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.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<<<
>>Click here for the story you'll only see on Wikinews.<<
Digg! this article!
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 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<<
>Click here for the full story.
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.
>Click here for the full story.
>>Click here for the full story.
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.
>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.
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.
>>Click here for the EXCLUSIVE story.
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.
