Wikinews Reports

Baldwin, Seymour among attendees at Oscar viewing party held by Children Uniting Nations

2009-02-26T02:38:00.001-05:00

Sunday, Hollywood stars gathered in the Beverly Hilton ballroom in Beverly Hills, California, for the 10th Annual Children Uniting Nations Oscar viewing party for the 81st Academy Awards.

Wikinews reporter Ilya Haykinson attended the party; the two prior years were covered by outside volunteer photographers.

Click here to see pictures taken by the Wikinews reporter.

Psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block tells Wikinews about addiction to the Internet

2008-10-22T14:34:00.003-04:00

Dr Jerald Block is a psychiatrist based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Dr Block has attracted some media attention due to one particular theory of his - the idea that Internet addiction can be viewed as a distinct mental condition.

In an interview with Wikinews, Dr Block explains all about this theory, including what needs done about it, and the idea that withdrawal can cause a violent response from an adict.

>>>Click Here For The Full Exclusive Interview<<<

Church of Scientology falsely accuses internet group 'Anonymous' of 2007 school shooting

2008-10-21T18:32:00.004-04:00

>>Click here for the story you'll only see on Wikinews.<<
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Wikinews has learned that the Church of Scientology has begun to falsely accuse the internet protest group Anonymous of a 2007 school shooting in Finland.

The Church, on October 18, 2008 accused Anonymous of being involved in the November 2007 shooting at Jokela High School, in which a man named Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed nine people, and himself.

"Anonymous member Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed seven students, a nurse and a teacher at Joleka High School in Finland before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life," said the Church in the October 18 press release. On October 17, the President of the Church of Scientology in New York City, John Carmichael, also accused Anonymous of being behind the shooting.

>>Click here for the story you'll only see on Wikinews.

Oscar Diös tells Wikinews about his hostel within a Boeing 747

2008-10-16T02:35:00.001-04:00

Oscar Diös is a Swedish businessman looking to invest in a new project within the aviation community. He's already bought the venture's first airliner, a Boeing 747-200.

However, his intention is not to start an airline, and the jet is not intended for flight. Instead, he plans to convert the airliner into a unique business which he calls the 'Jumbo Hostel'. The 450-seat widebodied jetliner will have 25 rooms sleeping a total of 85 people, including some in a luxury suite in the cockpit, and will sit at the entrance to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport.

Built in 1976, the aircraft was an "old wreck" when acquired, according to Oscar. The aircraft was being offered for sale at Stolkholm-Arlanda after previous owner Air Transat became bankrupt. The airframe has then been completely gutted and is being fitted with a new, modernised interior. Each room contains three bunk beds. A cafe and a walkway accross the left wing are also featured.

The airliner will sit on a concrete platform at the airport's entrance, with its landing gear secured in steel cradles. It is intended to offer a good view of the day-to-day operation of the airport.
The hostel, which is to open in December, is aimed at families with children, aviation enthusiasts, low-budget travelers and people catching early morning flights who wish to leave it as late as possible before rising to get to check-in - unlike its competitors, the Jumbo Hostel is ten minutes walk from the check-in desks.

Wikinews conducted an email interview with Oscar Diös to talk about the hostel. The full exclusive interview is available below:

>>Click here for the full exclusive interview<<

Oprah Winfrey victim of 4chan.org death hoax

2008-09-21T03:13:00.003-04:00

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Internet rumors and also edits made here on Wikinews and Wikipedia, have been the victims of a recent hoax that the talk show host Oprah Winfrey has been found dead in her Chicago, Illinois home. The rumors are considered to be a hoax, connected with the online group known as Anonymous. Other reports say that the website 4chan.org is responsible for starting the rumor which began to spread quickly over the internet. The rumors started after a statement Winfrey made on a recent show, defending a United States Senate bill against pedophiles and child rapists saying a pedophile group has "9,000 penises" harming children. She was referring to a comment someone, left on her website claiming to be a pedophile. Wikinews can confirm through anonymous sources that the rumor was started by the group Anonymous and the website 4chan.

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Records reveal US Senator John Sununu had ties to convicted lobbyist

2008-09-09T16:44:00.001-04:00

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On October 24, 2001, convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and four Alexander Strategies Group associates donated $1,000 each to the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund. This political action committee in turn donated $3,000 to Representative John Sununu's primary campaign in New Hampshire on the same day, through the political action committee Team Sununu. The Greenberg Traurig lobbying company, which also employed Abramoff, gave $1000 to Team Sununu on December 16, 2002 for purposes of 'debt retirement.'

According to a report by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Jack Abramoff commonly told Native American tribal clients to divert their funds through the Alexander Strategies Group. Earlier that October, Jack Abramoff had met with the legislative director of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan. Representative John Sununu, now a sitting senator from New Hampshire, had served on the Appropriations Committee that helped draft the Department of Interior funding bill. In the section on Native American water claims, land claims, and miscellaneous payments, over $6,000,000 in funding was given to Michigan fishing in the Great Lakes.

>>Click here for the full story.

Alleged 'rights group' involved with removal of anti-Scientology videos from YouTube doesn't exist; says EFF‎

2008-09-09T06:12:00.000-04:00

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On September 4 and 5, at least 4,000 anti-Scientology videos were removed from the video sharing website, YouTube. The videos removed were done so by a single Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice by an alleged 'rights group' called the American Rights Counsel LLC, which Wikinews has confirmed, does not exist beyond the scope of those requests.

In an exclusive interview with Wikinews the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) acknowledged that they "don't know anything about" the Counsel and that any attempt to intentionally commit fraud by failing false DMCA requests, could lead to criminal charges.

"We don't know anything about this group. However, if these DMCA notices were sent improperly, there could be legal remedies. The particulars would depend on the particulars of the situation," Rebecca Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the EFF, told Wikinews.

>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

Alleged 'rights group' tries to have 4,000 anti-Scientology videos removed from YouTube

2008-09-07T17:29:00.002-04:00

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According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a rights group called the American Rights Counsel LLC has attempted to have at least 4,000 anti-Scientology videos removed from the video sharing website YouTube. Upon further investigation, Wikinews found that most videos and clips were added to YouTube by the copyright holders of the material; as DMCA requests are for the purposes of requesting removal where service providers host material that infringe on the copyright of the complainant, the merit of these requests remain questionable. It was also discovered that the alleged rights group does not exist as a physical entity. In an in-depth report, Wikinews investigated the incident and obtained exclusive information and interviews from individuals including Mark Bunker.

Within the past 24 hours, according to the EFF, the Counsel "sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology." A DMCA notice, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice means an attempt to limit the use of copyrighted material that is often infringing on the rights of an alleged copyright.

Wikinews made attempts to contact American Rights Counsel LLC for comment on the take-down notices, but was unable to obtain contact details for the alleged organisation. One post on a YouTube discussion page related to the organization states that they "do not appear to exist outside of these claims on YouTube." Wikinews contacted YouTube several times asking them if they have a process of verifying DMCA requests from individuals or entities claiming copyright infringement, but when they responded, they directed Wikinews to their terms of service saying, "item 8 addresses the DMCA and 8 B addresses counter-notice procedures."

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

Sinkhole reported in Buffalo, New York

2008-09-02T19:28:00.001-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – Officials in Buffalo, New York have closed a portion of a downtown street after a sinkhole was reported. At approximately 4:20 p.m. (Eastern time) Washington street between E. Eagle and Clinton was closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Wikinews was on scene and obtained exclusive photos and statements.

City officials say the sinkhole is located in an area under the road where a tunnel, about 40 feet wide, connects two buildings, formerly the AM&A's warehouse and department store which is now abandoned. It was first reported last week when portions of the blacktop were seen caving in near the sidewalks. When city engineers examined the holes, they found it to span the entire width of the street and nearly a half the block's length with the hole being nearly 15 feet deep. Officials say the only thing holding up the road, is the thin layer of concrete and asphalt that make up the road's surface.

>>Click here for the full story and exclusive photos.

News agencies suggest campaign operative for Republican Party edited article on vice presidential nominee

2008-09-01T14:45:00.008-04:00

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Multiple news agencies, including the New York Times and CNET yesterday suggested that a campaign operative for Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, worked on the Wikipedia article on her in the 24 hours before the vice presidential candidate was announced. After seeing these allegations, Wikinews decided to investigate the claim further.

The user who allegedly added the content on Wikipedia was known as Young Trigg, and Wikinews has learned that the account was created at exactly 08:02 UTC on August 28. Just eight minutes after the user made their first edit to Wikipedia. In this first edit the user said that Palin "briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations, while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart".

In the second edit Palin and her family were described as "avid outdoors enthusiasts." This edit also said that "Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at three am to hunt moose before school, and the family would regularly run 5k and 10k races".

Young Trigg made a total of 43 contributions and announced they would retire from Wikipedia at 07:58 UTC on August 31. In addition to editing the article on Sarah Palin, the user also gave an anonymously contributed to Wikipedia to say that Palin was the VP nominee before the official announcement

This unusual editing pattern aroused some suspicion among other editors of Wikipedia. One of these editors is Justen Deal, who told Young Trigg that "some of yours edits may have affected the article in such a way so as to reflect more favorably on the subject of the article."

>>Click here for the full story.

Australian school at centre of child-sex allegations pulls newsletter mentioning "Penthouse" as recommended reading

2008-08-28T00:15:00.001-04:00

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The school at the center of child-sex allegations, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia has removed a newsletter recommending Penthouse magazine as recommended reading for teenage boys. On the schools website, the newsletter has been replaced by a copy which omits these comments.

In the same newsletter, principal of the college John Edwards informs the school community that The Daily Telegraph had contacted him regarding sex abuse allegations.

The controversial comments were made by Ian MacDougall, a HSIE teacher. When asked what book he recommends every teenage boy read, he responded "Besides 'PeCENSOREDse' - any book that stirs the imagination/concious".

A parent who does not wish to be named told Wikinews she took the comment to mean Penthouse magazine.

Click here for the full story.

Staffs for US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama caught making questionable edits to Wikipedia

2008-08-25T20:14:00.001-04:00

>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

Wikinews has learned through an investigation that the staffs for 2008 United States presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have been spending some of their time making questionable edits to Wikipedia, the open content, online encyclopedia. The investigation also found that Obama's campaign staff seems to be removing more questionable edits more often than they are making them. McCain's campaign staff favored less, in most cases removing unflattering information regarding certain articles.

While using the online internet tool Wikiscanner, Wikinews was able to determine the Internet Protocol Address range for the campaign headquarters for Obama, Obama For America and McCain, mccain08hq.com. After determining the ranges, we were able determine the individual IP addresses used to edit Wikipedia and cross reference them to current edits as early as August of this year for both campaigns.

>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

Pastor Michael Guglielmucci admits his cancer was a hoax; Videos being removed from YouTube

2008-08-24T20:32:00.001-04:00

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Christian Pastor for the Planetshakers youth movement in Australia Michael Guglielmucci has admitted that his cancer is a hoax. Wikinews has also learned that one of the churches he preached at has had videos showing his claims of cancer removed from YouTube, claiming copyright infringement. He has also admitted to being addicted to pornography for over 16 years.

>>Click here for the full story.

Wikinews investigates claim McCain plagiarized speech from Wikipedia

2008-08-23T20:11:00.001-04:00

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On August 11, US Senator and 2008 presidential republican candidate John McCain gave a speech regarding the crisis between Georgia and Russia. Following the speech, a regular Wikipedia editor noticed that his speech was very similar to an article on Wikipedia also regarding the crisis, in what could be considered plagiarism. Wikinews was able to talk to that editor about how he found out about the similarities and what he did in response. Wikinews also took a deeper look at the claim and investigated further.

While reading the first few paragraphs, the Wikipedia editor Killing Vector, who wishes to be called by his contributor name in fear of retribution for coming forward with the claim, noticed a striking similarity to McCain's speech and the Wikipedia article on the country of Georgia. Not only did he notice the similarities, but after reading through the article's edit history, 'Killing Vector' noticed that his speech might have been lifted from Wikipedia, with some of the material in McCain's speech dating prior to the start of the Georgian and Russian crisis.

>>Click here here for the full article.

Chloroform spill forces evacuation of building at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York

2008-08-11T09:27:00.001-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – The Buffalo Fire Department and Police were called to a hazmat situation at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York after security reported that a one gallon container containing chloroform broke, spilling about a pint onto the floor of the college's science building.

Firefighters believe the container was knocked over while someone from maintenance was cleaning the floors. There are no reports of injuries.

Chloroform, developed in the 1800s, is used in creating Chlorodifluoromethane, or R-22 which is mainly used in air conditionings. It is also used in scientific experiments to tranquilize mosquitoes and can be used to tranquilize humans. It is also considered a hazardous material and environmentally unsafe.

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Searching for asteroids, extraterrestrial life a little more rocky: Budget cuts threaten to close Arecibo, world's largest radio telescope

2008-07-17T22:48:00.002-04:00

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For nearly half a century the world's largest telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, has been observing the our solar system and the universe around it. Completed by Cornell University along with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1963, Arecibo's enormous size gives it the ability to collect more light than any other telescope, allowing it to observe objects that are too faint for other radio telescopes to see. Its main purposes are radio astronomy, aeronomy and radar astronomy, but is probably most famous for its continuing use to search for and communicate with extraterrestrial life outside our solar system and beyond.

Now Arecibo is facing severe budget cuts which could ultimately close the facility. In an in depth exclusive report, Wikinews examined how much the observatory's budget was at risk and what the possible outcomes could be for the programs currently relying on Arecibo as their main research tool. Wikinews also spoke to several individuals closely affiliated with projects and facilities who use significant time at the observatory.

Currently, the NSF funds the operations of Arecibo with just over US$10 million every year. By 2011 they plan to drastically cut that funding to only $4 million a year, nearly 65% less than the current budget. To counter that loss, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would authorize NASA to spend at least 2 million dollars of their nearly $21 billion budget to fund portions of Arecibo until 2009. But that still leaves more than half of the loss to be recovered, and if something isn't done soon the facility will be closed by 2011 — or sooner if additional cuts are made.

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE report.

Chinese Wikipedia unblocked by government

2008-07-04T11:09:00.002-04:00

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According to reports, the government of China has stopped restricting access to the English version of the Chinese Wikipedia.

The report originated on the Wikimedia Foundation's mailing list, although other sites have now covered the development. Wikinews has confirmed that the reports are accurate through discussion with people attempting to access Wikipedia from China.

Despite the report, there are still some issues with accessing the site according. Sources tell Wikinews that although the English version is unblocked, the Chinese version still remains blocked, or hard to access in many parts of the country. This comes after the Chinese unblocking of the all other language variations of Wikipedia few moths ago.

Click here for the full story.

Libel case against Wikimedia Foundation dismissed

2008-07-01T19:46:00.003-04:00

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*Image copyright Wikimedia Foundation. All rights reserved.

Wikinews has has confirmed through several sources that a lawsuit filed against the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, by the 'Barbara Bauer Literacy Agency' has been dismissed. As a result of the associated conflict, edits pertaining to Bauer on Wikipedia were deleted and, following the commencement of legal proceedings, Wikinews exclusively obtained the offending texts and edits.

At the start of the court action, Wikimedia asked the court to dismiss the case. "Wikimedia asks the Court to dismiss the claims against it, with prejudice. The claims against Wikimedia are frivolous because they are barred as a matter of law by the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230( c), "Section 230" or the "CDA"), by the First Amendment, and by New Jersey law. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia written by its users, the content of which can be created, edited, or removed by anyone. The claims arise from statements made on numerous Internet websites, which Plaintiffs assert describe them as being among the "20 Worst Literary Agents" and having "no...significant track record of sales to commercial (advance paying) published" states the motion filed in Superior Court of New Jersey, Monmouth County," said the organization.

Before the case started, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issued a press release that defends against a suit Bauer filed against Wikimedia which states that contributors on Wikipedia posted "libel statements" against Bauer that labeled her as number three on a list of twenty people grouped as the "worst" publishing agents, and included allegations that she had "no documented sales" through her firm. Complaints filed against her and her firm state that Bauer had a bad record when dealing with "commercial publishers,", and questioning her practice of, "charge[ing] in advance of making a sale, against the generally-accepted industry practice."

Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

City to sue owner of partially collapsed 19th century livery in Buffalo, New York

2008-06-24T19:01:00.004-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – Two weeks after a 19th century stable and livery on Jersey Street partially collapsed and caused 15 homes to be evacuated in Buffalo, New York, residents still do not have answers from the city despite a court order to work with them and come to an agreement on a way to save some or all of the building, Wikinews has learned. A rally was held at the stable's site where residents are hoping to bring more awareness to the situation and gain more support to save the building.

On June 11, a significant portion of the stable's right side wall collapsed into the yard of a resident's home. Authorities, including the Buffalo Fire Department were called to the scene to evaluate the collapse and evacuate 15 homes of residents surrounding the stable as a precautionary measure. The following day, the city ordered an emergency demolition on the building, which was stopped by a restraining order residents with Save The Livery (www.savethelivery.com) won on June 14. Two weeks later, five homes are still evacuated and residents don't know when they will be able to return.

On June 19, Judge Justice Christopher Burns of the New York State Supreme Court ordered a halt to the emergency demolition and ordered the city and residents to come to an agreement to save the building, or at least a significant portion of it. Despite a court date today, no agreement has yet been reached between the two parties.

>>Click here for the full story.

NY State Supreme court halts demolition of 19th century Stable in Buffalo

2008-06-19T21:53:00.003-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – Judge Justice Christopher Burns of the New York State Supreme Court has ordered a halt to an emergency demolition on a 19th century stable and livery on 428-430 Jersey Street in Buffalo, New York that partially collapsed on Wednesday June 11, initially causing at least 15 homes to be evacuated. At least two homes remain evacuated.

Burns orders that both the city and the group Save The Livery (www.savethelivery.com) have to come to an agreement on what to do with the building, and try to work out ways of saving at least some portions if it including the facade, side walls and a lift tower. Save The Livery is comprised of concerned area residents who have grown to love the building's historic and unique character. On June 14, they won a temporary restraining order to stop demolition. The court ruled that the city was only allowed to remove material in immediate danger to residents and pedestrians, but stated that the demolition could only be performed with "hand tools." The court also ordered that any rubble which had fallen into neighboring yards when the building collapsed, to be removed.

"It is in the interest of the city to have a safe environment--but also important to maintain a sense of historical preservation," stated Burns in his ruling. Burns has given the sides until tomorrow (Friday June 20) to come to an agreement and has ordered both parties to return to court at 9:30 a.m. (eastern time) "sharp." Activists of Save The Livery urge supporters of the stable to "fill the courtroom" to show "continued and ongoing support." The hearing is scheduled to take place at 25 Delaware Avenue in the Supreme Court building, 3rd Floor, trial part 19.

On June 17, developer and CEO of Savarino Companies, Sam Savarino was at the site of the stable, discussing the building with residents and preservationists. In 2006, Savarino proposed and planned The Elmwood Village Hotel, a 'botique' hotel on the Southeast corner of Elmwood and Forest Avenues. The project was later withdrawn after residents filed a lawsuit against Savarino and the city. Wikinews extensively covered the story, and contacted Savarino for his professional opinion on the building.

>>Click here for the full story.

Wikinews interviews Finnish 'Rock 'N' Troll' band Kivimetsän Druidi

2008-06-18T14:11:00.002-04:00

Kivimetsän Druidi‏ is a Finnish female-fronted band formed in 2002 whose music is a fusion of symphonic, fantasy and folk metal, which the band's website dubs 'Rock 'N' Troll'.

Brothers Joni and Antti Koskinen formed the band in Kuovola with Joni playing guitar and growling while Antti played keyboard and sings backing vocals. They joined up with a female lead vocalist, lead and bass guitarists and a drummer. The brothers write the songs between them, with Antti doing the main body and Joni writing the lyrics.

Together the band recorded and released three demos and an EP, all released independently, across 2002-6. Across October and November 2007 they gained international attention by supporting well-known Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani across a large European tour.

On June 6 this year Kivimetsän Druidi‏ was announced to have been signed to Century Media Records in a global deal. The band have now entered Noice Camp studio in Turku to record their debut, with a planned release date in October. This summer the only performances will be at a handful of festivals while the band works on their new album, but after that is released a major tour will follow to support it. The band say they are "extremely pleased" with the deal.

Wikinews was able to discuss these events and what the future holds for the band with the Koskinen brothers and female vocalist Leena-Maria Hovila, who also writes the vocal melodies in an exclusive interview, which is published below for the first time.

>>Click here for the full exclusive interview!!<<

Temporary restraining order stops demolition of partially collapsed building in Buffalo, New York

2008-06-15T11:54:00.002-04:00

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE report.

Buffalo, New York – In an exclusive report, Wikinews has learned that a restraining order won area residents has temporarily stopped the emergency demolition of a three story building which partially collapsed on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 causing at least 15 homes to be evacuated in Buffalo, New York.

During the early afternoon hours on June 11, the Buffalo Fire Department was called to scene at 428 Jersey Avenue after residents called 9-1-1 stating that part of a building had collapsed. A large portion of a former livery and stable had collapsed into the yards of at least four houses that surround the stable. Some of the bricks landed inside the building, while some fell into the yards of some houses behind homes on Richmond Avenue, leaving a 'V' shape.

According to savethelivery.com, a website set up and dedicated to "saving part of this historic structure", the restraining order was granted on Saturday, forcing demolition crews to halt their work. The site also states that court papers will be filed on Monday in an attempt to hold the owner Bob Freudenheim responsible for the damage done to the building, and surrounding properties. The site states that Freudenheim has neglected the building for "the last twenty years."

"We are an outraged and responsibly concerned group of neighbors and citizens who have rallied to oppose the impending demolition of the historic White Brothers Livery and Boarding Stable at 428 Jersey Street, just west of Richmond Avenue," says the site's mission statement. They seek to evaluate all options to saving the building before demolishing it, find immediate support to stop any further collapse, hold Freudenheim personally responsible for "endangering the public safety, and compensation of the city and neighbors for expenses incurred by being displaced from their homes." They also want the city to personally inspect any and all properties he owns and for him to surrender the stable to an interested party who would restore it.

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE report.

Surprise demolition of partially collapsed building in Buffalo, New York met with opposition

2008-06-13T22:47:00.002-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – Wikinews has learned that, in a surprising turn of events, the city of Buffalo located in New York, has ordered and begun an emergency demolition on a three story 19th century stable which partially collapsed on Wednesday June 11 causing at least five homes to be evacuated. Residents are not happy, and despite the short notice of the demolition, nearly 30 people showed up to protest it. Demolition was not supposed to begin until Monday June 16.

At about 2:30 p.m. (eastern time) on June 13, demolition crew arrived at the stable located at 428 Jersey Avenue and began to unload heavy equipment which will be used to demolish the building. This came as a surprise to residents, as demolition was not supposed to start until Monday June 16.

During the early afternoon hours on June 11, the Buffalo Fire Department was called to scene after residents called 9-1-1 stating that part of the building had collapsed. Material from the building fell into the yards of at least three neighboring houses. Some of the bricks landed inside the building, while some fell into the yards of some houses behind homes on Richmond Avenue, leaving a 'V' shape.

At about 3:30 p.m. crews began to demolish a small portion of the stable located behind Joe Murray's home, a resident who lives behind a portion of the building on Jersey and Richmond avenues. While demolition was taking place, the section collapsed into Murray's backyard, prompting a call to police. Some residents who own home surrounding the building were inside Murray's house holding a neighborhood meeting when demolition began. No one was injured when the section collapsed.

>>Click here for the full story.

Partially collapsed building in Buffalo, New York likely to be demolished

2008-06-12T21:10:00.001-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – Reports say that a large three-story stable which partially collapsed in Buffalo, New York on June 11, and caused as many as five home to be evacuated, is likely to be demolished.

During the early afternoon hours on June 11, the Buffalo Fire Department was called to 428 Jersey Avenue after residents called 911 stating that part of the building had collapsed. Material from the building fell into the yards of at least three neighboring houses. Some of the bricks landed inside the building, while some fell into the yards of some houses behind homes on Richmond Avenue, leaving a 'V' shape.

The city's preservation board held an emergency meeting today to discuss the issue. Wikinews has learned that the owner of the building, Bob Freudenheim, gave the city permission to demolish the building because he would not be "rehabilitating the building anytime soon." Freudenheim was part-owner of the Hotel Lenox at 140 North Street in Buffalo and was also an advocate to stop the ''Elmwood Village Hotel'' from being built on the corners of Forest and Elmwood Avenues in 2006 and 2007, which ''Wikinews'' extensively covered. He also financially supported a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the hotel from being built. Though it is not known exactly how long Freudenheim has owned the stable, Wikinews has learned that he was the owner while fighting to stop the hotel from being built.

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Residents evacuated after partial building collapse in Buffalo, New York

2008-06-11T20:12:00.002-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – At least 2 homes have been evacuated, and at least 14 others are on standby to evacuate in Buffalo, New York after a very large three story building partially collapsed on the city's West Side.

According to the Buffalo Fire Department, the number four side of an old horse stable 428 Jersey Street off Richmond avenue, collapsed from the roof line half way down the side and into the yards of at least three houses surrounding the building. Some of the bricks landed inside the building, while some fell into the yards of some houses behind homes on Richmond, leaving a 'V' shape.

"[The building] is well worth the designation" as a historical landmark, states Tim Tielman, of the Buffalo Preservation Board. Tielman states that he will likely bring the incident before the board as early as Thursday June 12 to discuss the issue.

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Buffalo, New York warehouse fire injures 12 firefighters

2008-06-02T20:48:00.002-04:00

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Buffalo, New York – 12 firefighters in Buffalo, New York, United States have been taken to the hospital and are being treated for smoke and chemical inhalation after a massive fire broke out at a warehouse on Buffalo's west side early this morning. At least three fire companies are battling the blaze, which engulfed the entire warehouse sending a plume of smoke into the air which could be seen for several miles and at one point, darkened the sky. All 12 firefighters are being treated at Erie County Medical Center, but their conditions are not known.

The fire started at the Leisure Living Pool Supplies warehouse at 1130 Niagara street between West Ferry and Albany streets behind the Rich Products building at around 10:30 a.m. EDT (UTC-4). Firefighters worked to put the fire under control just before 12:00 p.m., but wind off Lake Erie reignited the fire at around 3:00 p.m. At around 7:00 p.m., most of the blaze was under control, but smoke could still be seen coming from the building. All employees from both Rich's and the chemical company have been sent home for the day and made it out safely.

Officials have urged all residents near the blaze to stay indoors and to shut all windows and doors due to the smoke which has been blowing close to the ground. At least one civilian who was inside a park at the foot of Ferry, was also taken to the hospital for smoke and chemical inhalation. Officials were able to evacuate the park and no other injuries were reported. At one point, the sun was blocked by the black smoke rising from the building.

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Controversial development training cited in religious discrimination lawsuits

2008-05-23T10:25:00.003-04:00

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A controversial development training course called "Landmark Forum" is cited in religious discrimination lawsuits in United States federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based for-profit training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training "est" which was developed by Werner Erhard, and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor. The sperm bank and surrogacy company Los Angeles-based Growing Generations is named as a defendant in the New York lawsuit, and the Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats is a defendant in the Washington, D.C. case.

In separate lawsuits filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York, and in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., former employees are suing their employers for monetary damages and claiming religious discrimination after their employers allegedly mandated that they attend courses at Landmark Education.

This is not the first time employees have sued claiming mandatory attendance at "Forum" workshops violated their civil rights. In a lawsuit filed in December 1988 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, eight employees of DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur, Georgia sued their employer claiming their religious freedom and civil rights were violated when they were allegedly coerced into attending "Forum" training sessions.

Landmark Education itself has come under scrutiny for its controversial labor practices. The company has been investigated by the United States Department of Labor in separate investigations originating out of California, Colorado, and Texas. Investigations focused on the heavy reliance of unpaid labor in the company's workforce, which Landmark Education calls "assistants" and deems volunteers. Government labor inspectors in France have also investigated Landmark Education for its employment practices and use of unpaid labor.

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Asbestos controversy aboard Scientology ship Freewinds

2008-05-16T07:15:00.005-04:00

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Controversy has arisen over the reported presence of blue asbestos on the MV Freewinds, a cruise ship owned by the Church of Scientology. According to the Saint Martin newspaper The Daily Herald and the shipping news journal Lloyd's List, the Freewinds was sealed in April and local public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao where the ship is docked began an investigation into the presence of asbestos dust on the ship.

Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft supervised work on the ship in 1987, and attested to the presence of blue asbestos on the Freewinds in an affidavit posted to the Internet in 2001. Woodcraft, a licensed architect by profession, gave a statement to Wikinews and commented on the recent events.

>>Click here for the full story.

University hosting panel continues discussion on Wikipedia ethics without Wikimedia

2008-05-15T15:03:00.003-04:00

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Wikinews has learned that the Wikimedia Foundation has decided not to participate in a panel discussion that is to take place at Santa Clara University in California. The discussion, which is titled 'The World that Wikipedia Made,' was to be based on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and ethics involved in the editing of the website. It is the ninth such meeting in a series on technology, ethics, and law and is taking place today.

In an e-mail to Wikinews, Miriam Schulman the communications director for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University which is to host the discussion, states that Mike Godwin, legal counsel for the Foundation, will not be speaking during the discussion as was originally planned.

According to Schulman, the Foundation canceled Godwin's scheduled appearance just one week ago and has decided not to have anyone from the foundation replace him. Valleywag, a gossip website about technology, recently reported that Godwin was not attending due to a "groundswell of criticism of Wikipedia," something Schulman denies.

"I don't want to speak for Mr. Godwin or WikiMedia, but someone else made an incorrect assumption about this, so let me clarify that in our understanding, the problem was never with the composition of the panel. Mike Godwin, General Counsel of Wikimedia, was scheduled to participate in the panel, 'The World that Wikipedia Made,' on May 15. Last week, Mr. Godwin informed us that he would not participate, and subsequent discussions with Wikimedia Foundation indicated that they would not designate a replacement speaker," stated Schulman to Wikinews.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.

Wikimedia Foundation receives copyright infringement claim from Mormon Church

2008-05-13T18:55:00.002-04:00

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The Wikimedia Foundation has received a copyright infringement claim from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. The infringement claim is in reference to a URL used as a source in a Wikinews article about Mormon Church documents leaked to the website Wikileaks, titled "Copy of handbook for leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obtained by Wikinews". The URL was originally cited as a link in the sources subsection of the article. The Wikimedia Foundation is a donor-supported non-profit organization which runs Wikipedia and Wikinews. This is the first time that the Wikimedia Foundation has received a copyright infringement claim regarding an article published by Wikinews.

The Wikinews article, originally published on April 19, described material in the Church Handbook of Instructions. The work is a two-volume book of policies and is a guide for leaders of the Mormon Church. Wikinews obtained the Church Handbook of Instructions from Wikileaks, a whistleblower website which publishes anonymous submissions of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of its contributors. Wikileaks describes the material as significant because "...the book is strictly confidential among the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka LDS in short form) bishops and stake presidents and it reveal [sic] the procedure of handling confidential matters related to tithing payment, excommunication, baptism and doctrine teaching (indoctrination)."

>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

'Suspicious package' causes closure of busy street in Buffalo, New York

2008-05-05T22:44:00.002-04:00

>>Click here for the full Special Report.

Buffalo, New York – Early Cinco De Mayo celebrations were interrupted after a suspicious package caused the closure of a busy street in Buffalo, New York's Allentown District. For nearly three hours on Monday May 5, 2008 a busy street, popular with bars and hotels, was shut down while authorities examined the package.

According to Buffalo Police spokesman Mike DeGeorge, workers in the offices on the 500 block of Delaware Avenue witnessed a suspicious person placing a suspicious package inside a United Parcel Service (UPS) drop box at around 4:30 p.m. EDT (UTC-4).

"It is my understanding that at about 4:30 this afternoon, a call went out for a suspicious person. Police responded and it appears there may have been a suspicious individual who was acting somewhat suspicious when he threw or tossed a package into a UPS box," DeGeorge stated to reporters.

"The individual had a package under his jacket which tipped off the person as being suspicious. He dropped the package into the [box], and made his way out to Delaware Ave. towards Allen," stated Buffalo Police Lt., K Szyszkowski.

When police arrived on scene, they evacuated the offices at 570 and the New York State Health Department building at 584 Delaware Avenue, while the Erie County Bomb Squad was called in to examine the drop box and the packages. The street between Allen and North was shut down to traffic while police secured the scene. When Wikinews freelance reporter Jason Safoutin arrived on scene, at least 20 people were standing outside the buildings, most of whom appeared to be office employees.

>>Click here for the full Special Report.

US Dept of Justice IP address blocked after 'vandalism' edits to Wikipedia

2008-04-29T06:53:00.002-04:00

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Wikinews has learned that a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) IP Address has been blocked on Wikipedia after making edits to an article which were considered "vandalism". In two separate instances, the IP address from the DOJ removed information from the Wikipedia article about the organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), regarding an attempt by the organization to secretly gain influence on the site. The IP address has been confirmed by Wikinews to be registered and used by the DOJ located in Washington, D.C.

On April 21, Electronic Intifada published a report based on leaked emails written between CAMERA and Wikipedia contributors who are allegedly planning to gain influence on the online encyclopedia. Information about CAMERA's campaign to influence Wikipedia was first added to the site's article about the organization on April 21 by user 'Bangpound', who cited the Electronic Intifada article.

According to the edit history on the Wikipedia article CAMERA, the entire subsection relating to this controversy was removed by the IP address 149.101.1.130, which is hosted by 'wdcsun30.usdoj.gov' and is used by the DOJ. The IP address removed information regarding CAMERA's plan to "cooperate with prominent Wikipedia editors to promote a Zionist viewpoint and oppose pro-Arab viewpoints on Wikipedia" at least two separate times, on April 24 and April 25.

The IP address belonging to the DOJ also made edits identified as vandalism to the Wikipedia articles Tracy Jordan, Roger Ebert, and James E. Akins. After several warnings on the IP address's "talk page", the IP address was blocked for four days for "repeated vandalism." Several hours prior to the DOJ edits, an IP address also from Washington D.C., 71.178.102.65, removed the same information. Wikinews can confirm the IP address is located in Washington D.C. and belongs to Verizon.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.

Crimes on Wikipedia: A Wikinews interview

2008-04-25T14:33:00.002-04:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.
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Wikinews interviewed Wikipedia administrator John Reaves, the administrator who contacted police in Los Angeles about the threats made on Wikipedia.

A 15-year-old boy, arrested last Friday in conjunction with criminal threats made on Wikipedia, was charged Thursday with seven felonies in Pomona Juvenile Court in Pomona, California. Prosecutors stated that the teen posted two threats on Wikipedia, saying that six named students as well as members of his school's badminton team would be shot. The court arraignment had initially been set for Tuesday, but was continued until Thursday. Wikinews interviewed the Wikipedia administrator who contacted police after the threats had been made on the site.

Though officials had said the boy made a full confession that he had made threats to other students via the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, he denied the charges at the Thursday court petition. The court ordered that he remain detained pending a May 9 scheduled appearance before Pomona Juvenile Court. He has remained in custody since his arrest.

The threats were made via two separate edits to the Wikipedia article about Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, California on April 16. Wikipedia administrators were made aware of the threats in a post to the "Administrators' noticeboard" on April 16 by Wikipedia admin Dreadstar. Another Wikipedia administrator, John Reaves, contacted the police in Los Angeles, California, and helped them work with the Internet service provider to find more information on the IP address that made the threat. A third Wikipedia administrator, Persian Poet Gal, removed the threats from the edit history of the article after finding out that the student had been arrested.

Students' backpacks were searched prior to entering Glen A. Wilson High School on April 17 and all after-school activities were canceled that day. All classes were canceled April 18, and classes resumed on Monday.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

Semi truck crashes into viaduct in Buffalo, New York

2008-04-23T00:23:00.002-04:00

Wikinews.org - According to police in Buffalo, New York, no one was injured after a semi truck carrying paper from Ontario, Canada hit a railroad viaduct, tearing the truck in half.

At approximately 11:00 p.m. (eastern time) on April 21, an unidentified man driving the truck westbound on Walden Avenue between Wasmuth and Roetzer streets hit the viaduct which tore his truck in half sending debris and cargo over most of the road.

Police describe the truck's cabin as a "can of sardines."

"He made it all the way through, but his truck looks like a can of sardines," said officers on police radio communications who were on scene.

The driver was given a traffic citation and admits he did not notice signs posted along Walden which state the bridge's clearance.

The street and the viaduct remained closed into the early morning hours of Tuesday April 22. According to Don Poleto of the city's Public Works office, the bridge was not damaged.

Getting even with the law: Wikinews interviews New York City's 'Jimmy Justice'

2008-04-22T00:09:00.004-04:00

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A civilian known as 'Jimmy Justice' who resides in New York City (NYC), New York, the largest city in the United States, has been videotaping NYC police officers and city workers, breaking the law while on the job.

Since 2007, he claims to have caught "hundreds of officers and other city employees violating the law," and says he has them all on camera. He has posted his best confrontations with them to the video sharing website YouTube. As a result, Justice states that he has been asked to do a United States television show and Wikinews got an exclusive interview with him. For protection, Justice wished not to be called by his real name in fear of police retaliation.

Last year, Justice videotaped a police officer parking in front of a fire hydrant, but has only recently gained attention on social networking news sites such as Digg and reddit.com. So Wikinews contacted Mr. Justice, known as JimmyJustice4753 on YouTube, for an exclusive interview to find out what caused him to get revenge on the law.

On June 30, 2007, Justice caught officer E. Anderson of the NYPD, traffic division, parking directly in front of a fire hydrant while she went inside a restaurant to take a 15 minute lunch break.

Since 2007 Justice says he has caught "hundreds of law enforcement officers and city officials" on "over 30 hours of video" violating laws from illegal U-turns in business districts to blocking bus stops and fire hydrants. Justice has only uploaded the "most colorful ones to YouTube" and recently, on April 8, 2008, Justice videotaped a NYPD tow truck officer blocking a hydrant while he also ate lunch inside a restaurant. According to NYC law, it is illegal for any vehicle to park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant and to park in front of a bus stop. It is also illegal for any person to make a U-turn in a business district. Fines for these violations can cost a driver up to US$115.00 for each violation occurred.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

Halema`uma`u crater erupts in Hawaii, USA

2008-04-19T22:12:00.002-04:00

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What began as a new gas vent (fumarole) in Halemaʻumaʻu crater sometime between March 10 and March 12 2008, has progressed to be the first explosive eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater since 1924, and the first lava erupted from the crater since 1982. The gases accompanying the eruption have prompted the Hawaiʻi Dept. of Health to announce no-burn days for the island sugar cane industries.

The March 19 explosion of the gas vent partially destroyed the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater Overlook. On April 9 2008, thousands of people were evacuated from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the nearby villages because sulfur dioxide reached critical level creating a very dangerous vog. The evacuation lasted two days. Two more explosions occurred on April 9 2008 and April 16 2008, the latter spreading a faintly pink ash on the overlook parking lot. Scientists think molten lava may reside at shallow depth within the new vent.

Halemaʻumaʻu is a pit crater located in the summit caldera, of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The roughly circular caldera measures 3x5 km (or 6x6 km, including the outermost ring faults). According to the traditions of the native people, Halemaʻumaʻu is home to Pele, Goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes.

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE pictures.

Copy of handbook for leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obtained by Wikinews

2008-04-19T16:31:00.003-04:00

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Wikinews has obtained a copy of the General Handbook for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The document, which was obtained via Wikileaks, was previously only made available to leaders of the church.

It provides information on a variety of different issues. One of these is receiving organ donations. “The decision to receive a donated organ should be made after receiving competent medical counsel and confirmation through prayer,” says the handbook.

The handbook also explicitly bans assisted suicide. It claims that “a person who participates in euthanasia, including so-called assisted suicide, violates the commandments of God.”

>>Click here for the full story.

California student arrested in criminal threats made on Wikipedia

2008-04-19T14:02:00.003-04:00

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A student at Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, California was arrested Friday on suspicion of making criminal threats against students. The student arrested, described as a male minor by Hacienda La Puente Unified School District police, confessed to making threats against students at the high school via a post to the Wikipedia article about the school.

The student was arrested on Friday at approximately 11:30 a.m. PST, according to a statement from Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Department of Police and Safety Chief Al Vasquez made to Pasadena Star-News. The student made "a complete confession", said Superintendent Barbara Nakaoka to the Whittier Daily News. She also said that "Our police officers are continuing to work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to determine the validity of the threat."

Sheriff's Lt. Victor Sotelo told the Whittier Daily News that the police filed a "detain petition" which recommends that the minor not be released to his parents, and be held at Juvenile Hall. The California Youth Authority will decide what happens next to the boy. Lt. Sotelo said that law enforcement searched the student's home and recovered evidence.
>Click here for the full story.

Eric Bogosian on writing and the creative urge

2008-04-19T13:18:00.001-04:00

Eric Bogosian at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
^{photo: David Shankbone.}

Eric Bogosian is one of America's great multi-dimensional talents. "There's sort of three different careers, and any one of them could exist by itself, on its own two feet. There was that solo stuff, and then I started writing plays in the late seventies." Although his work has spanned genres, most readers will recognize Bogosian for his acting, which has included a memorable performance in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry to co-writing and starring in the Oliver Stone movie Talk Radio (based upon his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play) to playing the bad guy in Under Siege 2 to his current role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Danny Ross. They may not know, however, that he had collaborated with Frank Zappa on a album, worked with Sonic Youth, and was a voice on Mike Judge's Beavis & Butthead Do America. He started one of New York City's largest dance companies, The Kitchen, which is still in existence. He starred alongside Val Kilmer in Wonderland and his play Talk Radio was recently revived on Broadway with Liev Schreiber in the role Bogosian wrote and made famous.

Currently at work on his third novel, tentatively titled The Artist, Bogosian spoke with David Shankbone about the craft of writing and his life as a creative.

GO HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW

YouTube accounts of Scientology critics suspended

2008-04-17T23:13:00.002-04:00

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Two well-known critics of Scientology have had their user accounts on the video sharing website YouTube suspended. The YouTube accounts of both Tory Christman and Mark Bunker were suspended this week. In an exclusive statement to Wikinews, YouTube explained why accounts are suspended, but did not specifically state why these particular accounts were suspended. Neither Christman nor Bunker received a notice or explanation from YouTube as to why their accounts were suspended.

On Tuesday April 15, Tory Christman a former Scientologist and volunteer for their Office of Special Affairs, and known as ToryMagoo44 on YouTube, had her account suspended for unknown reasons. On Wednesday, after complaints to YouTube from other YouTube users and from members of the group Anonymous, Christman's account was restored.

Wikinews confirmed Friday that Mark Bunker known as 'xenutv1' on YouTube, a television journalist and critic of Scientology, had his user account suspended. This is the second time that Bunker's account was suspended. He was formerly known as 'xenutv' when his account was suspended the first time.

"I want to see the complaint and on what grounds did YouTube suspend my account. I have done nothing on that account that would violate any of their terms and my videos and account should not have been pulled. The only caveat to this is my first account "XenuTV" was suspended a while back for a Steven Colbert video I had from Comedy Central. At that time I created XenuTV1 and according to YouTube's terms you can only have one account. Any time I have ever been asked to remove something that may violate their terms for copyright materials, I comply immediately. It would be wrong and a misuse of power to pull my account because of this lone loophole in their terms," said Bunker exclusively to Wikinews.

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story and interviews

Teräsbetoni frontman J. Ahola on representing Finland at Eurovision 2008 & more

2008-04-14T14:32:00.002-04:00

Teräsbetoni means "steel-reinforced concrete", and is also the name of a Finnish heavy metal band formed in 2002. Their music, which centres on an honourable warrior lifestyle or on metal itself, quickly became popular in 2003 on the Internet, resulting in a petition by fans being sent to several record labels demanding a recording deal. In late 2004 the band signed to Warner Music Finland, and the following year debut single Taivas lyö tulta rose to number one in the Finnish charts, and debut album Metallitotuus hit number two and went platinum, and has now sold about 47,000 copies.
The band, who sing exclusively in Finnish, have just released their third album, Myrskyntuoja. The lead single on this album is Missä miehet ratsastaa, which Teräsbetoni decided to enter in the Finnish selections for the 2008 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, where it was selected to go on to the semi-final in Belgrade, Serbia as Finland's representative this year. Although Finland has seen limited success in the contest, their only victory was with a comparable group. In 2006 hard rock band Lordi - whose monster costumes and pyrotechnic displays are famed - achieved a record 292 points in the final with Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Teräsbetoni's frontman, vocalist and bass guitarist Jarkko Ahola's fame extends beyond the band he heads. He also features in Finnish symphonic power metal cover supergroup Northern Kings, alongside Marco Hietala of Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto of Charon.
Wikinews was able to conduct an exclusive interview with Jarkko Ahola to discuss these various achievements. >> Click here for the full exclusive interview

Wikinews interviews team behind the 2,000th featured Wikipedia article

2008-04-13T15:28:00.003-04:00

>>Click here to read the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

This week saw the English-language version of Wikipedia, the collaboratively written online encyclopedia, reach 2,000 featured articles with the inclusion of the article El Señor Presidente. Featured articles (FAs) meet Wikipedia's highest standards for quality, accuracy, neutrality, completeness, and style, and thus are considered the best articles on Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia team that carries out the assessment and quality control before conferring the status of featured articles promoted five articles to FA status at the same time: Walter de Coventre, Maximian, El Señor Presidente, Lord of the Universe, and Red-billed Chough. With five promoted at the same time, conferring the status of 2,000th on one is an arbitrary decision and in some respects any of these articles could actually make a claim to the honour.

The article El Señor Presidente was created and developed by a University of British Columbia class, "Murder, Madness, and Mayhem: Latin American Literature in Translation". While an important milestone, the 2,000th featured article is also symbolic of Wikipedia's growing role in the 21st century learning arena.

The professor of the class, Jon Beasley-Murray, began using Wikipedia as a collaborative space where his students could both do coursework and provide a type of virtual public service. Thus, he created a Wikipedia project, Murder Madness and Mayhem, that focussed on creating articles relating to the Latin American literature covered in his class. Not surprisingly, El Señor Presidente is considered one of the most important books in Latin American literature, written by Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan writer, Miguel Ángel Asturias.

The Wikinews team contacted Prof. Beasley-Murray, who agreed to be interviewed for this story. His responses can be found below. Included are sections soliciting responses from two students who took the class and helped create and bring El Señor Presidente to Feature Article status. Thus far the project has created seven good articles in addition to the 2,000th featured article.

>>Click here to read the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

Authorities in Belgium raid Church of Scientology

2008-04-12T02:24:00.003-04:00

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According to reports, authorities in Belgium have seized documents, financial records and computer equipment form the local branch of the Church of Scientology (Church) and then sealed off the building.

The reports state that the Church in Belgium is being investigated for extortion and fraud for allegedly posting false job openings in newspapers and then attempting to get those who applied to join the Church. Several ex-members of the Church has also reportedly approached authorities with accusations of intimidation and extortion.

Huge interest brings Wikileaks offline

2008-03-29T01:55:00.003-04:00

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The Wikileaks website, which publishes sensitive and censored material submitted by anonymous contributors, has experienced unprecedented levels of Internet traffic today through public interest. This interest has caused the website's servers to be unable to meet the enormous demand of over 164 gigabytes of download traffic within twenty-four hours, leading the site to be temporarily inaccessible.

The film Fitna, directed and produced by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, has caused controversy for its presentation of Wilders' negative view of Islam as being committed to world domination and acts of terrorism. A trailer for the film was widely uploaded to many video sharing sites, including YouTube and Google Video; this met with anger from Islamic nations, the debacle culminating in Pakistan's government ordering the nation's internet service providers to block the YouTube site. This caused YouTube to be inaccessible to residents of other countries whose Internet access involved routing through Pakistan. Ultimately, YouTube acquiesced to the demands made by Pakistan and other organisations, in exchange for access being restored. The site LiveLeak originally hosted a copy of the trailer, which has now been replaced with a video message stating that the lives of their staff have been put at risk due to hosting it.

As a consequence of this censorship, Wikileaks mirrored the trailer, receiving heavy access traffic through hosting one of the few copies remaining on the Internet. Wikinews has obtained an exclusive statement from a representative of Wikileaks, affirming that the site has not been taken off-line due to external pressure, and is instead suffering technical problems due to this high demand.

>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.

Popular soap opera 'The Young and the Restless' celebrates 35 years on the air

2008-03-26T22:12:00.001-04:00

The popular American soap opera The Young and the Restless, currently the reigning Emmy Award-winner for best daytime drama, celebrated 35 years on the air Wednesday.

The 35th anniversary also comes after the series, known colloquially as Y&R, marked its 1,000th straight week as the highest-rated soap opera in a daytime slot. In addition to keeping the #1 spot every week since December 1988, Y&R has also been the top-rated soap in the African-American demographic since 1991.

A trend-setter since the beginning, Y&R relied on character-driven storytelling, accentuated with understated sexuality from its cast, which at that time was mostly young, to bring in teenage and twentysomething viewers, which were ignored by soap producers and networks up to that time. These traits immediately set Y&R apart from other soap operas, and other soaps have since mimicked Y&R's formulaic approach to offering something for everyone, especially younger viewers.

Since premiering on March 26, 1973, Y&R has become a worldwide cultural institution in its own right; racking up an impressive 100 Emmy Awards between the writers, producers, cast and crew since 1974. The show has aired in over 100 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, and Turkey, and reaches a worldwide audience of ten million daily. So far-reaching was Y&R's appeal that Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci chose the serial's theme song as accompanying music to her floor exercises at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In Australia, where Y&R has aired since 1974, the show was canceled by the original network that aired it in 2007, prompting a widespread fan backlash in that country. It was eventually moved to a pay channel.

Over the past 35 years, countless characters, marriages, divorces, births, deaths, and every joy and trauma in between have visited the residents of Genoa City, where Y&R is based. To commemorate the milestone, Mike Halterman from Wikinews interviewed three actresses who have played long-running characters on Y&R, and asked them to share their memories. All three responded to questions about what being on Y&R means to them, what their favorite storylines were, what they perhaps would have wanted to do all over again, and what they'd love to tell their fans directly.

» Full story

Wikinews interviews organiser of New Zealand's Rock2Wgtn festival Phil Sprey

2008-03-26T18:33:00.002-04:00

Accross Easter weekend Wellington, New Zealand was host to Rock2Wgtn, an international two-day hard rock festival. Large crowds showed up Westpac Stadium to see the various acts. New Zealand has never seen an event of this kind before.
Day one featured three theatrical acts. Finnish band Lordi, known for their monster costumes, opened the night. They were followed by the US shock rocker Alice Cooper, whose storylined set included the horror theatrics regularly associated with him and a hanging stunt he recently restarted after a gallows collapse nearly killed him two decades ago. The night was headlined by the distinctively costumed band KISS, complete with their famed black-and-white makeup.
The first major act on the stage on day two was the American hard rock/glam metal band Poison. After Poison, British act Whitesnake took to the stage and performed their set to the crowd. British-born American rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who, as well as a solo career, fronts the world-famous Black Sabbath, was the second night's headline act.
The festival's entertainment did not stop at the six main acts. There was also support performances from three New Zealand bands - The Symphony of Screams, The Valves and Sonic Altar. Their sets were acopmanied by a special effects package from award-winning studio Weta Workshops, who are known for their work on movies such as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. This came in the form of a 'Drusila the Dragon', which rose up to a height of six foot and wigspan and moved for the audience, shining lasers from its eyes and breathing red smoke. Flame Fire Productions were hired to put on a fire show featurng several dancers alongside the performers. Also performing were six local guitarists and a group of 'zombie' cheerleaders.
Despite the crowds that flocked to the event, however, it has recently become apparant that financial trouble has hit the festival. Although figures remain to be confirmed, an estimated NZ$750,000 has been lost.
Wikinews secured an exclusive interview with Phil Sprey of Capital C Concerts, who organised the festival.

>> Click here to read the full exclusive interview

Wikinews interviews German music video director Uwe Flade

2008-03-26T14:35:00.002-04:00

Uwe Flade is a music video director from Germany. He has worked with numerous artists, including Depeche Mode, Rammstein, Apocalyptica, In Extremo, Nickelback, Franz Ferdinand and Tarja Turunen. He has now told Wikinews about his work and his all-star clientele.

>> Click here for the full exclusive interview

Church of Scientology's 'Operating Thetan' documents leaked online

2008-03-26T06:55:00.003-04:00

>>Click for the full special report.

Wikinews has obtained leaked 'Operating Thetan' (OT) documents of the Church of Scientology which were leaked via Wikileaks. Although some portions of the manual have been leaked previously, this is believed to be the first time the full unedited version has been leaked.

The 612 page manual for Scientologists and written by L. Ron Hubbard, contains instructions for the eight different Operating Thetan levels including 'clear' and OT8.

Most of the manual is typed from a computer, while the packet contains some hand written notes by Hubbard himself who also signed them. The manual also contains letters by Hubbard to individuals who have passed the according levels.

"A great many phenomena (strange things) can happen while doing these drills, if they are done honestly," Hubbard writes in regards to 'OT1.' Hubbard then goes on to explain in hand written notes, the 'drills' one must do in order to become 'OT1':

>>Click for the full special report.

'Big Brother' contestant Parker Somerville sounds off about the show and his aspirations

2008-03-25T21:18:00.002-04:00

In the past two months, Parker Somerville, a videographer for the website TMZ.com, transitioned from an average guy leading an ordinary life, to living in an extraordinary voyeuristic existence, and back again to the beginning. Simply put, it was a transition from reality to reality, with a two-week detour in reality television. Somerville was a former contestant on the CBS reality TV staple Big Brother, currently in its ninth installment.

Evicted on Day 14, Somerville hoped to have another chance to play the game, but came in second in the special "America's Choice" poll to bring back a former HouseGuest (the poll results were eventually not used at all and nobody was brought back). Now freed from a three-week sequester, Somerville was interviewed by Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman and he discussed his thoughts on Big Brother, how he and his fellow HouseGuests were portrayed and received, and what he plans to do now that his experience is, for the most part, over.

Somerville will return to Big Brother on finale night in five weeks. Please check your local listings for time and channel. Big Brother airs on CBS in the United States, Global in Canada, and E4 in the United Kingdom.

» Full story

Banned Scientology parody film 'The Profit' leaked on Web

2008-03-22T23:40:00.004-04:00

>>Click for the full story.

Copies of The Profit, a 2001 film blocked from distribution in the United States due to a court injunction, appeared on the Internet Friday on peer-to-peer file-sharing websites and on the video sharing site YouTube.

Directed by former film executive Peter N. Alexander, movie critics have characterized The Profit as a parody of Scientology and of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Alexander was a Scientologist for twenty years, and left the organization in 1997. The film was funded by Bob Minton, a former critic of Scientology who later signed an agreement with the Church of Scientology and has attempted to stop distribution of the film. Alexander has stated that the movie is based on his research into cults, and when asked by the St. Petersburg Times about parallels to Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard said: "I'll let you draw that conclusion ... I say it's entirely fictional."

The film was released in August 2001, and was shown at a movie theatre in Clearwater, Florida and at a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France. A Scientology spokesman gave a statement at the time saying "the movie is fiction and has nothing to do with Scientology", however the Church of Scientology later took legal action in an attempt to stop further distribution of the film. The Church of Scientology claimed that the film was intended to influence the jury pool in the wrongful death case of Scientology Lisa McPherson, who died under Scientology care in Clearwater, Florida. In April 2002, a Pinellas County, Florida judge issued a court order enjoining The Profit from worldwide distribution for an indefinite period.

>>Click for the full story.

Climate change impacts Wyoming

2008-03-18T22:42:00.007-04:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE Special Report.

Cheek numbing, eye watering winds whip across the plains of the Laramie Basin, Wyoming. The ground is yellow brown with patches of recalcitrant snow. Sheep Mountain is losing its winter coat. All normal affairs for March. The March edition of the Wyoming Basin Outlook Report, also reports, based on February accumulations, that Snow Water Equivalent is at 99% of average.

The SWE is a measure of the snow pack that feeds the streams, rivers and reservoirs that Wyoming, Nebraska and other states depend upon for water. Current averages are compared to the average SWE for 1971-2000. In recent years, snow pack in this region has been anything but normal.

The Outlook Reports are issued January to June. Since March 2000, only five of 46 months have been above normal. While many of the winter months have been near normal, June's snow pack is far below average. Even in 2006, the wettest year of the millenia, June snow pack was only 37% of the average.

In a Wikinews Exclusive and Special Report, several experts answered questions and gave their insight on whats happening in Wyoming.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE special report.

Woman in Buffalo, New York kidnapped

2008-03-17T14:22:00.003-04:00

>>Click Here For The Full EXCLUSIVE story

According to Buffalo, New York police radio communications, a woman only named as 'Hartwell,' was reported to have been kidnapped from the area of 1770 Hertel Avenue in Buffalo.

Police stated that she is scheduled to testify in court today against an unknown party and according to an individual who called 911, she was kidnapped by individuals affiliated with the unknown party.

Further communications said that she was kidnapped from near the Hertel location, then driven to the Peace Bridge. Police state that when they arrived on scene at the Hertel location, the individual who called 911 was receiving texts messages from Hartwell stating that they had already crossed the Bridge and made it into Canada.

Further communications stated that there is no description of the vehicle that took here and the suspects descriptions are also not known.

So far no amber alert has been issued regarding this incident.

>>Click Here For The Full EXCLUSIVE story

Protesters arrested at anti-Scientology event in Atlanta

2008-03-16T23:21:00.000-04:00

>>Click here for full story.

While protesting outside the Scientology Church of Georgia in Atlanta, two members of the group Anonymous were arrested by DeKalb County riot police while standing opposite the Church of Scientology-owned building.

The two protesters, who earlier on participated in the delivery of a 'global speech' collaboratively written and read by members of Anonymous at protests worldwide, were arrested are believed to have been charged by Dekalb police for protesting without a permit and causing 'offensive or hazardous conditions'. However, other members of Anonymous who took leading roles in arranging the protest are adamant that the Dekalb police had previously told them they did not need a permit to protest.

The arrests were filmed by other members of Anonymous who subsequently posted the videos onto popular video-sharing website YouTube. The videos show a very quick arrest in which the arresting officers did not read the Miranda rights of the protesters, which contrary to popular belief, is only required to be read before a police officer interviews someone in custody. This was confirmed by other members of the group who say they didn't hear their rights being read before they were lead away.

In other videos published on YouTube, the same members of Anonymous were shown thanking police for their work and offering them some of the cake members of Anonymous had brought to the protest, shortly before they were arrested.

>>Click here for full story.

Scientology protest group 'Anonymous' celebrates founder's birthday worldwide; At least three detained by police

2008-03-15T16:20:00.004-04:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story and photos from around the globe.

The Internet group Anonymous today held protests critical of the Church of Scientology.

The global protests started in Australia where several hundred protesters gathered at different locations for peaceful protests.

In a global speech, the internet protest movement said Scientology "betrayed the trust of its members, taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives." The protesters welcomed the public interest their protests have led to, and claimed they witnessed "an unprecedented flood of Scientologists [joining] us across the world to testify about these abuses." The group said it would continue with monthly actions.

At least three protesters were detained by police in Buffalo, New York and questioned after taking photographs and video of the Church from across the street. Police approached the three and began to "yell" at them. One protester was told by police that "the Church want you arrested. Now how am I going to avoid that." The protester then willingfully handed over his videotape of the church and asked not to be arrested. Subsequently all three were released without being charged. They were filming only the areas of the church that were visible from across the streets.

In a press statement from its European headquarters, Scientology accused the anonymous protesters of "hate speech and hate crimes", alleging that security measures were necessary because of death threats and bomb threats. This also makes the Church want to "identify members" of the group it brands as "cyber-terrorists".

Wikinews had correspondents in a number of protest locations to report on the protests.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story and photos from around the globe.

One year on: IFALPA's representative to ICAO, pilot and lawyer on ongoing prosecution of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 pilot

2008-03-12T16:10:00.002-04:00

Almost exactly one year ago, on March 7, Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashed during landing at Adisucipto International Airport, near Yogyakarta, after a scheduled domestic Indonesian passenger flight. 21 people - 16 Indonesians and five Australians - were killed when the Boeing 737-400 overshot the runway, crossed a road, struck an embankment and burst into flames in a rice paddy. Overall, the plane had traveled 252m beyond the extreme end of the runway.

The final report, released in October, blamed pilot error for the disaster. The report stated that the aircraft had aproached at a speed far esceeding that at which the wing flaps could properly operate, and attempted to execute a landing at 408 kph (254 mph), which is 160 kph (100 mph) above the safe speed. It also found that captain Marwoto Komar had ignored fifteen activations of the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) informing Mr Komar that the aircraft was flying at a speed beyond that at which it could safely land, but he failed to abort.

The local authorities have controversialy decided to prosecute Mr Komar. He is believed to be the first pilot to be prosecuted over an airliner accident in Indonesian history.

The issues thrown up by this ongoing case have now been exclusively commented on for Wikinews by Paul McCarthy. Mr McCarthy is the London-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA)'s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). He is both a pilot - as are all of IFALPA's roughly 100,000 members - and a lawyer, and is an acknowledged expert on issues concerning the criminal liability of pilots.

>>> Click here to read the full exclusive interview

Wikinews interviews U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney

2008-03-07T14:24:00.003-05:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Cynthia McKinney, one of the candidates for the Green Party nomination for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

McKinney is a former Democrat Congresswoman from Georgia. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 and held her seat for ten years until being defeated by Denise Majette in 2002. She was the first ever African American woman from her state to be elected to Congress.

We asked her why she made the recent switch to the Green Party. She replied, "Due to the importance of environmental issues, Green issues are the issues of today. The Ten Key Values of the Green Party stress us getting along with each other in harmony with the planet that gives us life."

When asked about how she would handle Iraq she replied, "I would instruct the Joint Chiefs to draw up a plan for the orderly withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country. I would dismantle our military bases in the area, and I would also demand that U.S. and other international corporations relinquish any claims to Iraqi oil or other resources and withdraw as well."

McKinney is running for president because, basically, she thinks that "it's time that the people win".

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview

Wikinews International: You report "The Ides of March" 'Anonymous' protest against Scientology

2008-03-05T15:15:00.002-05:00

That's right...we want you to be the reporter for the protest of "The Ides of March", 'Anonymous' VS. The Church of Scientology and to cover the celebrations of the Church's founder L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday.

Are you going to be in or near any of the following areas on March 15th 2008? If so, we want your pictures, your audio, video and interviews of the days protest:

Please add you name and information such as whether you plan to use video, audio, still photography, or all of the above by clicking here.

The protests are scheduled to take place on March 15 at 11:00 a.m. (YOUR local time) at any Church anywhere.

Van Canto's Stefan Schmidt on a capella metal, Wacken, Nightwish, piracy & more

2008-02-27T15:51:00.004-05:00

"Five singers, one drummer. No guitars, no bass, no keyboards but nevertheless an unbelievable melodic metal experience."
That's how the official website of van Canto describes the band. Hailing from Germany, van Canto are what is called an a capella metal band, the pioneers of this new genre.
The band released their debut, A Storm to Come, in December 2006. Exactly a year later, van Canto anounced a global signing to Gun Records/Sony BMG, and their debut was released worldwide on December 14.
Van Canto are now experiencing considerable success. They recently provided support for Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish, as well as receiving a slot at the internationally famous Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. The prestigious event sees them sharing the bill with acts such as Hatebreed, Sonata Arctica, As I Lay Dying, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Lordi and headline act Iron Maiden.
Van Canto's second album will be recorded accross this month and next, with famed producer Charlie Bauerfeind, although no release date has yet been confirmed.
In light of recent events, van Canto member and founder Stefan Schmidt has given the band's first interview in English, all previous interviews being in German or Italian.

>> Click here to read the interview

Wikinews exclusive interview: Drupal founder Dries Buytaert

2008-02-24T21:32:00.002-05:00

In the year 2000, Dries Buytaert created Drupal, a freely licensed and open source tool to manage websites, as a bulletin board for his college dorm. Since Dries released the software and a community of thousands of volunteer developers have added and improved modules, Drupal has grown immensely popular. Drupal won the overall Open CMS Award in 2007, and some speakers in Drupal's spacious developer's room at FOSDEM 2008 were dreaming aloud of its world domination.

Buytaert (now 29) just finished his doctoral thesis and has founded the start-up Acquia. The new company wants to become Drupal's best friend, with the help of an all-star team and US$7 million collected from venture capitalists. Wikinews reporter Michaël Laurent sat down with Dries in Brussels to discuss these recent exciting developments.

>> Click here to read the interview
>> Open software developers meet at FOSDEM 2008

Open software developers meet at FOSDEM 2008

2008-02-24T13:17:00.002-05:00

Hundreds of developers of freely licensed and open source software from all over Europe met in Brussels, Belgium this weekend for FOSDEM 2008. The 8th edition attracted considerably more visitors than previous editions, with visitors from Belgium and its neighbouring countries the Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, but also from other European countries and even from the United States.
During the two-day-long conference, presentations touched on programming languages, build systems, gaming (such as Battle for Wesnoth, Crystal Space, Globulation 2), packaging, virtualisation and web applications. The conference also has rooms were developers who usually work together via the internet can meet in real life and share thoughts on their projects; CentOS, Fedora, CrossDesktop, Drupal, GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, OpenSUSE and X.org had the biggest rooms this year. The corridors were filled with stands from organisations such as the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Free Knowledge Foundation, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenOffice.org, etc.
Since FOSDEM brings many European open software developers to Brussels, it also provides an important networking opportunity. FOSDEM kicks off Belgium-style on Friday with a beer event, but during the entire weekend several groups hold parties all over town. Wikinews reporters attended a barbecue hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Friday, were it interviewed EFF and Open Rights Group representatives on the upcoming E.U. proposal to extend copyright for performers to 95 years. Wikinews also interviewed Drupal founder and Acquia CTO Dries Buytaert about Drupal and how Acquia will relate to its developer community.

>> Full story

Wikinews interviews Jeff Jacobsen, creator of LisaMcPherson.org

2008-02-19T12:45:00.006-05:00

>>Read the interview here
On Sunday, Wikinews interviewed creator of memorial site LisaMcPherson.org, former Lisa McPherson Trust employee and long time Scientology critic Jeff Jacobsen.

LisaMcPherson.org is a memorial site created in 1997 containing information on her death and the resulting legal case against the Church of Scientology.

Lisa McPherson died in 1995 while in the care of the Church of Scientology. After a car accident, she became mentally unstable. Scientologists removed her from the hospital and placed her in the Introspection Rundown, she died 17 days later while still in care of the Church. She was used as an icon during Project Chanology, the protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. Protesters were pictured with signs that said "Remember Lisa McPherson" and "Ask Scientology Why Lisa McPherson Died", other protesters had posters with her picture on it.
>>Read the interview here

Part of facade crumbles at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Buffalo, New York

2008-02-18T11:31:00.001-05:00

>>Full Story.

Part of the facade at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum located at 220 North Street in Buffalo has crumbled causing bricks to fall into Elmwood Avenue.

At approximately 11:20 p.m. (eastern time) on Sunday night February 17, a call was placed into 911 stating that bricks from a wall, a nearly 40 foot section of the upper facade, were laying in the middle of Elmwood after falling off the building. The fire department had to shut down Elmwood from North Street to Allen at 11:30 p.m. until further notice due to the debris and risk to public safety.

No one was injured in the incident, but at least one parked car was damaged by falling bricks.

According to police, this is not the first time bricks have fallen off the building. Several people over the past year were reported to have been nearly hit by single bricks that have fallen off the building. No one has yet been injured.

Though no weather warnings have been issued for the City, winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour have been reported through the night. It is not known if the wind played a factor in the damage to the building.

City engineers were on scene discussing how to handle the situation and clean up what has already fallen.

The museum is the world's largest collection of documents which are owned privately. The Buffalo building was original a Church of Christ built in 1911.

>>Full Story.

Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'

2008-02-17T20:16:00.001-05:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

Television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker chatted online with Wikinews for nearly three hours. More than 120 people followed the interview live (many from Project Chanology), which makes this exclusive Wikinews interview is our most attended IRC interview to date.

Bunker started XenuTV in 1999 and began to make videos that he provided for the Lisa McPherson Trust. Bunker has been a critic of the Church of Scientology since 1997.

In 2006, he won a regional Emmy Award after he and KUSI-TV news reporter Lena Lewis produced a documentary news video on the issues with the United States - Mexico border with San Diego, California.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

'Top Model' winner Jaslene Gonzalez on her career and being a Latina role model

2008-02-14T04:40:00.004-05:00

In her inaugural interview, Wikinews' Sandra Ordonez talks with America's Next Top Model's first Puerto Rican winner, Jaslene Gonzalez, about her childhood, what makes her a strong individual, and what television show her abuela would want her to go on. This is also the first time one of our interviews can also be read in Spanish at Wikinoticias.
» Full story

David Shankbone interviews Billy West

2008-02-13T22:40:00.002-05:00

Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Pop Eye. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern's voice guru in the 1990's, you have heard him. West's talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons.

What is the fulcrum in Mr. West's life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father ("I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up."), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use ("There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.").

...	I’m telling you stuff that I never said to anybody...	...

If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West's own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband's abuse of young West. "I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it."

GO HERE TO READ DAVID SHANKBONE'S INTERVIEW WITH BILLY WEST.

Wikinews interviews Jeff Jacobson, creator of LisaMcPherson.org

2008-02-12T17:44:00.000-05:00

>>Click This Link To Post Your Questions
Wikinews is interviewing Jeff Jacobson, the creator of memorial and anti-Scientology website LisaMcPherson.org.

Problem is, we want you to add the questions so we can get the answers.
>>Click This Link To Post Your Questions

Final call for questions: Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'

2008-02-12T16:42:00.000-05:00

>>Click here to add questions

Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.

The deadline to ask questions is Friday February 15, 2008. The plan will be to conduct the interview on IRC in the channel #wikinews-interviews, on the freenode network (irc.freenode.net) with prepared questions. If there are not a lot of questions prepared, then the floor will be open to questioning by anyone attending the interview.

Please read the questions to make sure you don't ask the same one as someone else.

The date of the interview is scheduled to take place on Saturday February 16, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time) or 1:00 p.m. (pacific time), or 21:00 UTC on the irc.freenode.net server in the channel #wikinews-interviews.

Directions on how to enter IRC channel: Click here. Type in your desired user-name. Select General Wikinews Discussion. Once in the channel, type: /j #wikinews-interviews (or /join #wikinews-interviews). Or you can download your own IRC client such as mIRC or ICEchat. If you have FireFox, then Chatzilla is easy. Join #wikinews for assistance on connecting by clicking on the above link selecting General Wikinews Discussion.

Wikinews international report: "Anonymous" holds anti-Scientology protests worldwide

2008-02-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

>>Click Here For Full Story.

Here is what is most likely to be the most extensive international report on the 2008 Anonymous protests against Scientology. Wikinews was in nearly 15 different countries and over 50 cities throughout the globe to bring you the most extensive, in-depth and opinion free reporting anywhere on the net. We hope you enjoy this article, the reports, video and photos, as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you. Thanks everyone for your hard work and contributions. They are greatly appreciated.

The Internet group Anonymous today held protests critical of the Church of Scientology. The protests marked what would have been the 49th birthday of Lisa McPherson, who is claimed to be a victim of the Church of Scientology's practices. Lisa died in 1995 during a running of what Scientologists refer to as an Introspection Rundown, a procedure intended to help Church members deal with a psychotic or deeply traumatic event.

Protests were planned throughout the day in 14 countries and over 50 different cities. The estimation of total protesters world wide for Feb. 10, 2008 is 9,250 people.

Wikinews had correspondents at a number of protest locations to report on the events. This article was updated throughout the day with reports from around the globe.

Date and time of Wikinews interview with Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'

2008-02-09T17:45:00.000-05:00

Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.

Problem is, we don't have enough questions and we want you to ask them.

Ask questions by clicking here

Directions on how to enter IRC channel: Click here. Type in your desired user-name. Type in the channel name: #wikinews-interviews. Or you can download your own IRC client such as mIRC or ICEchat. If you have FireFox, then Chatzilla is easy. Join #wikinews for assistance on connecting by clicking on the above link, typing in the channel #wikinews

'Top Model' winner CariDee English on her modeling career and her battle with psoriasis

2008-02-07T00:53:00.000-05:00

Since winning the reality television series America's Next Top Model in December 2006, CariDee English, a small-town girl from Fargo, North Dakota, was plucked from relative obscurity to be the new look for CoverGirl Cosmetics, the newest fresh face on the cover of Seventeen, and affiliation with the largest modeling agency in the world, Elite Model Management.

However, she feels her greatest accomplishment is being the spokeswoman for the National Psoriasis Foundation, in which she is a motivational speaker and gives encouragement to psoriasis sufferers. CariDee has even lobbied in Congress for the passage of a bill which would ask the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Institute of Medicine to increase spending on finding a cure for psoriasis. You can read more about her role with the National Psoriasis Foundation here.

Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman sat down and talked with CariDee earlier in the week to discuss her own issues with psoriasis, how she has helped other sufferers in her role as spokeswoman for the Foundation, as well as what it's like to be a new model in New York City and her thoughts on how the fashion industry runs today.

» Full story

David S. Touretzky discusses Scientology, Anonymous and Tom Cruise

2008-02-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

In an interview with Wikinews reporter Nicholas Turnbull, prominent free speech activist and critic of Scientology David S. Touretzky gave his opinion on the recent backlash against the Church of Scientology that has erupted on the Internet, recently spurred on in declarations by a nebulous Internet entity using the name Anonymous that the organization will be destroyed. Anonymous has directed recent protests at Scientology centres across the world, which have attracted significant numbers of individuals supporting the cause.

Touretzky, a research professor in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University, has been a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology since mid-1995, and has been protesting against Scientology vociferously since then; he has also run websites that publish material that Scientology wishes to keep suppressed from the public eye, such as extracts from Scientology's formerly-confidential Operating Thetan (OT) materials. Touretzky views the actions of the Church of Scientology as being "a threat to free speech", and has endured harassment by the Church of Scientology for his activities.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview.

You ask the questions: Wikinews interviews Mark Bunker, producer of anti-Scientology website 'XenuTV'

2008-02-05T16:28:00.000-05:00

Wikinews is interviewing television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website XenuTV.com, Mark Bunker.

Problem is, we don't have any questions and we want you to ask them.

At the moment there is no deadline to ask questions. The hopeful plan is to conduct the interview on IRC. Hopefully this can be Wikinews' first Interview Of The Month, in well a very long time. More details on how and when the interview will take place will be released as details are known.

Click here to add your questions.

Church of Scientology: '"Anonymous' will be stopped"

2008-02-03T19:59:00.000-05:00

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.

Claiming that "actions are being taken", a Church of Scientology representative has responded exclusively to Wikinews regarding the recent attacks on their web sites from the nebulous "Anonymous" group. In an effort to get the Church's side of the story, Wikinews freelance journalist Brian McNeil located a contact address, knowledge@lrh.org. A "Laetitia" responded, ignoring a detailed list of questions that would have given information on the damage inflicted on the Church and action taken. Instead non-specific comments about how the Church is handling the issue were given. She first started by asking if Wikinews was "part of Anonymous or are you pro-Scientology?"

"Activities of Anonymous have been reported to the Authorities and actions are being taken. Their activities are illegal and we do not approve of them. At the same time, our main work is to improve the environment, make people more able and spiritually aware. ... yes, we are taking action," said Laetitia.

Wikinews sent the e-mails from the Church to several experts on Scientology for an expert opinion on what they might have been trying to say. Although there was minimal response, Wikinews heard from the creator of Operation Clambake, which is a project formed in 1996 as a direct result of seeing the Church succeeding in removing criticism from the Internet. Wikinews also heard from another expert on Scientology and former Church member, who wishes to remain anonymous.

>>Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE story.

Also take part in the poll to the right of the blog postings.

Wikinews International: You report the 'Anonymous' protest against Scientology

2008-01-30T18:14:00.001-05:00

That's right...we want you to be the reporter for the protest of 'Anonymous' VS. The Church of Scientology. Are you going to be in or near any of the follwing areas on Februry 10th 2008? If so, we want your pictures, your audio, video and interviews of the days protest:

Please add you name and information such as whether you plan to use video, audio, still photography, or all of the above by clicking here.

London England, UK; 11:00 a.m. local time
(146 Queen Victoria Street moving to 68 Tottenham Court Road)

Edinburgh Scotland, UK; 11:00 a.m. local time
(20-23 South Bridge)

New York, NY; 11:00 a.m. eastern time
(Times Square; West 46th and 7th/Broadway)

Melbourne, Australia; 2:00 p.m. local time
(Russell St & Flinders Lane)

Montreal, Canada; 1:00 p.m. local time
(4489 Papineau Street)

Houston, TX; 1:00 p.m. local time
(2727 Fondren Rd # 1A (details))

Los Angeles, CA; 11:00 a.m. pacific time
Protestors meeting at 10:30am at 6801 Hollywood Blvd #257 - will proceed to undecided location

Wikinews interviews two "America's Next Top Model" winners!

2008-01-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

Wikinews is taking a break from our current Top Model schedule to interview two past winners in a double exclusive.

Expect interviews next Wednesday with CariDee and Jaslene.

Photo Credits: Mike Kortoci (CariDee), Kevin Sinclair (Jaslene)

Ask your question to Drupal founder Dries Buytaert

2008-01-28T17:03:00.000-05:00

Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal, the freely licensed and open source content managing system, agreed to an interview with Wikinews.

Buytaert just finished his doctoral thesis and has founded the startup company Acquia.

If you have any questions about Drupal, free and open software or what's happening for him in the near future, you can post your questions on the interview preparation page or e-mail them to User:Stevenfruitsmaak .

711chan.org ends attack on Scientology

2008-01-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

>>Click here to read the EXCLUSIVE interview and full Story.

Administrators for 711chan.org, one of the websites responsible for starting Project Chanology, a "raid" or attack against The Church of Scientology and their website, called off their attack.

In an exclusive interview with Wikinews, an administrator of 711chan states that the will "probably stay away from the CoS (Church of Scientology)."

"We're probably just going to stay away from the CoS raid. It was poorly managed. We could've brought down a lot more if we weren't just a bunch of unorganized brats," said 'Inaki', an administrator on 711chan.org.

"Many people from 711chan still want to raid, but the administration is sick of it," added Inaki who also stated that "Partyvan IRC actually has decided to remove the raid."

Much of the reason stems from the fact that the attack on the Church was meant to stay within 711chan and that users were to stay "anonymous." An e-mail was leaked on the internet when the attack began exposing the script used to attack the Church's website.

Also take part in our Wikinews poll to the right of blog postings, at the top of the page. Also ask questions for our interview with the Church of Scientology: Wikinews: Interview with The Church of Scientology

>>Click here to read the above EXCLUSIVE interview and full Story.

Wikinews: Interview with The Church of Scientology

2008-01-27T15:45:00.000-05:00

They’ve got oodles of cash (allegedly), they have lots of celebrity members (definitely), but they don’t have too good a public image - at least not on the Internet.

Who are we talking about? Well, that’d be the Church of Scientology.

Over the past week the Church has ended up back in the spotlight following the posting of a video of Church member Tom Cruise and its subsequent takedown. Dozens of copies have sprung up and “Anonymous” - a rag-tag bunch of computer enthusiasts - have knocked several of the Church’s sites off the net.

The Church hasn’t said much, but we’re trying to do something about that. If you’ve any questions about recent events you’d like to see Wikinews put to the Church, send them in. Email scoop@wikinewsie.org and we’ll see if we can get an answer.

Also feel free to vote in our poll to the right of the blog postings, at the top of the page.

'The Regime' hacks 711chan.org in response to 'Anonymous' attack on Scientology; takes site off line

2008-01-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

>>Click for full EXCLUSIVE Interview and report.
Also see the poll to the right of the blog post.

Wikinews has learned that a new entity calling itself The Regime used keylogging to gain an administrator password to 711chan.org, a site popular with the open vigilante group "Anonymous" that has recently been attacking Scientology online. Wikinews interviewed The Regime. Click the above link to see the interview and full report.

As of 9:57 p.m. (eastern time) the site 711chan.org, has been replaced, allegedly by The Regime by the title Church of Scientology along with a statement on the home page stating "This website has been deleted due to copyright claims from the Church of Scientology." A search performed using Google, on 711chan has returned the number one result of the apparent hack. All that remains of 711chan.org is an apparent message to the members of the site to "run" and "hide."

"711chan is full of fucking fail for siding with Gaia. I'm out of here, faggots. Enjoy your Gaia," said the message, which currently is only available in a cached version.

The Regime's first attack went along with a message posted to 711chan's website (quoted below) saying that "This site has not been blessed by The Regime and is deemed lame", believing Anonymous to be self-proclaimed hackers (although this title was primarily used by the media). It also refers to Anonymous' attempt to bring down the Church of Scientology (named 'Operation Chanology'), saying that "chanology is lame, scientology is lame". It thereafter declared that the message board where Anonymous had been discussing Operation Chanology had been removed. Minutes later, 711chan stopped responding to queries.

Click here for the full EXCLUSIVE interview and report.

Wikinews Picture of the Year 2007

2008-01-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

The winner has been announced in the 2007 Wikinews Picture of the Year election. The photo was taken by Wikinews reporter and photographer David Shankbone, and captures the protest in front of Columbia University, that marked the controversial debate with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September.

Invited to participate in a debate during his visit to New York City this week to address the United Nations General Assembly, Ahmadinejad engaged University president Lee Bollinger on a number of topics, including his country's human rights record, opinions on Israel and the Holocaust and the role of nuclear weapons and terrorism on the global stage.

The images of the event are gathered in a designated category on Commons.

Poll: The internet VS The Church of Scientology

2008-01-24T22:38:00.000-05:00

Gathering information for a possible full Wikinews poll, I am interested in what the public thinks of the "first great internet war", The Internet VS. The Church of Scientology.

We are wondering who you think will win this war. Will the internet win? What about the "church"....maybe you don't care???

Anyways cast your vote to the right of the blog postings, at the top of the page. From the date of this post, you have a week.

Please feel free to leave comments.

Argentina: TV channel taken off the air in Mendoza at rival’s request

2008-01-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story.

Mendoza, Argentina – The Argentinian federal judge Olga Arrabal orders closure of public retransmission television station in Mendoza at request of Vila-Manzano Group, a monopolistic media conglomerate.

The judge ordered the cessation of broadcasts by the local relay transmitter of Canal 7 television station in Mendoza's capital city. The inhabitants of this city and the departments of Maipú, Luján de Cuyo, Lavalle, San Martín, Palmira, Junín, Santa Rosa, La Paz and Rivadavia were without access to the public television.

The authorities of the Secretaría de Medios de la Nación, the Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos and of Channel 7 will appeal the resolution of the Second Federal Court of Mendoza that left more than 1 million persons without access to the channel.

Click here for full story.

"Anonymous" releases statements outlining "War on Scientology"

2008-01-23T17:20:00.000-05:00

Full story.

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 religousfreedomwatch.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".

Click here for the full story.

Wikinews goes to Rio de Janeiro

2008-01-23T13:49:00.000-05:00

Fresh off his trip to Israel, David Shankbone has accepted an invitation from the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau to go to Brazil in March. The focus of the trip will be photography, updating some of the Rio de Janeiro articles on Wikipedia, and news stories that come from the trip.

Details to be announced

Woman in Buffalo, New York accidentally sets herself on fire

2008-01-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

Wikinews.org - Buffalo, New York – A woman in Buffalo, New York in the United States is in critical condition tonight at Sisters Of Charity Hospital after she accidentally set herself on fire.

The unnamed elderly woman is receiving oxygen for medical problems and lit a cigarette, which ignited the oxygen coming from her mask, setting her on fire.

Despite her "severe" burns as described by firefighters on radio communications, she was still able to dial the emergency line in the U.S., 911.

In the U.S. only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials in 2002. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.

Church of Scientology website being attacked by hackers

2008-01-20T01:45:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story.

Wikinews has learned that according to an internet posting made just over 24 hours ago, the Church of Scientology's website is being attacked by hackers, causing the site to shut down.

The attack was launched on Wednesday by a user calling himself "Anonymous", on the website "Project Chanology". The "History" section of the site explains, in a satirical fashion, that the incident was prompted by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove the Tom Cruise video from YouTube.

"Someone emailed me earlier today talking about a tool a group’s been using to attack the scientology website. It’s an interesting tool, created to overload/create malformed strings and crash a website’s database," said the post by an unknown author on pigmy.

Click here for the exclusive story.

Fire reported at One HSBC Center in downtown Buffalo, New York

2008-01-19T14:08:00.000-05:00

Wikinews.org - Buffalo, New York – According to scanner frequencies of the Buffalo, New York fire department, smoke was reported on at least five floors at the northeast side at One HSBC Center in downtown Buffalo. The call came in around 10:50 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Friday January 18, not long after the ending of the NHL hockey game: the Sabres versus the Atlanta Thrashers which was held at HSBC Arena, a few blocks away from the tower.

According to firefighters communications the people that were on the 22nd floor made it out of the building safely. Firefighters saw "white smoke of varying intensities, believed to have been electrical" on floors 9 through 13. The source of the smoke was not identified, but the first alarm was on the 13th floor, followed by the 10th then the 9th.

Because of the cold temperatures and wind chills in the 10's, workers at the tower were allowed back into the first floor, which has been cleared by firefighters earlier in the call.

At 11:41 p.m., firefighters gave the all clear to begin packing up with no conclusion as to where the smoke originated. They used ventilation fans to clear the floors of smoke and then shut them off to see if anymore smoke would reappear, which it did not. Remaining employees and personnel have since been allowed back to work. No damage is reported.

The tower, built in 1970, is the tallest in Buffalo and is home several agencies including the Consulate General of Canada. HSBC currently occupies 75% of the tower which has 40 floors. It stands at 529 feet (161.2 meters) tall.

YouTube banned in Turkey (again)

2008-01-19T10:45:00.000-05:00

>> FULL STORY

The popular video website YouTube has been blocked in Turkey once more. Several sources quote complaints against a video that insults Atatürk, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, as the reason for the block. On Friday, internet users in Turkey found the website replaced by a notice saying:

Access to this web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/55 of T.R. Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace.

At the moment, it remains unclear which video exactly is to blame. Some media sources say that the video compared Atatürk with a monkey. This led some YouTube users to suspect that a video entitled 'ataturk was a gay and a monkey turkey turkiye turks' led to the block. This video was added on November 7, 2007, and is a series of images with Atatürk's face on monkeys, homosexuals, obese individuals and several pictures of Borat. The uploader of the video, known as gaymal45, has several other videos which mock Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gül.

Click here to read the full version of this article on Wikinews.

Users insert virus source code into Wikipedia pages

2008-01-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story.

In an exclusive report, Wikinews has learned that on Wednesday two users, one anonymous and the other only known as MODX, added code on the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia for a computer virus known as the LoveLetter or ILOVEYOU virus.

The users inserted the VBScript code into various pages including the Wikipedia Sandbox, a page used for editorial testing. This was relatively harmless, as the code could not be activated despite causing some antivirus software to issue an alert.

A Wikipedia administrator began blocking the users and reverting their edits. "I went further and deleted the contributions of these editors where I could in the hopes of preventing follow-up attacks, copycat actions, and random editors stumbling into viral traps whilst walking through a page history", said Scientizzle, the administrator who found the code and attempted to clean up the additions.

However, a major problem arose when he tried to delete the edits from the sandbox. This involves deleting the entire page and restoring good revisions, but the sandbox has such a "massive revision history" that this caused Wikipedia's servers to overload for half an hour, locking countless users out of editing the encyclopedia.

Read the full, exclusive report.

You choose the best picture of 2007

2008-01-13T04:28:00.000-05:00

Wikinews is taking votes for the best picture of 2007.

The aim of this new idea is to have an election for a Wikinews Picture of the Year 2007, in an analogy to the Picture of the Year contest on Commons. With this initiative we would like to promote photojournalism and quality images with great news value for use on Wikinews and other Wikimedia projects. This idea is not meant to compete with the election on Commons (the rules and candidates are totally different) or criticise Commons in any way, rather it is aimed to promote more collaboration between Wikinews and Wikimedia photographers.

Candidate pictures have been selected from our 2007 main page selected picture archive and from Wikinews' overview of the year 2007, but any image from the Wikimedia Commons that relates to a news event from 2007 can be added. The creator of the work does not need to be a Wikinews Accredited reporter or even a Wikimedian. Several of these images were found on Flickr or are work of U.S. government personnel.

Go here and see the image and click 'Vote Here!' to vote for your favorite photograph.

You ask the questions: Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners

2008-01-13T01:19:00.000-05:00

Wikinews is preparing for another big interview and again, we want you to be involved by asking the questions.

We are going to interview Roger McNamee, internet and technology inverstor and a co-founder of Elevation Partners.

The interview is scheduled for Monday, 14 Jan. 2008, at 4:30 pm PST (-8). It will be a phone conversation, but we need some good questions to ask Mr. McNamee.

Please click the link below and ask your questions by clicking "edit" (or just click here).

Wikinews:Story preparation/Wikinews Interviews: Roger McNamee

Winner announced in the "Pick Your Own Top Model!" contest

2008-01-12T04:23:00.000-05:00

Over 700 votes were cast in the Pick Your Own Top Model! contest. Wikinews is pleased to announce that Kahlen Rondot, the runner-up in Cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model, won with 180 votes. Elyse Sewell from Cycle 1 received 173 votes for a second-place finish. Natasha Galkina from Cycle 8 came in third with 148 votes.

All three top vote-getters may be interviewed in the future, but the next Top Model interview, after scheduled interviews with Furonda (C6) and Keenyah (C4), will be with Kahlen, if she does choose to talk to us.

Thank you all for your participation! Keep it fierce!

Final tally:

724 votes cast

Kahlen - 180 votes
Elyse - 173 votes
Natasha - 148 votes
Jade - 66 votes
Joanie - 59 votes
Mollie Sue - 47 votes
Brittany (C4) - 27 votes
Yoanna - 24 votes

Tribal elder for Lakota People in US says 'no treaty withdrawal'

2008-01-12T00:51:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story.

The Lakota Freedom Delegation, which in December declared that the Lakota people were withdrawing from their treaties with the United States and reasserting their sovereignty as an independent state, is acting without the support of the Treaty Council, the traditional government of the Lakota, Wikinews has learned.

Wikinews spoke with Floyd Looks-For-Buffalo Hand, an Oglala Lakota Treaty Delegate and Elder, also an author and a spiritual leader in the indigenous Lakota religion, and who is also blood uncle to Lakota Freedom Delegation member Canupa Gluha Mani.

The Lakota Freedom Delegation has claimed that, while the BIA-recognized tribal governments of the Lakota have not supported them, the Lakota Freedom Delegation's authority extends from support by the Treaty Council of the Elders of Lakota as well as from the 1974 International Indian Treaty Council.

"There was no treaty withdrawal. It was three people."

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Shimon Peres discusses the future of Israel with Wikinews

2008-01-08T22:04:00.000-05:00

>>Full Interview

Wikinews has now made history in the media, becoming the first ever collaborative, citizen journalism news site to interview a world leader.

Along with technology writers for Slate, PC Magazine, USA Today, BusinessWeek, Aviation Weekly and other publications, Wikinews was invited by the America-Israel Friendship League and the Israeli Foreign Ministry to review Israel’s technology sector as part of a campaign to 're-brand the country.' To show that there is more to Israel than the Palestinian conflict. On this trip, the non-conflict item on display was the large Israeli technology sector, which has given the world the Pentium processor and Instant Messaging. The schedule was hectic: 12-14 hours a day were spent doing everything from trips to the Weizmann Institute to dinner with Yossi Vardi.

On Thursday, the fifth day of the the junket, David Saranga of the foreign ministry was able to arrange an exclusive interview for David Shankbone with the President of Israel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shimon Peres. For over an hour they spoke about Iranian politics, whether Israel is in danger of being side-lined in Middle Eastern importance because of Arab oil wealth, and his thoughts against those who say Israeli culture is in a state of decay.

Peres is the elder statesman of Israeli politics, but he remembers that he has not always been as popular as he is today. "Popularity is like perfume: nice to smell, dangerous to drink," said Peres.

"You don’t drink it." The search for popularity, he goes on to say, will kill a person who has an idea against the status quo.

Read the full exclusive interview.

Wikimedia leak: Will the Foundation "run on Sun"?

2008-01-08T19:15:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story

Julian Lemoine - known as speedblue - once wrote a search routine styled after the Google "suggest" tool; a design intended to give a result based, in part, on how many incoming links an article had. The routine might, he hoped, help the wiki software be used as a thinking tool, helping people follow their thoughts and inter-related topics through the rapidly developing English and French Wikipedia projects. He called it "Wikipedia suggest".

An internal Wikimedia communiqué was leaked over the weekend. Like many e-mails, the document is a chain of forwards, replies, and attachments. The attached Portable Document Format (PDF) file was from a PowerPoint presentation, entitled "Wikimedia Foundation: Past, Present, and Future". The presentation is watermarked confidential, do not distribute, and details the Foundation's recent financial, technical, and traffic history, outlines near-term forecasts for all three, and makes suggestions for slightly longer horizons as well. By itself the document led to several inter-connected news stories.

The software which underpins the Foundation's projects is constantly being developed, both from within and from third parties. Mediawiki is an open source software package, one with a significant share in its market; efforts to add functionality often have their own development projects and timelines. The presentation outlined some of these efforts and their respective timelines.

Wiki-to-print is currently in testing, and is expected to deploy February to March, 2008
Flagged revisions is currently in testing, and is expected to deploy before June, 2008
Collaborative video editing is currently in testing, and is expected to deploy initially perhaps in October 2008.

Read full article.

Canupa Gluha Mani speaks about Lakota Oyate, Lakota freedom

2008-01-08T19:05:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story

It's now been three weeks since the four-person Lakota Freedom Delegation declared that the Lakota people were withdrawing from their treaties with the United States and, though small, the movement still proves controversial: two U.S.-recognized Lakota tribal governments have rejected the Delegation's authority outright with at least one tribe stating it will consider the Delegation's, now Lakota Oyate's, proposal. The rest of the tribes have remained silent.

The central figure the movement has been Canupa Gluha Mani, a longtime activist whose tactics have led repeatedly to his arrest and imprisonment — most recently in June 2007, when Canupa Gluha Mani was one of six arrested who participated in blockading a road in Nebraska to keep outside alcohol from entering his dry reservation where it is banned. Wikinews talked to Mani about the movement and Lakota Oyate in an exclusive interview.

With regard to Russell Means, who has declared himself Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, he said, "I've worked with my uncle Russell Means in positive venues. And I'm still behind him, I have love for him;" He emphasized the familial bond between himelf and Means, noting that Means had adopted him as a nephew. However, "the Lakota have to be recognized." It was "genocide", he said, that of all the races of humanity, American Indians are not represented at the United Nations.

Read the full interview.

Final voting in the "Pick Your Own Top Model" contest!

2008-01-08T17:05:00.001-05:00

DISCLAIMER: IF I CANNOT REACH THE WINNER OF THE CONTEST, I WILL IMMEDIATELY GO TO THE SECOND-PLACE WINNER. IF I CANNOT REACH HER, I WILL GO TO THE THIRD-PLACE WINNER, AND SO ON.

We got widespread participation in the Pick Your Own Top Model contest I ushered in last week. I want to thank you all for sharing your opinions.

A poll will start right now, which will end at 12 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, January 12. You can find it by looking at the right sidebar on the blog page. We have narrowed the pool down to eight top vote-getters. You all suggested 56 girls, and out of those, the top eight with the most suggestions got slots. Here they are:

Elyse Sewell (Cycle 1) - Elyse was a med student from Albuquerque, New Mexico before competing on Top Model. She endeared herself to viewers by accident, asserting herself as a straight-shooter and knowing she was intellectually above all the other girls in the house. She now works as a model in Hong Kong.

Yoanna House (Cycle 2) - A former babysitter from Jacksonville, Florida, Yoanna lost 60 pounds to compete on Top Model, and eventually won the top prize. She now hosts The Look for Less on the Style Network.

Brittany Brower (Cycle 4) - The loud party girl from Tallahassee, Florida progressed week after week to make it to the final four in Cycle 4. She now lives in Los Angeles, and what exactly is she doing now? A lot of fans want to know.

Kahlen Rondot (Cycle 4) - The Oklahoma girl won over many viewers with her innocent and joyful personality. Making it to the final two, she lost to Naima Mora, which is still hotly disputed by many ANTM fans. Speculation abounds that Kahlen has left the modeling business entirely, instead focusing on bartending. Is it true? Is she signed to a modeling agency or not? An interview would be the best avenue to quell the rumors.

Mollie Sue Steenis-Gondi (Cycle 6) - The Tampa native struggled with her photoshoots as well as her perceived lack of personality. Despite making a premature exit from Cycle 6, Mollie now works in Paris, and has been seen in French Cosmopolitan. Does she think her exit from the show is a lot of bull, knowing what she knows now?

Jade Cole (Cycle 6) - Do we need to say more about Jade? "Exotic biracial butterfly"? "Soldier sister"? "The undiscovered supermodel"? She could take wonderful pictures but at times her personality was totally rank, but let's face it, she made for great television. Who could forget that poetic line "Furonda, my dear/I know your skin is bumpy/But my skin is flawless/And you look really lumpy"?

Joanie Dodds (Cycle 6) - The first contestant never to reach the bottom two during her entire stint on the show, she lost to Danielle at the end of Cycle 6. Rumors have since surfaced that Joanie is no longer modeling and has returned to her hometown. Are these true? Will she model again? Does she still embrace the show that got her so many fans?

Natasha Galkina (Cycle 8) - The energetic, vibrant, positive Russian charmed many viewers with her wise words of wisdom, such as "Some people have war in their countries." Originally overcoming a language barrier with many early photo shoots, she made it to the final two in Cycle 8, losing to Jaslene. Some viewers feel Natasha should have won instead of Jaslene. My worry is, how is this interview even going to sound if we do it by e-mail? She didn't have the best grasp for English when she spoke; who knows what it's going to be like when she types it. :/

Now go to the sidebar on the right and vote for your favorite. DO NOT COMMENT HERE WITH YOUR VOTE.

Lakota Freedom Delegation says spokesman Russell Means 'hijacked' organization

2008-01-05T04:53:00.000-05:00

>>Full Story.

Wikinews has learned that the Lakota Freedom Delegation, also known as Lakotah Oyate, an organization of activists fighting for the Sioux Indian Nation to withdraw all treaties with the United States, was "hijacked" by its spokesman, Russell Means, an activist for Native American Indians.

On December 19, 2007, Means and the "delegation" went to Washington, D.C. and hand-delivered a letter, signed by the Delegation, to the U.S. State Department claiming that the Lakota Indian Tribe was declaring that all treaties between the tribe and the U.S. have been withdrawn or canceled. They also held a press conference declaring their freedom.

See the full story and interview with Naomi Archer, liaison of Lakotah Oyate/Republic of Lakotah.

Wikinews asks readers: Which "Top Model" do you want us to interview?

2008-01-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

PLEASE READ ADDENDUM PLACED AT TOP OF THE BLOG POST (January 4, 2008):

For emphasis: SIMPLE LISTS OF CONTESTANTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE OVERLOOKED THAN REASONED RESPONSES. Names that may mean something to you may mean nothing to me; for example, I did not like Ann from Cycle 3 but loved Eva. Other people may like Ann and hate Eva, so a simple name doesn't give a why from you, the reader. I want to know why you want your favorite girl to be interviewed, because as viewers do not have one mind, what you may like may not be something I like. I want to hear the who and the why, so you can have the most enjoyable reading experience possible. That's what I'm going for here. Thank you.

-----

Hello, Wikinews readers! This is Mike Halterman. I've started my interviews and plans for the first batch of America's Next Top Model contestants outlined in a post from last month. The interview with Whitney Cunningham (Cycle 8) was published last month, and I plan to have interviews with Keenyah Hill (Cycle 4) and Furonda Brasfield (Cycle 6) published in the next two weeks.

As the news of the interviews traveled across fan sites, I noticed the reactions ranged from "Oh, wow, I really like those girls!" to "Oh, who cares about them? Can't he interview someone people cared about?" I acknowledge I can't win them all, so I am extending a challenge to all of you. Tell me which Top Model girl you want to see interviewed and why, and I will try to get that interview for you.

I really want to hear your picks! I picked the girls I interviewed because I found them interesting, but I want to know what you find interesting, and more importantly, why you find them interesting. Leave a comment here and tell me! When my interviews with Keenyah and Furonda are published, I will announce which girl has won the vote, and if I can get an interview with them.

Wikinews' overview of the year 2007

2007-12-31T12:40:00.000-05:00

Wikinews' very first Overview of the year 2007 has been published. And to go with it is our World News Quiz for this week on the year's news.

To take the short quiz go >>here>>. To take the extended version, which contains questions about this year's news in full, go >>here>>.