you do make mistakes and you use wrong words, and once you’ve used that word and you’ve made a mistake, you should withdraw it and say profound apologies, and that’s what I’ve done," he said. During an interview with the BBC, Brown is seen with his head in hands as the comments were replayed.
Duffy, speaking to reporters immediately after having talked with the PM, described Brown as being "very nice", but later said she was "very upset" when informed what Brown had said off-camera. "Why has he come out with words like that? He's supposed to be leading the country and he's calling an ordinary woman who's come up and asked questions that most people would ask him," she said in an interview with the BBC.
"[...] It's going to be tax, tax, tax for another twenty years to get out of this national debt, and he's calling me a bigot," later adding: "I want to know why — them [sic] comments I made there — why I was called a bigot."
A spokesman for Brown said: "Mr Brown has apologised to Mrs Duffy personally by phone. He does not think that she is bigoted. He was letting off steam in the car after a difficult conversation. But this is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters."
Some political analysts have said the gaffe may hurt Labour's chances in the upcoming elections; the party had managed to narrow the Conservatives' lead in recent opinion polls.
The Conservatives responded to the incident — dubbed by some media outlets as "Bigotgate" — with Shadow chancellor George Osborne saying that "general elections [...] do reveal the truth about people."
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, meanwhile said: "You should always try to answer the questions as best you can. He has been recorded saying what he has said and will have to answer for that."
Andrew Russell, a politics lecturer for Manchester University, commented on the situation. "A politician in a stronger position could recover from this. What we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position."
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Bigoted woman": controversial Gordon Brown remarks caught on air | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Bigoted_woman%22:_controversial_Gordon_Brown_remarks_caught_on_air |
Via press release on Friday, Andy Martin, a perennial candidate for political office and self-proclaimed "Birther King", announced he is seeking the U.S. Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination, his fourth bid for the White House. In his announcement and subsequent release, Martin expresses a desire to participate in Republican presidential debates and aligns himself with fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Additionally, he outlines six reasons for running, including degrading the candidacy of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is also seeking the Republican nomination.
"I have been a loyal Republican," says Martin in his announcement, "loyal to the principles of our party but not necessarily loyal to some of its failed leaders."
Martin, best known for spreading multiple conspiracy theories concerning the birth and religion of U.S. President Barack Obama, previously ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1988, and unsuccessfully sought the backing of the Republican Party in 2000 and 2012. In 2012, he received a total of 19 votes in the New Hampshire Primary, the only primary ballot on which he appeared.
For 2016, Martin does not harbor high expectations of electoral success, though he hopes to receive an invitation to the debates. In reference to the seventeen candidates invited to the two August 6 Fox News debates, Martin casts himself as the "eighteenth candidate," willing to participate in the second-tier debate. Moreover, he declares himself as the "second-most exciting" candidate, reserving first place for Trump, whom Martin praises throughout his announcement. Although he described Trump's previous foray into politics as a "charade" during a 2011 interview with Wikinews, Martin now sees himself as Trump's "tag team" partner in attacking the Bush candidacy.
"Trump has the raw media power to weaken Bush," says Martin, "I have the negative information and hardball media tactics to make Bush a toxic candidate for the Republican base."
Martin adamantly opposes Bush because of the foreign policy of the candidate's brother, former President George W. Bush. He also criticizes Bush for his alleged economic benefit from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, labeling Bush as a "front man for a handful of corrupt plutocrats that have raped [the nation's] economy." Martin has previously criticized the Bush family during his 2000 campaign, when he ran television ads accusing then-presidential candidate George W. Bush of abusing cocaine and alcohol.
In addition to preventing Bush from gaining the Republican nomination, Martin intends to focus his campaign on protecting the prestige of the New Hampshire Primary and Iowa Caucus, defending the economic legacy of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, combating political correctness, emphasizing U.S. relations with Greece, and fighting political corruption.
Martin filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month to run for president in 2016 officially. He joins 139 other Republican Party presidential candidates who have done likewise.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | 'Birther King' announces 2016 campaign for U.S. president | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Birther_King%22_announces_2016_campaign_for_U.S._president |
Via press release on Friday, Andy Martin, a perennial candidate for political office and self-proclaimed "Birther King", announced he is seeking the U.S. Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination, his fourth bid for the White House. In his announcement and subsequent release, Martin expresses a desire to participate in Republican presidential debates and aligns himself with fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Additionally, he outlines six reasons for running, including degrading the candidacy of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is also seeking the Republican nomination.
"I have been a loyal Republican," says Martin in his announcement, "loyal to the principles of our party but not necessarily loyal to some of its failed leaders."
Martin, best known for spreading multiple conspiracy theories concerning the birth and religion of U.S. President Barack Obama, previously ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1988, and unsuccessfully sought the backing of the Republican Party in 2000 and 2012. In 2012, he received a total of 19 votes in the New Hampshire Primary, the only primary ballot on which he appeared.
For 2016, Martin does not harbor high expectations of electoral success, though he hopes to receive an invitation to the debates. In reference to the seventeen candidates invited to the two August 6 Fox News debates, Martin casts himself as the "eighteenth candidate," willing to participate in the second-tier debate. Moreover, he declares himself as the "second-most exciting" candidate, reserving first place for Trump, whom Martin praises throughout his announcement. Although he described Trump's previous foray into politics as a "charade" during a 2011 interview with Wikinews, Martin now sees himself as Trump's "tag team" partner in attacking the Bush candidacy.
"Trump has the raw media power to weaken Bush," says Martin, "I have the negative information and hardball media tactics to make Bush a toxic candidate for the Republican base."
Martin adamantly opposes Bush because of the foreign policy of the candidate's brother, former President George W. Bush. He also criticizes Bush for his alleged economic benefit from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, labeling Bush as a "front man for a handful of corrupt plutocrats that have raped [the nation's] economy." Martin has previously criticized the Bush family during his 2000 campaign, when he ran television ads accusing then-presidential candidate George W. Bush of abusing cocaine and alcohol.
In addition to preventing Bush from gaining the Republican nomination, Martin intends to focus his campaign on protecting the prestige of the New Hampshire Primary and Iowa Caucus, defending the economic legacy of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, combating political correctness, emphasizing U.S. relations with Greece, and fighting political corruption.
Martin filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month to run for president in 2016 officially. He joins 139 other Republican Party presidential candidates who have done likewise.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | 'Birther King' announces 2016 campaign for U.S. president | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Birther_King%22_announces_campaign_for_U.S._president |
The recording of technical data such as airspeed, altitude, control inputs etc is not handled by the cockpit voice recorder, as suggested in this article, but is in fact handled by the flight data recorder.
This article uses the term 'black box' for the cockpit voice recorder, a device which records all the sounds in the cockpit. However, the flight data recorder is also often referred to as a black box.
Investigators have found the black box of an Airblue flight that crashed into the Margalla Hills of Pakistan's capital city on Wednesday. The flight data recorder was also recovered Saturday morning. Airblue Flight 202 departed from Karachi, Pakistan, and was bound for the capital Islamabad when it crashed into the Margalla Hills due to bad weather conditions. All 152 people aboard, including the 6 crewmembers, were killed.
Junaid Amin, the head of Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority, told CNN the recorders will be sent to either Germany or France, which have the necessary resources to analyze the data. Such an investigation could take months to complete, however.
The black box records communication data and technical information such as speed and altitude, as well as conversations in the airplane cockpit. It could thus help investigators determine why the plane crashed.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | 'Black box' found near crash site of Airblue flight | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Black_box%22_found_near_crash_site_of_Airblue_flight |
The black box cockpit voice recorder from an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed into the Mediterranean several weeks ago, killing all on board, has been found by search crews. The flight data recorder had been recovered earlier in the day. The bodies of eight victims were recovered from what is believed to be fuselage.
"We found it and retrieved it about an hour ago today," Lebanese army Brigadier Saleh Haj Suleiman said, as quoted by BusinessWeek. According to reports, the plane made a sharp turn and disappeared from the radar upon departure; Lebanese officials, however, say it's too early to conclude the crash was due to pilot error.
The black box records communication data, technical information such as speed, altitude, etc., as well as conversation in the airplane cockpit, which could help investigators determine why the jet crashed.
The boxes will be transported to France to be analysed, according to officials.
Flight ET409, which had departed from Beirut, Lebanon, was bound for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on January 25 when it crashed into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea several minutes after takeoff, in inclement weather. All ninety people aboard were killed.
Minister of Public Works and Transport Ghazi Aridi told Reuters, "The priority now is searching for the rest of the bodies of victims." So far, the bodies of 23 victims have been recovered.
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| "Black box" found near crash site of Ethiopian Airlines flight | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Black_box%22_found_near_crash_site_of_Ethiopian_Airlines_flight |
The black boxes from an Air India flight that crashed into a valley of near the southern Indian city of Mangalore Saturday, killing 158 of the 166 onboard, have been found by investigators. The flight data recorder was recovered late yesterday and the cockpit voice recorder was located today.
At the end of Sunday, 146 of the 158 bodies have been identified, and all have been recovered.
According to reports, the plane touched down at Mangalore's Bajpe airport, overshooting the touchdown point by several thousand feet; one tire did not hit the runway at all. Sudden braking occured, the airliner's wings hit a neighboring cliff, and the plane careened into a heavily forested ravine where it burst into flames. "The plane veered off toward some trees on the side and then the cabin filled with smoke," said survivor Umer Farooq, "I got caught in some cables but managed to scramble out." "I didn't think of anything at the time. All I knew was that I had to get out and get far away from the plane. The fire was spreading fast. Behind me I could feel other people jumping out but I didn't turn back to look," said survivor Koolikkunnu Krishnan.
The black boxes record communication data, technical information such as speed, altitude, etc., as well as conversation in the airplane cockpit, which could help investigators determine why the jet crashed. "The black box has been recovered from the crash site. It is vital in finding information about key details like the last moments of the flight and whether there was any error from the pilot's side. The box will be brought to the accident lab of the Director General of Civil Aviation in the national capital where it will be opened and to find out what exactly went wrong," reported investigators. They did not clarify which box they were refering to, but both have been recovered.
The Air India Express Boeing 737-800, which had departed from Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, was bound for Mangalore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The Bajpe airport has a "tabletop" runway which means it is set atop a hill surrounded by a deep gorge. The airport, which was constructed in 2006, has seen over 32,000 successful landings since opening. After visiting the eight survivors, Arvind Jadhav, chairman of Air India said, "My heart goes out to those who died and who lost friends and relatives."
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| 'Black boxes' pulled from Air India plane wreckage | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Black_box%22_pulled_from_Air_India_plane_wreckage |
The black boxes from an Air India flight that crashed into a valley of near the southern Indian city of Mangalore Saturday, killing 158 of the 166 onboard, have been found by investigators. The flight data recorder was recovered late yesterday and the cockpit voice recorder was located today.
At the end of Sunday, 146 of the 158 bodies have been identified, and all have been recovered.
According to reports, the plane touched down at Mangalore's Bajpe airport, overshooting the touchdown point by several thousand feet; one tire did not hit the runway at all. Sudden braking occured, the airliner's wings hit a neighboring cliff, and the plane careened into a heavily forested ravine where it burst into flames. "The plane veered off toward some trees on the side and then the cabin filled with smoke," said survivor Umer Farooq, "I got caught in some cables but managed to scramble out." "I didn't think of anything at the time. All I knew was that I had to get out and get far away from the plane. The fire was spreading fast. Behind me I could feel other people jumping out but I didn't turn back to look," said survivor Koolikkunnu Krishnan.
The black boxes record communication data, technical information such as speed, altitude, etc., as well as conversation in the airplane cockpit, which could help investigators determine why the jet crashed. "The black box has been recovered from the crash site. It is vital in finding information about key details like the last moments of the flight and whether there was any error from the pilot's side. The box will be brought to the accident lab of the Director General of Civil Aviation in the national capital where it will be opened and to find out what exactly went wrong," reported investigators. They did not clarify which box they were refering to, but both have been recovered.
The Air India Express Boeing 737-800, which had departed from Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, was bound for Mangalore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The Bajpe airport has a "tabletop" runway which means it is set atop a hill surrounded by a deep gorge. The airport, which was constructed in 2006, has seen over 32,000 successful landings since opening. After visiting the eight survivors, Arvind Jadhav, chairman of Air India said, "My heart goes out to those who died and who lost friends and relatives."
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| 'Black boxes' pulled from Air India plane wreckage | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Black_boxes%22_pulled_from_Air_India_plane_wreckage |
File:Civil Rights Mural SMC May 2007.jpg
On Tuesday, the "Bloody Sunday Inquiry" published its report into 1972 British Army killing of fourteen civil rights activists in Northern Ireland.
The Saville Inquiry, a twelve-year-long public inquiry into the fatal shooting, published their 5,000-page report; stating, the deaths were "unjustified".
The events of "Bloody Sunday" in 1972 saw soldiers open fire on civilians during a civil rights march. Family members and supporters of the victims reacted positively to the report, as they gathering outside the Guildhall in Derry.
"What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong", British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons. He also said, "[t]he Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces, and for that, on behalf of the Government, indeed on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry", and that "[t]here is no doubt. There's nothing equivocal, there are no ambiguities".
Cameron said the Saville report states that those killed did not pose a threat and some of those killed and injured were clearly fleeing or going to help those injured or dying. Some of the key findings were;
Twenty-seven civil rights activists were shot by the British Army's Parachute Regiment (of which "1 Para" was identified as the regiment mainly responsible) during an illegal Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march in the Bogside area of Derry in 1972. The NICRA was an organisation, formed in early 1967, which campaigned against discrimination of the Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland and had five key demands: "one man, one vote"; an end to gerrymandering, housing discrimination, public authority discrimination and the abolition of the B Specials police reserve.
In the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, an inquiry by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, justified British army actions on the day and claimed that many of the activists were armed with guns and nail bombs. Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader MP Mark Durkan said, "[t]he families have waited a long time for justice and for a long time the reputations and innocence of their loved ones have been smeared by the findings of Widgery".
The shootings lead to the strengthening of Irish republicans' anti-British army arguments in the Nationalist community and provided the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) with queues of new recruits for its "long war", which resulted in 30 years of The Troubles.
The 12-year inquiry is the longest-running and most expensive public inquiry in British judicial history, costing around £200 million. Around 2,500 people gave testimony, including 505 civilians, nine experts and forensic scientists, 49 journalists, 245 military personnel, 35 paramilitaries or former paramilitaries, 39 politicians and civil servants, seven priests and 33 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. Evidence included 160 volumes of data with an estimated 30 million words, 13 volumes of photographs, 121 audio tapes and 10 video tapes.
The victims included Patrick Doherty (32), Hugh Gilmour (17), Jackie Duddy (17), John Young (17), Kevin McElhinney (17), Michael Kelly (17), Gerald Donaghey (17), William Nash (19), Michael McDaid (20), Jim Wray (22), William McKinney (27) and Bernard "Barney" McGuigan (41). John Johnston (59) died four months later.
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| 'Bloody Sunday Inquiry' publishes report into British Army killing of activists in Northern Ireland | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Bloody_Sunday_Inquiry%22_publishes_report_into_1972_British_Army_killing_of_fourteen_civil_rights_activists_in_Northern_Ireland |
The name for the newest James Bond film has been announced today. The 22nd film, previously known only as "Bond 22", will be called "Quantum of Solace". EON Productions who are producing the film made the announcement today at Pinewood Studios, where production for the film has been under way since last year.
The name of the film was inspired by a short story (of the same name) from For Your Eyes Only by Bond creator, Ian Fleming.
The film will be the second for star Daniel Craig, who first starred in Casino Royale in 2006, taking over from Pierce Brosnan. Producer Michael G. Wilson has previously said that the film will continue "literally an hour after" Casino Royale's conclusion.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | Title of 22nd "James Bond" movie announced | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Bond_22%22_name_revealed |
A private security guard attached to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pulled out his revolver to threaten a lensman in Pune, India. The Associated Press photographer was also roughed up by the guard, Sunil Singh, who works for Tops Securities. Defamer.com, a tabloid in Los Angeles, however, says that two guards were involved in the attack. The incident occurred at the Sindh Society area in the suburb of Aundh.
A spokesperson for Tops confirmed the incident, although he claimed the weapon had been pulled out in "self-defence". The accosted person himself chose to remain anonymous and refused to comment on the issue. Freelance photographer Rishikesh Puranik, who witnessed the scene, said that the AP lensman had approached Angelina Jolie with a request for a photo-shoot while she was on the sets. Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt are in India to shoot for A Mighty Heart, a film based on Daniel Pearl, a journalist who was killed in 2002 while in Karachi, Pakistan.
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In Crawford, Texas, anti-war protesters led by American Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier, have found a new place to demonstrate. "A kind gentleman from down the road, closer to the Bush ranch, has offered us the use of his property," said Sheehan to the reporters, as the camp prepared a move to private land.
The property owner, U.S. Army veteran Fred Mattlage, said, "I just think people should have a right to protest without being harassed, and I'm against the war. I don't think it's a war we need to be in."
Sheehan continued to tell the reporters, "He offered it because he heard about the shots fired at us the other day and he didn't think that was right. He happens to be the third cousin of the person that fired the shots and so he came down and he said he supports us 100 percent."
The "shots fired" were those of nearby resident Larry Mattlage, whose land borders the protesters at their current location. After complaining about the proximity of the protesters, he fired a shotgun twice into the air Sunday - in order to prepare for duck hunting season, he said. Mattlage says at no time was he ever threatening the protesters with his shots.
Not all Americans agree with Mrs. Sheehan's position. On Monday, a man was arrested and charged with vandalism of Camp Casey's memorial for troops lost in Iraq. Around 10pm the previous night, authorities say the accused used his pickup truck to run over hundreds of small wooden crosses bearing names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
In comments to the press, Bush offered sympathy to Sheehan, "I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her -- about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes.", he said. However, he has still declined to meet her. "I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say." Bush told reporters, "But, I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."
Others have commented that Sheehan is being used by those with their own agendas, "What started out as a grieving mom that we all sympathized with has now turned into ... an orchestrated far-left campaign," commented Greg Mueller, a conservative public-relations executive.
A former FBI special agent, Rowley, and Becky Lourey, whose son was killed in Iraq, will leave for Texas on Thursday and camp at the site for a few days.
Rowley said, "It puts a human face on this issue; many people, if they don't have a personal connection to the troops, it's so easy for this to become a discussion that lacks seriousness and urgency. I think it's good to show that there are real people that are being affected."
"Our children are dying and I think it's time to go support Cindy and see if Bush will come out and we can say, 'President Bush, what is the mission exactly?'," Becky Lourey added. "Truth has been shifting all around and I think we need to rejoin the world community and not occupy another nation." Lourey said.
Sheehan wants the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq. President Bush claims that leaving Iraq now wouldn't be helpful for Iraqis or Americans, but only for terrorists.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Camp Casey" moves to safer land, as Mother's protest continues | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Camp_Casey%22_moves_to_private_land,_as_Mother%27s_protest_continues. |
In Crawford, Texas, anti-war protesters led by American Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier, have found a new place to demonstrate. "A kind gentleman from down the road, closer to the Bush ranch, has offered us the use of his property," said Sheehan to the reporters, as the camp prepared a move to private land.
The property owner, U.S. Army veteran Fred Mattlage, said, "I just think people should have a right to protest without being harassed, and I'm against the war. I don't think it's a war we need to be in."
Sheehan continued to tell the reporters, "He offered it because he heard about the shots fired at us the other day and he didn't think that was right. He happens to be the third cousin of the person that fired the shots and so he came down and he said he supports us 100 percent."
The "shots fired" were those of nearby resident Larry Mattlage, whose land borders the protesters at their current location. After complaining about the proximity of the protesters, he fired a shotgun twice into the air Sunday - in order to prepare for duck hunting season, he said. Mattlage says at no time was he ever threatening the protesters with his shots.
Not all Americans agree with Mrs. Sheehan's position. On Monday, a man was arrested and charged with vandalism of Camp Casey's memorial for troops lost in Iraq. Around 10pm the previous night, authorities say the accused used his pickup truck to run over hundreds of small wooden crosses bearing names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
In comments to the press, Bush offered sympathy to Sheehan, "I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her -- about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes.", he said. However, he has still declined to meet her. "I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say." Bush told reporters, "But, I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."
Others have commented that Sheehan is being used by those with their own agendas, "What started out as a grieving mom that we all sympathized with has now turned into ... an orchestrated far-left campaign," commented Greg Mueller, a conservative public-relations executive.
A former FBI special agent, Rowley, and Becky Lourey, whose son was killed in Iraq, will leave for Texas on Thursday and camp at the site for a few days.
Rowley said, "It puts a human face on this issue; many people, if they don't have a personal connection to the troops, it's so easy for this to become a discussion that lacks seriousness and urgency. I think it's good to show that there are real people that are being affected."
"Our children are dying and I think it's time to go support Cindy and see if Bush will come out and we can say, 'President Bush, what is the mission exactly?'," Becky Lourey added. "Truth has been shifting all around and I think we need to rejoin the world community and not occupy another nation." Lourey said.
Sheehan wants the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq. President Bush claims that leaving Iraq now wouldn't be helpful for Iraqis or Americans, but only for terrorists.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Camp Casey" moves to safer land, as Mother's protest continues | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Camp_Casey%22_moves_to_safer_land,_as_Mother%27s_protest_continues |
In Crawford, Texas, anti-war protesters led by American Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier, have found a new place to demonstrate. "A kind gentleman from down the road, closer to the Bush ranch, has offered us the use of his property," said Sheehan to the reporters, as the camp prepared a move to private land.
The property owner, U.S. Army veteran Fred Mattlage, said, "I just think people should have a right to protest without being harassed, and I'm against the war. I don't think it's a war we need to be in."
Sheehan continued to tell the reporters, "He offered it because he heard about the shots fired at us the other day and he didn't think that was right. He happens to be the third cousin of the person that fired the shots and so he came down and he said he supports us 100 percent."
The "shots fired" were those of nearby resident Larry Mattlage, whose land borders the protesters at their current location. After complaining about the proximity of the protesters, he fired a shotgun twice into the air Sunday - in order to prepare for duck hunting season, he said. Mattlage says at no time was he ever threatening the protesters with his shots.
Not all Americans agree with Mrs. Sheehan's position. On Monday, a man was arrested and charged with vandalism of Camp Casey's memorial for troops lost in Iraq. Around 10pm the previous night, authorities say the accused used his pickup truck to run over hundreds of small wooden crosses bearing names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
In comments to the press, Bush offered sympathy to Sheehan, "I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her -- about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes.", he said. However, he has still declined to meet her. "I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say." Bush told reporters, "But, I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."
Others have commented that Sheehan is being used by those with their own agendas, "What started out as a grieving mom that we all sympathized with has now turned into ... an orchestrated far-left campaign," commented Greg Mueller, a conservative public-relations executive.
A former FBI special agent, Rowley, and Becky Lourey, whose son was killed in Iraq, will leave for Texas on Thursday and camp at the site for a few days.
Rowley said, "It puts a human face on this issue; many people, if they don't have a personal connection to the troops, it's so easy for this to become a discussion that lacks seriousness and urgency. I think it's good to show that there are real people that are being affected."
"Our children are dying and I think it's time to go support Cindy and see if Bush will come out and we can say, 'President Bush, what is the mission exactly?'," Becky Lourey added. "Truth has been shifting all around and I think we need to rejoin the world community and not occupy another nation." Lourey said.
Sheehan wants the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq. President Bush claims that leaving Iraq now wouldn't be helpful for Iraqis or Americans, but only for terrorists.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Camp Casey" moves to safer land, as Mother's protest continues | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Camp_Casey%22_moves_to_safer_land,_as_Mother%27s_protest_continues. |
Ryan Park, a 22 year old door-to-door meat salesman from Waterboro, Maine was arrested yesterday, and charged with assaulting a woman in Stoddard, New Hampshire last month. He is charged with forcibly kissing her after she turned down an offer from him of chicken for sex.
Stoddard Police Lieutenant Roger Turcotte stated that the woman, whom he did not name, told police that Park:
Turcotte said that in order to get rid of Park the woman gave him a post-dated cheque (which police later helped the woman to stop payment on) and $40, all of the cash that she had, and that when the woman's husband later returned home, Park tried to sell meat to him. Turcotte also said that Park, when questioned by police was "appropriate and polite", and stated to police that "I hit on a lot of women when I go door-to-door.".
Michael Phillips, owner of Pacific Prime Gourmet Foods, a company for which Park is a contractor and that supplies meat and other products and leases vehicles to door-to-door salesmen, stated that he has never had any complaints about Park, adding that if Park is convicted, the company "would have no choice" but to sever its business relationship with him, but that right now "He hasn’t been found guilty of anything. We will support him until we hear otherwise."
Linda Park, Mr. Park's mother, said in regards to the incident, "That’s not something that I would think that he would do.” She also stated that her son would not have to force himself on someone because "he’s very popular with the women."
Park is scheduled to appear in Keene District Court on June 28, 2005.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | American "Chicken for sex" meat salesman is charged with assault | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Chicken_for_sex%22_meat_salesman_is_charged_with_assault |
Children of Men, a movie based on a P.D. James book, has won the 2006 USC Scripter Award for its writing. Both the original author, James, and the screenwriting team will be honored by the University of South California for their work.
The winning screenwriters are Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby. The Children of Men was James' 12th book, written in 1992.
USC School of Cinematic Arts Writing Division Chair Howard A. Rodman commented
For nineteen years, the USC Libraries Scripter Award has honored "writers for the best achievement in adaptation among English-language films released during the previous year and based on a book, novella or short story." While there are many awards for either screenwriting in general, or adapted screenwriting, the Scripter is the only award to recognize both the screenwriters and the original authors.
Also nominated was:
The titles were selected by committee, from a list of forty-five eligible films. The committee is made of Writers Guild of America members (including some Academy Award-winning screenwriters and Academy Award-nominated screen writers), authors, film industry executives, USC faculty, the dean of the USC Libraries, and selected members of the Friends of the USC Libraries, the sponsor of the event.
Previous screenwriters and authors honored include the teams behind Capote, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient and Schindler's List.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Children of Men" wins Scripter Award for writing | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Children_of_Men%22_wins_Scripter_Award_for_writing |
Children of Men, a movie based on a P.D. James book, has won the 2006 USC Scripter Award for its writing. Both the original author, James, and the screenwriting team will be honored by the University of South California for their work.
The winning screenwriters are Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby. The Children of Men was James' 12th book, written in 1992.
USC School of Cinematic Arts Writing Division Chair Howard A. Rodman commented
For nineteen years, the USC Libraries Scripter Award has honored "writers for the best achievement in adaptation among English-language films released during the previous year and based on a book, novella or short story." While there are many awards for either screenwriting in general, or adapted screenwriting, the Scripter is the only award to recognize both the screenwriters and the original authors.
Also nominated was:
The titles were selected by committee, from a list of forty-five eligible films. The committee is made of Writers Guild of America members (including some Academy Award-winning screenwriters and Academy Award-nominated screen writers), authors, film industry executives, USC faculty, the dean of the USC Libraries, and selected members of the Friends of the USC Libraries, the sponsor of the event.
Previous screenwriters and authors honored include the teams behind Capote, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient and Schindler's List.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Children of Men" wins Scripter Award for writing | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Children_of_Men%22_wins_Scripter_award_for_writing |
Jack Palance, best known for his role as Curly in the 1991 film, "City Slickers", died of natural causes on Friday, November 10, at the age of 87.
He died in Montecito, California, surrounded by family, according to spokesman Dick Guttman.
Palance is survived by his second wife, Elaine Rogers Palance; his daughter, Holly; another daughter, Brook Palance Wilding; grandchildren Lily and Spencer Spottiswoode and Tarquin Wilding; his brother, John Palance, and sister Anne Despiva.
A memorial service for him is planned for December 16.
He also played the role of the Oscar- nominated Jack Wilson in "Shane".
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "City Slickers" actor, Jack Palance, dies | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22City_Slickers%22_actor,_Jack_Palance,_dies |
Led by Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas fighter, hundreds of Palestinian refugees gathered to protect the house of the leader of a militant group in Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza and succeeded in thwarting an Israeli attack.
As part of their campaign against Palestinian fighters, Israeli forces had warned Mohammedweil Baroud, a commander in the Popular Resistance Committee, that his house would be attacked in 30 minutes time. He was told to take his family out of the house in order to avoid civilian casualties. Instead, he called for help from the local mosque and people swarmed round and over Mr Baroud's house in such numbers as to dissuade the Israelis from making the promised attack.
The Palestinians claimed this to have been the first successful defence of its kind. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, visiting the house, said that people had been driven to this remedy because the UN had refused to defend them. On Friday, the Security Council vetoed a resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza. Nizar Rayan promised "We will pay with our lives to protect the houses of the fighters, so they can resist the enemy, assured their homes are being protected".
On November 8, an Israeli shell killed 19 civilians in Beit Hanoun, due to, what the Israelis called, a "technical fault in targeting".
An Israeli spokesman said that Israeli forces differentiate between innocent people and "terrorists" and that they would continue the attacks.
A Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the town of Sderot on November 15. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president has called for a ceasefire by those launching rockets and suicide attacks against Israel and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad is said to be considering this request carefully. Over 400 Palestinians, including many civilians, have been killed since June by attacks, which Israel says are aimed at Palestinian fighters.
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The traditions of Bonfire Night peculiar to the Sussex area were once again observed in Lewes on November 4.
Consistent with the town traditions in the East Sussex county of England, effigies of various figures were carried through the town, and later burnt. The effigies this year included George Bush, Condoleezza Rice (as Wonder Woman) and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
As per tradition and local fame, effigies were carried through the town and burned on huge fires. These include The Pope, Guy Fawkes and other unpopular figures. One of this year's unfortunate guest appearances was also rendered as a hugely grotesque likeness of the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The unflattering effigy clutched a tattered U.S. flag in one hand, and a miniature Tony Blair in the other. Crowds shouted "Burn it!".
Smaller scale effigies, and so called 'enemies of bonfire', were also represented. This year's enemies included British Transport Police, whose attitude and handling of Bonfire night is an issue of local contention. Transport police were quietly represented by a pig head wearing a police helmet.
The event was not without incident. Six arrests occurred in respect of criminal damage and public order offences, but the event was less rowdy than in previous years and eras in the history of the Bonfire.
Superintendent Cliff Parrot of the Sussex Police said, "The event passed safely and was a resounding success with fewer arrests than last year, People were well behaved and acted responsibly, which in turn allowed everyone else to enjoy the celebrations."
The steep streets of the small town, located one hour south of London, were filled during the chilly winter evening with crowds carrying burning torches, with police, and with alcohol consumption accompanied by loud deafening bangs. The air was thick with woodsmoke.
In addition to effigies, flaming crosses were carried in recognition of the town's 17
Protestant Martyrs. These preceded elaborate costumed parades where participants dressed as
Vikings, Antique firemen, Mongol warriors, and Zulus (including for the first time at Lewes, a female chieftain). Arthurian Knights and pirates were also featured. The pirates towed a cannon which they fired and shocked the crowds.
The traditional striped jerseys worn by various Bonfire Society members were also in evidence.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Condi" effigy burned at Lewes Bonfire night | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Condi%22_effigy_burned_at_Lewes_Bonfire_night |
The traditions of Bonfire Night peculiar to the Sussex area were once again observed in Lewes on November 4.
Consistent with the town traditions in the East Sussex county of England, effigies of various figures were carried through the town, and later burnt. The effigies this year included George Bush, Condoleezza Rice (as Wonder Woman) and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
As per tradition and local fame, effigies were carried through the town and burned on huge fires. These include The Pope, Guy Fawkes and other unpopular figures. One of this year's unfortunate guest appearances was also rendered as a hugely grotesque likeness of the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The unflattering effigy clutched a tattered U.S. flag in one hand, and a miniature Tony Blair in the other. Crowds shouted "Burn it!".
Smaller scale effigies, and so called 'enemies of bonfire', were also represented. This year's enemies included British Transport Police, whose attitude and handling of Bonfire night is an issue of local contention. Transport police were quietly represented by a pig head wearing a police helmet.
The event was not without incident. Six arrests occurred in respect of criminal damage and public order offences, but the event was less rowdy than in previous years and eras in the history of the Bonfire.
Superintendent Cliff Parrot of the Sussex Police said, "The event passed safely and was a resounding success with fewer arrests than last year, People were well behaved and acted responsibly, which in turn allowed everyone else to enjoy the celebrations."
The steep streets of the small town, located one hour south of London, were filled during the chilly winter evening with crowds carrying burning torches, with police, and with alcohol consumption accompanied by loud deafening bangs. The air was thick with woodsmoke.
In addition to effigies, flaming crosses were carried in recognition of the town's 17
Protestant Martyrs. These preceded elaborate costumed parades where participants dressed as
Vikings, Antique firemen, Mongol warriors, and Zulus (including for the first time at Lewes, a female chieftain). Arthurian Knights and pirates were also featured. The pirates towed a cannon which they fired and shocked the crowds.
The traditional striped jerseys worn by various Bonfire Society members were also in evidence.
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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Condi" effigy burned at Lewes Bonfire night | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Condi%22_effigy_burned_at_Lewes_Bonfire_night. |
The New Zealand Labour Party today joined National, the Greens, ACT and the Maori Party in saying they would pay back the money received from Parliamentary Services that the Auditor-General says was wrongly used for electioneering.
The Auditor-General report, tabled today, found $1.17 million of taxpayer-funded parliamentary funding was misspent over all political parties. Labour was found to have overspent $768,000.
The Prime Minister is adamant the Labour Party did not break any rules, but she is still going to pay back money spent unlawfully in the lead up to the election.
Labour "strongly maintains" that its spending was within the rules as they were understood but given the new ruling it would refund the money.
"Labour has strongly stated its case as was its right...The party welcomes the Auditor-General's findings that inadequate guidance has been available to MPs and parliamentary parties on what constitutes appropriate advertising, particular in the pre-election period." Clark said.
The Government will now follow through with plans to pass retrospective legislation on election spending. Deputy Prime Minister and finance minister, Dr Michael Cullen says legislation will be introduced into Parliament next week to validate spending by parties dating back some years.
He argues the only legal remedy for the breaches identified by the Auditor General is for them to be validated by an act of Parliament.
Meanwhile National Leader Dr Don Brash is viewing the Auditor General's report on election overspending as a victory for National.
Dr Brash says it is only public, political and media pressure that is making the Prime Minister repay the money that Labour spent.
He claims she led a dirty campaign punctuated by threats, bullying and diversionary tactics, and he says she is clearly paying the money back with great reluctance.
Dr Brash says the Prime Minister should also apologise to the Auditor General, as she bullied him publicly to try to get him to change his report.
Dr Brash said it had taken a year to persuade Labour to "admit its guilt".
"I am delighted they have finally done it... after trying every trick known."
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Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. | "Corrupt" New Zealand government to repay $768,000 | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Corrupt%22_New_Zealand_government_to_repay_$768,000 |
The New Zealand Labour Party today joined National, the Greens, ACT and the Maori Party in saying they would pay back the money received from Parliamentary Services that the Auditor-General says was wrongly used for electioneering.
The Auditor-General report, tabled today, found $1.17 million of taxpayer-funded parliamentary funding was misspent over all political parties. Labour was found to have overspent $768,000.
The Prime Minister is adamant the Labour Party did not break any rules, but she is still going to pay back money spent unlawfully in the lead up to the election.
Labour "strongly maintains" that its spending was within the rules as they were understood but given the new ruling it would refund the money.
"Labour has strongly stated its case as was its right...The party welcomes the Auditor-General's findings that inadequate guidance has been available to MPs and parliamentary parties on what constitutes appropriate advertising, particular in the pre-election period." Clark said.
The Government will now follow through with plans to pass retrospective legislation on election spending. Deputy Prime Minister and finance minister, Dr Michael Cullen says legislation will be introduced into Parliament next week to validate spending by parties dating back some years.
He argues the only legal remedy for the breaches identified by the Auditor General is for them to be validated by an act of Parliament.
Meanwhile National Leader Dr Don Brash is viewing the Auditor General's report on election overspending as a victory for National.
Dr Brash says it is only public, political and media pressure that is making the Prime Minister repay the money that Labour spent.
He claims she led a dirty campaign punctuated by threats, bullying and diversionary tactics, and he says she is clearly paying the money back with great reluctance.
Dr Brash says the Prime Minister should also apologise to the Auditor General, as she bullied him publicly to try to get him to change his report.
Dr Brash said it had taken a year to persuade Labour to "admit its guilt".
"I am delighted they have finally done it... after trying every trick known."
Share this:
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. | "Corrupt" New Zealand government to repay $768,000 | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Corrupt%E2%80%9D_New_Zealand_government_to_repay_$768,000 |
—Government of United KingdomThe U.K. government defined Intelligent Design along with creationism as religion and ruled that neither has a place within the country's school science curriculum.
This was in reaction to an electronic petition launched by James Rocks of the "Science, Just Science" campaign, a group formed to oppose "Truth in Science" and other groups in the anti-evolution lobby in the UK. The petition was signed by 1,505 people.
In the petition details, Rocks wrote, "Creationism & Intelligent design are greatly featured in the media and are being used disingenuously to portray science & the theory of evolution as being in crisis when they are not. Moreover groups such as Truth in Science are targeting our nation's children and their science education with material that is not only non-scientific but have been rejected by the scientific community. These ideas therefore do not constitute science, cannot be considered scientific education and therefore do not belong in the nation's science classrooms."
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's office wrote: "The (UK) Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to whether creationism and intelligent design have a place in science lessons. The [UK] Government is clear that creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science National Curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science."
The government will also be "publishing guidance for schools, on the way creationism and intelligent design relate to science teaching".
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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. | "Creationism and intelligent design have no place in the UK science curriculum" says UK Government | https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Creationism_and_intelligent_design_have_no_place_in_the_UK_science_curriculum%22_says_UK_Government |
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