text:
Thousands demand climate change action

December 3, 2005

Thousands of people across Australia are taking part in protests calling on the Federal Government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The 'Walk Against Warming' is part of an international day of action in 40 countries, coinciding with the United Nations climate change talks in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

According to the Walk Against Warming group, "the need to reduce greenhouse gases is at crisis point, we must act now for the sustainability of our planet for future generations."

Melinda Cook, Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales official, says governments need to take much stronger action on the issue of Climate Change.

"This international day has been called to put pressure on Australia and the US to ratify and to make sure governments are aware that the community is demanding serious commitments and action on greenhouse gas reduction," said Cook.

Siding with the United States, the Australian Federal Government has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, arguing it is damaging to their economic interests. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell says Australia is focused on measures that should be taken after Kyoto expires in 2012.

"We need to do something that suits the developed world, something that suits the rapidly developing world, partnerships, technologies, economic mechanisms that drive us towards that," said Campbell. "We're nowhere near that at the moment and Australia wants to be a constructive part of driving us towards a very useful post-Kyoto regime."

Protesters across Australia are using the International Day of Action on Climate Change to demand the government adopt a clean energy policy. Hundreds of people marched through Sydney on Saturday to mark the day.

The protest against global warming coincides with the 12-day conference in Montreal, which will discuss climate change measures and future international action when the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012. Australia and the United States are the only western industrialised nations which refuse to ratify the global Kyoto Protocol. Australia has delegates at the Montreal meeting, but will only act as observers.

Melinda Cook said scientists had predicted huge negative consequences including extreme weather and even social and economic impacts if steps were not taken now. Cook also said governments must make a "serious commitment" not to build any more coal fire powered stations.

The United States Bush administration and the Australian Howard Government have refused to ratify the Kyoto agreement, which pledges industrialised nations to cut carbon dioxide levels to 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

Global Action

Up to a million people will take to the streets of more than 100 cities across dozens of countries today to demand greater action on global warming. Organizers of the protests say the world's leading industrialised nations had failed to make an impact on climate change and some, in particular Britain, were backsliding on their environmental commitments.

The United Nations meeting in Montreal, will be attended by representatives of 189 countries. The centerpiece of the International Day of Climate Protest will be a mass protest in Montreal, where at least 15,000 people are expected to lobby delegates.

Across the planet, protests are being held in locations from Helsinki to Seoul. In Washington, drivers of fuel-efficient hybrid cars will rally around the White House. In New Orleans - devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August - there will be a "Stop Global Warming" street party in the French Quarter.

"There is probably very little we can expect [from Montreal] because we are doing nothing to keep fossil fuel in the ground. All these techno-fixes are a waste of time if we continue to burn fossil fuel at the same rate," said George Monbiot, an academic and environment commentator, who will address a rally in London.

"There is a lot of cynicism about what the British government is doing. [Prime Minister] Tony Blair has promised much and persuaded many that he will deliver but it has turned out to be rubbish. Blair had no intention of doing anything on climate change other than talk about it. But this weekend's protests are taking place in a changed context - the media are listening and finally we have to make the politicians listen."

 * Countries taking part in the global day of action include: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Venezuela...

title: Thousands demand climate change action


text:
East Timor - Australia problematic billion-dollar gas and oil accord

December 3, 2005

Australia and East Timor officials signed a billion-dollar gas and oil accord, which is necessary because of a current maritime border dispute between the countries, which covers a major oil field. Although the accord has to be ratified by East Timor's parliament which is ruled by Fretilin with 55 seats the biggest block in parliament, but all the smaller parties are said to be working together to veto the deal.

In 1975, Portugal abandoned East Timor and the people declared self-independence only to be invaded by Indonesia with out any intervention from Australia or the United States. Indonesia then agreed on no formal maritime boards but on a joint exploitation zone splitting profits 50/50. Indonesian rule in East Timor was marked by extreme violence and brutality and following a UN-sponsored agreement between Indonesia, Portugal and the US, East Timor held a referendum and gained independence, but violent Indonesian sponsored militia took hold. A peacekeeping force (INTERFET, led by Australia) then intervened putting a stop to the violence. The exploitation zone splitting profits was then changed to 60% in favour of Australia, but now a new deal has been proposed 90/10 in favour of Timor. In the mean time Australia has been accused of profiting by up to 2 billion dollars between the deals by activist groups like http://www.timorseajustice.org/ whose campaigning saw Woodside suspended oil pumping in the affected area.

Contemporary International law asserts that the area under dispute belongs to East Timor. Australia has withdrawn from the maritime division of the International Court of Justice, which could have settled this matter, instead opting to try to settle the matter without the court.

The previous deal has caused political infighting within East Timor about why such a smaller percentage was accepted.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


title: File:3December2005.pdf


title: File:3December2005.sxw


text:
US passes 1000 executions in 30 years

December 6, 2005

Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since 1976. Another man was put to death on Friday for the 1994 murder of a store clerk, becoming the 1,001st person executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated 28 years ago.

The milestone drew a wave of protesters to the Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., who opposed capital punishment. Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, of Rockingham, N.C., died by lethal injection for the 1988 shootings of his estranged wife, Julie Curry Boyd, who was 36, and her father, Thomas Dillard Curry, 57. Members of both families had asked to be present for the execution.

Boyd told Associated Press in a prison interview that he wanted no part of the infamous numerical distinction of being the 1000th prisoner executed. "I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd said on Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

Some argued that Boyd, who had an I.Q. of 77, should not have been executed. The cutoff for mental retardation in some states, a mitigating factor in some capital cases, is an I.Q. of 75. Boyd never denied his guilt, but said he couldn't remember killing anyone and didn't know why he did it.

Boyd's son, Kenneth Smith, 35, who visited his dad every day for the last two weeks, said in an interview on Thursday that he felt the attention paid to the milestone had hurt his father's chances for clemency. Smith also said his dad was deeply troubled that he might only be remembered as a grim hash mark in the history books. "He didn't want to be 999, and he didn't want to be 1001 if you know what I mean," said Smith. "He wanted to live." Belinda J. Foster, District Attorney for Rockingham, N.C., who prosecuted Boyd, said she felt confident that the death penalty was warranted in this case. "There are cases that are so horrendous and the evidence so strong it just warrants a death sentence," Ms. Foster said. Michael Paranzino, president of the pro-death penalty group Throw Away the Key, agreed. "You'll never stop crimes of passion, but I do believe the death penalty is a general deterrent, and it expresses society's outrage," Paranzino said.

"We believe this occasion is the perfect time to reconsider the whole issue of execution," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, a human rights group that has sought to end the practice of using executions as a punishment for crime around the world. "Since 1976, about one in eight prisoners on death row in the U.S. has been exonerated. That should raise serious questions about ending a person's life," Schulz said.

According to the non-governmental organization Amnesty International, the countries People's Republic of China, Iran and Vietnam are the only nations with more executions in 2004 than the United States. Thirty-eight of the 50 US states and the federal government permit capital punishment. An October 2005 Gallup poll found that 64 percent of all Americans support capital punishment in murder cases.

North Carolina executed two prisoners last month, as well as two others earlier in the year.

Debate over capital punishment

The grim milestone has prompted global outcry from human rights advocates. In a media statement the European Union also condemned the execution, calling for the end of the death penalty worldwide. "We consider this punishment cruel and inhuman. It does not act as a deterrent and any miscarriage of justice - which is inevitable in any legal system - is irreversible." "It is a scandal that the death penalty still exists in a civilised country like the United States of America," said Petra Herrmann, chairwoman of the German group Alive e V.

Boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison. After watching Boyd die, Rockingham County (N.C.) Sheriff Sam Page said the victims should be remembered. "Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd. What I would ask you to do is not forget the victims of this crime," Page said. "Pray for them. Pray for them and their healing."

"This is one small step for humankind - backwards," said veteran American campaigner Clive Stafford Smith in an interview with Reuters. "The death penalty makes us all far more barbaric. I have watched a lot of people die, and when you come out from watching someone being executed it certainly isn't a better world."

According to Kenyan National Human Rights Commission Chairman Maina Kiai, "[It is] a great pity that the US can keep on executing people [when much of the developed world had already ended the death penalty]." "Also, the fact that in the US a lot of death sentences that are carried out invariably affect people of colour and poor people, it's an issue of great concern," Kiai said.

In Singapore, where a 25-year-old Australian was hanged just hours before Boyd's execution, Sinapan Samydorai, president of the think-tank Think Centre, said there was no justice without life. "The US is supposed to be a champion of human rights and democracy, yet they do not recognise the right to life," he said. Singapore has a mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking, and has hanged 420 people since 1991, mainly for drug trafficking. Singapore's death penalty is often believed to enjoy wide public support; although details remain obscure for political reasons.

In Japan, where the death penalty is also widely supported, Akiko Takada of anti-capital punishment group Forum 90 said despite frequent use of the death penalty in the United States, "crime there shows no signs of diminishing, so ultimately the death of these people has no effect."

title: US passes 1000 executions in 30 years


text:
Talk:Judge allows student to sue school for revealing sexuality

•	unfairly disciplined by the district for kissing her girlfriend •	suspended then forced to attend another school, even though there was no specific policy addressing displays of public affection in the school's student handbook •	rights were violated when Principal Ben Wolf revealed Nguon's sexual orientation to her parents.


text:
Compensation funding agreement reached for Australian asbestos victims

December 3, 2005 James Hardie Industries has signed a final agreement designed to ensure that compensation will be received by victims who suffer health consequences due to their exposure to the company's asbestos products. The deal, signed on Thursday, is expected to cost the company $4.5 billion over the next 40 years, and James Hardie is obligated to pay 35 per cent of its free cash flow during each of those years to fund a compensation trust.

The Australian corporate watchdog ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) is gaining ground on James Hardie Industries corporate members. It is understood that the company's agreement with the NSW Government will not provide Hardie directors and executives with the immunities from civil prosecution sought by the company. The possible charges for the members range as high as jail terms of up to five years.

According to The Weekend Australian, a source said, "this arrangement suited ASIC because rather than channelling its efforts into cases that could provide compensation, it can concentrate on alleged offences that could result in criminal prosecution or banning officers from holding directorships or management positions." NSW Special Commissioner David Jackson QC said that former Hardie chief executive Peter Macdonald engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct when he told the stock exchange that the asbestos compensation trust Hardie set up in 2001 with $293 million would be "fully funded". At around the same time, James Hardie share holders voted for the relocation of its corporate base from Australia to the Netherlands.

Another alleged issue is a controversial $1.9 billion share cancellation, which a NSW MP said attracted ASIC to look at the activities of Hardie chairwoman Meredith Hellicar.

The ASIC task force plan to collect and analyse documents and interview witnesses into at least the middle of next year. Until then, any possible new charges are unlikely.


text:
New prince is born in Norway

December 3, 2005

At 10.45 local time, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway gave birth to a boy at Norway's national hospital, the Rikshospitalet University Hospital in. The new prince is third in line to the throne. "All is well with mother and son," Crown Prince Haakon confirmed at a press conference later that day. Due to strict official protocol the name will not be made public until Monday, when King Harald will gather the "State Council", or the cabinet, and inform the government. Usually the Prime Minister will announce the name in front of the Royal Palace.

Latest news : The prince is named Sverre Magnus.

title: New prince is born in Norway


text:
User talk:69.105.117.170

I have modified your link to conform to the fashion of the other links in the section. --Chiacomo (talk) 17:51, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Please leave it as I have modified it. Wikinews is not an advertising forum. --Chiacomo (talk) 17:55, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:69.105.117.170


text:
Talk:US passes 1000 executions in 30 years

NPOV issues
I've tagged this article NPOV mostly for the section "Debate over capital punishment", which is in severe need of a cleanup. The preceding section is also in need, however it can mostly be fixed with minor edits (which I will perform). A comparison of "support" to "oppose" quotes in the section shows a very bad job of balancing opinions and presenting them in this article:

 * The number of quotes, compared, show a great deal of unbalanced text, and therefore needs to be cleaned up to conform to NPOV standards.

Please fix or comment on the above objections to the article. --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 18:02, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

 * You make some good points. Although I'd thought it was made clear by this introduction to the section: "The grim milestone has prompted global outcry from human rights advocates..." I then outlined major media reportage of the advocates' comments etc.

But hey, do whatever you like. Delete it for all I care. But it makes me angry to see such pedantic nuetrality. I clearly stated in the article that there was "global public outcry," then I said what that outcry was.

I'd been enjoying writing a story a day for Wikinews over the last few weeks. But this kind of bias-police uber-scrutiny makes me not want to contribute articles to Wikinews...

I also think others may have changed the text in the article as it seems to be editied since it was published yesterday. Was sure I had more pro-death penalty stuff. --elliot_k 08:28, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

MrM, You need to get off your high horse on this one. The main body of the article is just fine as is, the bottom part is clearly a long list because there is an aweful lot of high power opposition the death-penalty all over the world; hence it being banned in most civilized places. I would suggest the following: Anyway, your just being a jerk to this poor guy. Nyarlathotep 22:44, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) Addition of links to the wikipedia articles on the capital punnishment and Human rights in the United Stated; thus partially reducing our debate to their past debates.
 * 2) Reformulation of the section as two seperate lists, one of pro-death penalty quotes, and open of anti-death penalty quote; thus alleviating much of the POV issue, as anti- quotes can nolonger hide pro- quotes.

Okay, I didn't edit too much, but I changed some structural things, which should reduce POV issues. I've also fixed the AI sentence which started with "Only". MrM is wrong about "only" being POV; however, he is correct that starting a sentence with "Only" is POV. Its a suble diffrence, but an valid one. I don't view the article as POV now, but I think that it could be improved by expanding upon the death penalty support in Japan & Singapore. Nyarlathotep 22:57, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I think some NPOV issues remain, but overall the article does present two points of view: the government's point that the crime warranted the punishment, as well as a number of other opinions from the opposing point of view. Given the fact that criticism of the death penalty is pretty wide-spread, I think the article is good enough to be published even with some imbalance in the numbers of quotes used. -- IlyaHaykinson 23:13, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Request
The map is to be replaced with this version. SkyBonTalk/Contributions 17:07, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * ❌ Please read the response I gave on my talk page. The image you propose placing on this article is not the one that was there at the date this article was published. I know, I could do that, but this way there's one more Commoner educated about "preserving a record of history as it was". --Brian McNeil / talk 17:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Still ❌. And it won't be until you supply a proper replacement. Please read WN:ARCHIVE. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:16, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Bah. I created File:Death Penalty World Map (Dec 5, 2006).png on Commons from the original - likely another reason for whingeing. --Brian McNeil / talk 11:25, 20 November 2009 (UTC)


text:
Military admits planting news in Iraq

December 3, 2005

U.S. military officials have now confirmed that the U.S. military has been paying Iraqi newspapers to publish positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq. This confirms the report that the Los Angeles Times broke last week.

Earlier this year, the Bush administration came under criticism for distributing videos and news stories in the United States without identifying the federal government as its source, and paying American journalists to promote administration policies. The Government Accountability Office has characterized these practices as "covert propaganda."

title: Military admits planting news in Iraq


text:
User talk:Yasseryy

Welcome
Yasseryy, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 19:39, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Yasseryy


text:
User talk:1297

Welcome
1297, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 19:39, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:1297


text:
User talk:Jandockx

Welcome
Jandockx, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 19:40, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Jandockx


text:
User talk:Al-masakin

Welcome
Al-masakin, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 20:41, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Al-masakin


text:
User talk:66.180.186.221

Welcome
Thanks for experimenting with Wikinews. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles may disrupt the site's working and will be reverted quickly. 66.180.186.221, welcome to Wikinews! Please refrain from using content pages for testing. Here are a few good links for newcomers on how to edit Wikinews:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Deprifry|+T+ 21:28, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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title: User talk:66.180.186.221


text:
User talk:70.29.3.3

Seeing as you seem to have absolutely no interest in seriously contributing to Wikinews, you are now set to read-only for a week. --Deprifry|+T+ 21:48, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:70.29.3.3


text:
Talk:Thousands demand climate change action

Is this "countries taking part", or countries with citizens taking part? Brian McNeil / talk 21:49, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Neutrality Discussion
Please note the following quotes:

"There is a lot of cynicism about what the British government is doing. [Prime Minister] Tony Blair has promised much and persuaded many that he will deliver but it has turned out to be rubbish. Blair had no intention of doing anything on climate change other than talk about it. But this weekend's protests are taking place in a changed context - the media are listening and finally we have to make the politicians listen."

Tbe bolded part could be seen as libel.

"This international day has been called to put pressure on Australia and the US to ratify and to make sure governments are aware that the community is demanding serious commitments and action on greenhouse gas reduction," said Cook

"We need to do something that suits the developed world, something that suits the rapidly developing world, partnerships, technologies, economic mechanisms that drive us towards that"

There are no quotes from anyone supporting Australia or the U.S.'s position.

--Learn2EditPlz 01:30, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

 * HELLO,Xcuse me: ''Siding with the United States, the Australian Federal Government has refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change, arguing it is damaging to their economic interests. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell says Australia is focused on measures that should be taken after Kyoto expires in 2012.

"We need to do something that suits the developed world, something that suits the rapidly developing world, partnerships, technologies, economic mechanisms that drive us towards that," said Campbell. "We're nowhere near that at the moment and Australia wants to be a constructive part of driving us towards a very useful post-Kyoto regime."'' --elliot_k 08:34, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Huh? Saying a politician has no intention of solving a problem is libel? In what jurisdiction? --Deprifry|+T+ 09:28, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Libel is the printing of a false or malicious statement. Stating that Blair 'has no intention...' is not necessarily a true statement, especially when there are no quotes from Blair to counteract it. --Learn2EditPlz 01:12, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * We are just quoting George Monbiot - he may or may not be guilty of slander/libel, but Wikinews certainly won't be. George could have said that Tony Blair has sex with goats and we could include it in an article, properly quoted and sourced. I also don't see what difference quoting a response from Blair has regarding a charge of slander. I'm no lawyer, of course. The last section of the article would be vastly improved by including a UK government response to the comments by Monibiot. - Borofkin 05:23, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Don't forget that there is no universal agreement about whether Kyoto protocol is a good way to deal with global warming, and that there are some serious shortcomings in the document. The mere fact that mass media and politicians rave about the protocol does not necessarily mean that it will effectively reduce greenhouse emissions without ruining the global economy. --Matvei M. S., 4 December 2005

 * I think politicians can agree on taking rights away from the silly powerless cigarette smokers of the world, but can't solve the serious pollution problems. 2nd hand cigarette smoke / get real. -Edbrown05 05:16, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

NPOV tag
"There are no quotes from anyone supporting Australia or the U.S.'s position." - as this statement has been demonstrated to be false, can Learn2EditPlz please consider removal of the NPOV tag. If you believe that the tag should remain, please provide additional justifications on the talk page, or even better, make changes directly to the article. - Borofkin 23:58, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Proven false? 1 source as opposed to three is not neutral. --Learn2EditPlz 01:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It's clearly false, because there is a quote in the article which supports the Australian governments position. I assume from this recent comment that rather that arguing that "there are no quotes", you are actually arguing that there are not enough quotes supporting the governments position, i.e. that the article is not balanced because an equal ammount of space has not been given to those supporting the government and opposed to Kyoto. If this is indeed your argument, then I would like to state that I don't agree. In my opinion the article as it currently stands is an accurate reflection of debate on climate change - the vast majority of countries support and have ratified the Kyoto agreement, and the vast majority of scientists believe that global warming is a serious problem. Therefore, I support removal of the NPOV tag. That being said, I have no problem with a contributor inserting more quotes that support the Australian or U.S. governmetn position, or that reject the science of global warming generally. I just don't think that the absence of "equal time" for each position makes this article POV. - Borofkin 05:13, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * You have nailed my argument sir. --Learn2EditPlz 07:24, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Please remove the NPOV tag --elliot_k 10:45, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Deprify apparently removed it. I still do not feel this is neutral. There is not an even amount of sources. People here really need a crash-course class on journalism. --Learn2EditPlz 18:41, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * "There is not an even amount of sources." What do you mean? If you still think the article is not neutral, then I encourage you to present your case here. Simply saying "I still do not feel this is neutral" does not address any of the arguments I have made. A good way to proceed would be to specify specific points-of-view that you feel should be represented. Also, if you feel that the article is still in violation of our NPOV policy, then I encourage you to re-tag it. - Borofkin 22:24, 5 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
User talk:69.107.132.113

Welcome
Thanks for experimenting with Wikinews. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles may disrupt the site's working and will be reverted quickly. 69.107.132.113, welcome to Wikinews! Please refrain from using content pages for testing. Here are a few good links for newcomers on how to edit Wikinews:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Deprifry|+T+ 21:57, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
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 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:69.107.132.113


text:
User:Sfullenwider/sandbox

hahahaha--<I>sfullenwider</I> 06:56, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
 * --sfullenwider 06:57, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

 * PepsiCo buys Poland's Star Foods

title: User:Sfullenwider/sandbox


text:
User:SixTimes7~enwikinews

6 * 9 = 42
''Note: This is NOT a typo! It's simple fact, as will be recognized by those who have read'' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

title: User:SixTimes7~enwikinews


text:
User:Learn2EditPlz

College newspaper editor.

title: User:Learn2EditPlz


text:
Talk:Compensation funding agreement reached for Australian asbestos victims

Please rewrite this without any opinion stated. Quotes of bias are OK, but commenting in a news article is against the NPOV policy here. --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 01:43, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

It is my opinion that the article is fit to be published and is not against the NPOV policy. thus i vote for it published with out NPOV --Whywhywhy 08:20, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

I just cant see the reason for POW-tagging this article. Do you dislike the last part? "This move has been speculated as being a way for the company to avoid paying the fund the entitled amount." What I see its a fact that speculations about it is going on. Based on the sources below it is a summary. Every article can be inproved, but your hardhanded tagging is not necesary in this case. "Can the extra money be recovered, or is the company beyond the reach of NSW law now that it is domiciled in Amsterdam?" "Meanwhile the Commission heard Monday that James Hardie organised its affairs last year so that it would not have to provide more funds to the trust it set up in February 2001 to handle asbestos compensation even if the trust established a legal claim, chief executive Peter Macdonald agreed under cross-examination yesterday."

I republish International 08:45, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * You will not republish this until it is fixed. Whywhywhy was briefed on the reasonings by both I and also concerns from other users in the IRC chat room.  USERS WILL NOT VOTE ON WHAT IS AND WHAT ISN'T NPOV.  NPOV WILL NOT BE BYPASSED BECAUSE OF A VOTE.  I think it is pretty obvious in this case where the biased statements lie, so therefore I won't waste my time trying to hold your hands through it.  I've done that too many times.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 15:11, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Additionally, you may find the biased statements in areas that are not backed by people's claims, etc. We are not here to point to the sources, we are here to tell the whole story.  If you only want to submit small summaries and point people to a link, please contribute to the Current events section of Wikipedia instead.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 15:15, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * i would hardly call it a brief. You didnt break down any of your concerns. You just stated that the article was NPOV and needed a rewrite and i asked repeatedly for a breakdown. Some input from other members happen but it hardly helped the article.I am doing my best but Unfortunatly i dont see many other people publish articles so I try fill the gap best i can--Whywhywhy 04:18, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Also i would like to remind you MrM "Wikimedia's consensus practice does not justify stubborn insistence on an eccentric position combined with refusal to consider other viewpoints in good faith. With respect to good faith, no amount of emphasized assertions that you are editing according to the neutral point of view while engaging in biased editing will serve to paper over the nature of your activities"--Whywhywhy 06:21, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Wikinews will never fall to biased articles. Not as long as I'm here, and that's a promise. --MrMiscellanious(talk) (contribs) 23:20, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * well if thats the case your welcome to try editing before sending back to develope.--Whywhywhy 02:58, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Have I understand things right, is this corect, Whywhywhy:
"Under cross-examination, in front of the special Commission of inquiry in Sydney 2004, CEO Peter Macdonald said Hardie organised its affairs last year so that it would not have to provide more funds to the trust it set up in February 2001 to handle asbestos compensation even if the trust established a legal claim."

International 09:10, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

maybe i should replace it with that quote what do you think?--Whywhywhy 10:34, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

The title
Is it just me or does the title make no sense? - Apollyon 15:14, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * it's not just you Doldrums 16:20, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * what about " Corporate watchdog is closing in on asbestos funding scandal" International 16:35, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * or "Corporate watchdog focus on directors in Australian asbestos funding scandal"International 18:36, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * New one "Corporate watchdog focus on directors in Australian asbestos funding scandal after victim conpensation deal signed" International 20:47, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

major rewrite
Whywhywhy, is it acceptabe for you? Else just change back and maybe use part of it. The part that angerd mrm can be used imo because it come in another consistency, do as you will.International 20:47, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Just because it came from somewhere else doesn't mean it's acceptable to Wikinews standards. MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 22:35, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I still think it is corresponding with the "truth" and history of this story.

"In December 2001, the company shareholders unanimously voted to restructure and relocate the company in the Netherlands as a parent company. This move has been speculated as being a way for the company to avoid paying the fund the entitled amount."

And this is my opinion as a editor, nothing else, no voting, and you cant obviously dont accept that there is other opinion than yours here. Well, its not a hot topic anymore. International 23:50, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * You never stated who speculated the move was to "cover up" the funds. That makes it a biased statement.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 23:59, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Rewrite
Thumbs up. Good job, NPOV no longer needed. Move to publish when you feel fit, but this statement is still confusing to me: "The Australian corporate watchdog ASIC(Australian Securities and Investments Commission) is now gaining grounds on James Hardie Industries corporate members." --MrMiscellanious (talk) (contribs) 22:35, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I've not followed this, so can't comment on MrM's earlier concerns. However, I do agree this "gaining grounds" statement doesn't parse well. Are they perhaps "considering bringing cases against" these people?
 * I also think it needs a clearer title, more people will be prompted to read it if it mentions the asbestos compensation. Brian McNeil / talk 22:54, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * "Australian asbestos victims get conpensation- Corporate watchdog focus on directors dealing " Is it good or is it good? International 00:03, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Victims are still not assured of compensation... maybe, Trust funding set for Australian asbestos victims... I'd leave the directors out (too much information). -68.232.153.54 00:32, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * theirs is hardly to much information. thanks for the rewrite. I liked my title better but hey this will do. thanks again--Whywhywhy 03:48, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

What is the Jackson inquiry?
oh, sorry I get it: NSW Special Commissioner David Jackson QC -68.232.153.54 00:48, 5 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
South Dakota tower demolition botched

December 4, 2005

South Dakotans got more than a charity bash Saturday after a planned demolition of the tallest building in South Dakota, a feed plant tower, went badly. Experts will attempt to reprise their role on Monday, planting more explosives to topple the now leaning Zip Feed Mill tower of Sioux Falls, or perhaps finish it by smashing it down with a wrecking ball.

Some would like to see the odd landmark stay in its 30 degree list as a tourist attraction. But few believe the partnership that owns it will stand for such a ruse. Most believe the tower is a major menace in its present half-demolished position.

Tickets were sold for a dollar each to raise money for local charities, raising over $100,000. The massive concrete structure's ability to withstand the timed and computer designed blasting pattern was underestimated.

The 202 foot tower was the tallest building in South Dakota, but may no longer be so due to its tilt.

title: South Dakota tower demolition botched


text:
Talk:South Dakota tower demolition botched

the tallest feed plant tower in Sioux Falls? G Clark 02:22, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

No it's the tallest building period. I remember seeing that ont he highway, I used to live in Sioux Falls. The second tallest building is probably this phone company building down on mainstreet, it's pretty big (by south dakota standards anyway, there's nothing in this crappy hick state).

It's the tallest building in the state. --Sfullenwider 19:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
Scissors, screwdrivers accepted on US flights beginning December 22

December 4, 2005 The United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced Friday that it will relax proscriptions against certain carry-on items. Beginning December 22, travelers flying in the United States will be allowed to carry scissors less than four inches in length and screwdrivers less than seven inches in length.

The TSA hopes that by relaxing restrictions on scissors and screwdrivers, screeners will be able to more closely guard against items such as box cutters and bomb making materials. There have been no restrictions on items such as scissor and screwdrivers in checked luggage -- in fact, box cutters, ice axes/picks, knives, meat cleavers, razor-type blades, sabers, and swords can all be transported in checked baggage.

As part of a broader security realignment, TSA screeners will begin performing more random searches of carry-on bags, pat downs, and hand-wand searches of travelers.

"By incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals that wish to do us harm," TSA chief Kip Hawley said.

Flight attendants and pilots largely oppose the changes in permitted items -- they maintain that the changes undermine flight security.


title: File:4December2005.pdf


title: File:4December2005.sxw


text:
Bush's Iraq 'Strategy' seen as public relations exercise

December 4, 2005

The US commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command in Iraq said that he had no knowledge of the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq document released by the US President. This, along with speculation that the document was chiefly authored by a public opinion analyst recruited by the White House have led to some critics claiming that the drafted 'strategy' is targeting US public opinion, not the Iraqi insurgency.

The military, political and economic strategy for Iraq, outlined last week by President Bush in a speech at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was based by a 35-page document titled the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq. A metadata tag on the document posted on the White House website identified its author as a computer user 'feaver_p'. It is believed to refer to Dr. Peter D. Feaver, a special advisor to the National Security Council staff.

A political scientist at Duke University, Dr. Feaver analyzed public opinion polls about the Iraq war and attitudes towards war casualties. Dr. Feaver found that US public opinion will support military engagement abroad, despite growing casualties, provided that the public believed that the war was being fought for a worthy cause and that victory was achievable.

Dr. Feaver was one of the people who helped "conceive and draft" the document, according to a White House staffer, who said that Meghan L. O'Sullivan, the deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, and her staff played a larger role. White House officials confirmed to the New York Times that the document's "creation and presentation strongly reflected the public opinion research".

The document "reflects the broad interagency effort under way in Iraq" according to an NSC spokesman Frederick Jones and had received major contributions from the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as the director of National Intelligence.

On Friday, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, whose Multinational Security Transition Command is responsible for building Iraq's security forces, told reporters that he had seen the strategy document for the first time when it was released to the public. The White House had said that not all senior officers in Iraq had necessarily seen the document and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that he had read and critiqued the document on several occasions.

Earlier, replying to questions about the President's strategy, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that the document was an "inter-agency document" and an "unclassified version" of the administrations "strategy for victory in Iraq" published for the public to view.

Christopher F. Gelpi, of Duke University, who co-authored Dr. Feaver's work titled Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq, stated, "The Pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the White House Web site to know how to fight the insurgents. The document is clearly targeted at American public opinion." In their work together, Gelpi, Feaver and Reifler found that the most important factor which determines the US public's tolerance for US military deaths in a war is the public's beliefs about the likelihood of success, and a secondary, but still important, factor, was found to be the public's belief in the rightness of a war.


text:
File talk:Kyoto Protocol participation map 2005.png

Is there any reason why this 2005 map doesn't have the former USSR divided up? Just wondering. --72.48.117.43 08:29, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
Turkish islamic militant claims interrogation and torture by CIA agents

December 10, 2005

Turkish daily newspaper SABAH reported that the leader of Ansar El Islam group (Soldiers of God) claimed that prior to the NATO summit in 2004 in Istanbul, "he was interrogated by three foreigners and beaten."

On 29 April 2004, before the NATO Summit, which was to be held in June in Istanbul, Alpaslan Toprak, who is claimed to be the Turkish representative of Ansar El Islam, and 15 others were detained by the police after being given information by the CIA.

Toprak was separated from others in his group. He was blindfolded and interrogated in a secret location by four people, three of whom were speaking in English. He was beaten up and a gun was placed on his head. His allegations were included in his court statement, dated 12 May 2005.

According to the SABAH, during the interrogation of Toprak, a CIA plane was in Turkey.

The CIA has not issued a statement about the specific claims.


text:
Talk:East Timor - Australia problematic billion-dollar gas and oil accord

can i use this image in my article? http://www.timorseaoffice.gov.tp/bumap.htm --Whywhywhy 10:59, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


text:
Blogger attacks Amazon "One-Click" patent

December 4, 2005

A lone blogger has recently mailed a request for re-examination of the Amazon "One-Click" shopping patent to the US Patent Office. As prior art, he is using an early e-commerce patent and some information about DigiCash from sources such as the Wayback machine, which ironically uses data from Alexa (wholly owned by Amazon).

He is asking others to submit additional prior art and points out that there may be other prior art that can be found. He is also looking for donations to cover some of his costs such as the USD $2,520 reexamination fee.


text:
Top al-Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan

December 4, 2005

Pakistani security forces have reportedly killed Abu Hamza Rabia, one of top five leaders in international islamic fundamentalist campaign al-Qaeda. With the help of the United States, Pakistani forces tracked down Rabia and killed him in a rocket attack near the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Rabia was among five people who were killed in the blast on Thursday in North Waziristan. According to official reports corroborated by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, the blast was set off as the victims were making explosives inside a suspected al-Qaeda hideout. An anonymous senior intelligence officer said that a missile attack triggered a massive explosion in a stockpile of bomb-making materials, grenades and other munitions.

Hamza Rabia is a key associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent figure in al-Qaeda. "After Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, Rabia was the most senior al Qaeda official for international terrorism planning," a US counteterrorism official said. According to officials, Rabia ranks somewhere between third and fifth in the organization's hierarchy. He is believed to have become the network's operational commander after the capture of Abu Farraj al-Libbi in Pakistan in May.

Intelligence officials said that Rabia was the target of the attack due to his alleged involvement in terror attacks and killings of government officials. He was brought to Miran Shah, a strategic tribal region where remaining al-Qaeda members are believed to have been hiding, by al-Zawahri, who is believed to have been on the run along the border. Officials, however, say that they have no idea on the whereabouts of al-Zawahri or Osama bin Laden.

Bodies of Rabia and two other foreigners were retreived and buried by associates from outside Pakistan, according to Pakistan's English-language Dawn newspaper.

title: Top al-Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan


text:
User talk:205.188.116.74

Looman
Whit is "Looman"? User:Patricknoddy (Talk) 1:32pm December 4, 2005 EDT

title: User talk:205.188.116.74


text:
User:Patricknoddy~enwikinews

About Me
Hi, I am Patrick Valdosta, Georgia. I used to live in Hurricane, West Virginia, but I moved away in 2004. I like politics and history. I want to be president someday.

title: User:Patricknoddy~enwikinews


text:
World Squash Titles for Shabana and David

December 4, 2005

Amr Shabana and Nicol David won the men's and women's World Squash Open's respectively, today, in Hong Kong. It was Shabana's second World Title in three years, as the Egyptian also won in 2003. It was David's first time winning the biggest tournament in the world.

Shabana beat Australian David Palmer 11/6,11/7,11/8 in 40 minutes. Shabana is currently ranked number 5 in the world, and will likely move into the top 3 next month, as neither the World #1 (Theirry Lincou), or number 2 (James Willstrop) reached the final.

David, who is from Malaysia, secured the #1 spot in next month's rankings by reaching the final. David defeated Number 1 seed Rachel Grinham, of Australia 8/10,9/2,9/6,9/7 in 53 minutes, to take the title.


text:
Wikinews:Briefs/Business/December 4, 2005

December 4, 2005

These are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

G7 keeps pressure on China over currency
Financial ministers and central bank governors from the G7 countries are pressuring China to make it's exchange rate more flexible. "We expect that further flexible implementation of China's currency system would improve the functioning and stability of the global economy and the international monetary system," they said in a written statement. Separately US Treasury Secretary John Snow said "China's new exchange rate system has operated with too " He remarked "This rigidity constrains exchange rate flexibility in the region and thus poses risks to China's economy and the global economy."

Virgin Mobile in talks to merge with NTL
Virgin Mobile is in merger talks with the cable operator NTL Inc. The deal will create UK's first company able to provide mobile, landline, Broadband, and TV services. Richard Branson, who holds 72% of Virgin Mobile, will own 14% of the new company to be called Virgin. The company will pose a strategic threat to Sky Broadcasting, which is 37% owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

U.S. Gas prices drop an average of 11 cents
Retail gas prices in the United States have dropped an average of 11 cents in the past two weeks according to the Lundberg Survey. The Survey, released today, says the weighted average price for all three grades fell to $2.16 a gallon as of December 2. The semimonthly survey surveys 7,000 gas stations nationwide. The lowest average price for regular unleaded was $1.89 a gallon in Tulsa, OK. The highest price was $2.55 in Honolulu. Gas prices have fallen about 88 cents a gallon since September according to Lundberg.


text:
US, UK persuade Russia and China of laptop authenticity

December 11, 2005

Iran's nuclear issue is heating up as United States and Britain try to persuade Russia and China to accept the authenticity of the evidence found in "The Laptop" given to the U.S. nuclear experts showing Iran's detailed plans for building a nuclear bomb.

The Islamic Republic's long time main opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a.k.a. People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), has been bringing the nuclear issue to the world's attention.

In a press conference in Washington, in August 2002, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq revealed Iran's secret nuclear plan for the first time shocking the western intelligence communities.

Three years since then, new evidence emerging each month has created more suspicions about what Iran claims to be a peaceful project for civilian use.

Driven by increasing pressure from the European allies who have backed down from talks, the Islamic republic has hyped up their global campaign to discredit the Mujahedin-e-Khalq. Some policy makers who offered to put the Iranian opposition in the list of terrorist organizations now repent from their past policy. The PMOI has been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the United States and is proscribed by the European Union.

The National Council of Resistance to Iran quoted Lord Alton of Liverpool, a lawmaker from the British House of Lords, as saying on November 29 in a symposium in the House of Lords, "Having been involved with the activities of the Iranian Resistance over this 25 years, I have learned a great deal about that misinformation campaign and the attempts by the Iranian regime to discredit the PMOI."

The new campaign has concerned Iranian dissidents abroad. An outspoken former national soccer champion, Mr. Hassan Naeb Agha, an active member of the opposition, claims to have been approached by family members under influence of Iran Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) in a psychological warfare in an attempt to penetrate his personal life to stop his activities.


text:
User talk:Vbhadrakshan

Welcome
Vbhadrakshan, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 22:45, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:Vbhadrakshan


text:
User talk:Prateek.ja~enwikinews

Welcome
Prateek.ja, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 22:46, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Prateek.ja. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Prateek.ja~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:23, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:36, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Prateek.ja~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Wilhelmwallin~enwikinews

Welcome
Wilhelmwallin, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - Brian McNeil / talk 23:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Wilhelmwallin. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Wilhelmwallin~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:23, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:40, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Wilhelmwallin~enwikinews


text:
Wikinews:Briefs/Business

Business briefs are small blurbs of information relating to current events in the business world. All business briefs for a single day are collected together on a single page (for example, Business Briefs for December 4, 2005). Certain formatting standards apply on business brief pages.

Editors, please comment out individual briefs, and leave a message on the talk page rather than killing the entire article. Contributors, please create a new section with its own sources. Please add to your brief when you're editing it.

Business briefs template
To simply place the whole layout on the business briefs page, simply put down   on the business briefs page. Click "save page", then add your own briefs to the page. Or use the easy to use inputbox at the bottom of the page

The following instructions still remain, as they expand more on the concept of the layout.

Title of brief
aga'/ngoa m Gj/s;gA Insert 2-3 sentence blurb here.

Source template
Like in an individual article, you must cite your sources. You may do so with the source template, as demonstrated below.

In the author's field, if there are no listed authors, leave field blank. If this article is from an organization such as Associated Press, be sure to list that the writers are from said organization. For example, Sue Mary, Associated Press.

Business brief pages as a whole
Business brief pages should be set up to this standard. Note that parenthetical notes aren't actually supposed to be put in the page.

Mmmmm DD, YYYY

These are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

(Business briefs go here; see brief-writing section.)

(After there are a decent amount of business briefs, you can put here. Until then, have it set on )

Categories
Use the following for each brief For example, On December 14th 2005 you'd put

Note I just was bold, and put this here without asking anyone. If you don't like it feel free to delete. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:21, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Create a new business Brief
Type a title in the box below:

title: Wikinews:Briefs/Business


text:
User talk:71.14.102.85

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! —M ESSED R OCKER (talk) 00:06, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Newsroom - The comunity portal
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Your articles on movies
Hello there! Just to let you know, information about new movie trailers and posters usually do not qualify for Wikinews. Just thought I'd like to let you know. —M ESSED R OCKER (talk) 00:06, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * If you continue adding advertising to Wikinews you will be blocked. --Chiacomo (talk) 00:30, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

A warning
Just to let you know, once an article has been deleted, you must not recreate the article. Do not recreate deleted articles, or I will have to take away your editing privileges. Also keep in mind that if you need help "settling" into Wikinews, feel free to ask me any question. on my talk page. —M ESSED R OCKER (talk) 00:47, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. As you have been aware of before by other members, your new article (New World Entertainment) is not allowed here.  Please see WN:NOT.  If you recreate the story again, you will be blocked.  --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 17:34, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

You have been blocked for 72 hours
You have been blocked from editing en.Wikinews for 72 hours for repeated spam/advertising. If you wish to contact me about your block, I am available via my talk page, [mailto:amgine@saewyc.net e-mail], and usually in IRC. -  Amgine | talk en.WN 00:42, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:71.14.102.85


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UN accuses US of wholesale rights violations in Iraq

December 5, 2005 John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), condemned both the US-installed Iraqi government and the US Armed Forces for breach of human rights, centring largely around widespread detention without authority or trial.

"There is no question that terrorism has to be addressed. But we are equally sure that the remedies being applied... are not the best way of eliminating terrorism," Pace said during an interview on Sunday.

He quoted instances where Iraqi judges had ordered the release of groups of prisoners, and had found not only that their orders had been refused, but found themselves locked up as a reprisal.

On the subject of the Saddam Hussein trial resuming Monday, Pace told Reuters, "Weakness in the system of administration of justice, in addition to the antecedents surrounding the establishment of this tribunal, will never be able to produce the kind of process that would be able to satisfy international standards."

He also pointed out that the Iraqi authorities are the only legal entity allowed to detain prisoners, and that the US prison camps at Abu Ghraib and similar locations are therefore technically illegal.


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Wikinews:Briefs/Business/December 5, 2005

December 5, 2005

These are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

EU too quick to introduce new rules, UK study says
A UK government sponsored report, Routes to Better Regulation - A Guide to Alternatives to Classic Regulation, says the EU is too quick to introduce new rules without considering alternative measures. "All too often the EU looks to introduce prescriptive rules and regulations rather than consider alternative solutions, which can achieve the same goals and help to slash costly red tape," said David Arculus, chairman of the task force that compiled the report. The EU Commission, under president Jose Manuel Barroso has insisted on impact studies before deciding on whether to propose legislation. The Commission announced it will kill off several legislative proposals that have failed to make progress, and is proposing streamlining existing EU rules. The study proposed taking no action instead of introducing new rules. In January, the task force will become an independent commission, which will increase its political strength.

JPMorgan plans to offshore 30% of its back office
JPMorgan is planning to hire 4,500 graduates in India over two years. The plan moves 30% of its back office offshore. The company intends to move the majority of its foreign exchange trades to Mumbai and Bangalore and to move much of the processing of credit derivatives contracts. This is an area where US and UK regulators have expressed concern about backlogs across the industry.


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User talk:Logoboy95~enwikinews

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Chiacomo (talk) 03:17, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Newsroom - The comunity portal
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Paramount Mountain
Your submission listed above is not a news item and probably belongs on Wikipedia. I have deleted it. --Chiacomo (talk) 03:17, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

The stuff you are uploading is in no way suitable for Wikinews. I'm going to delete it and kindly ask you to refrain from posting it again. Please take a look at the links provided to you by Chiacomo to get an idea about what Wikinews is about and what it is not. --Deprifry|+T+ 16:45, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Advise
Hello again. Looking at your Wikipedia talk page I see that you have run into problems there aswell. I'm afraid what you are doing is unsuitable for any Wikimedia project. I instead suggest that you take a look at List of wiki farms and open up your own private wiki for these kind of things. --Deprifry|+T+ 17:04, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Blocked
I still don't know what you are trying to pull with this, but you certainly have to stop therefore I've blocked you for 24 hours. Please explain your reasoning on this page (you can still edit it). --Deprifry|+T+ 21:19, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

WB Shield
Hi!

Wikinews is about news articles, and is not a place for encyclopedic articles. Please do not create articles here about logos or corporations which are not about news. -  Amgine | talk 00:57, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I need a source for the WB shield image or it will be deleted. Please remember to tag images. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 10:33, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikinews is not for logos
Unless you have a specific use for a logo, we can't use it under fair use, and I will delete it! Please stop. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:41, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Blocked
seond time you added wikipedia stuff Jacques Divol 10:15, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Logoboy95. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Logoboy95~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:33, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Logoboy95~enwikinews


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Category:User it-N

People who are native speakers of Italian.

title: Category:User it-N


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Talk:UN accuses US of wholesale rights violations in Iraq

Should the title have all the first letters capitalized? None of the other articles are like that. Neebs 13:36, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

POV?
Wouldn't this article be more neutral if a comparison were made to the former regime's human rights record? You know, mass graves and such? Just to give the reader a perspective on what direction Iraq is headed in, if it is in fact moving in a direction, or just treading water. Deltigar 15:31, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Sure, but it should be done in one of two contexts: add statments from John Pace to that effect, if they exist, and add rebuttals from U.S. officials. Otherwise, you've got to actually make some meaningful comment about just what the situation was before, which is nontrivial to make NPOV itself.  You could also simply add a box saying "Wikipedia has an article about Human rights in Iraq"; thus foisting the whole debate over onto that articles talkpage.  Nyarlathotep 18:41, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't think that information about the previous regeime is necessary. The main thing that would make this article more neutral is responses from the US government to the UN criticism, or if that can't be found, then any statements from the US government on the state of law and order in Iraq. - Borofkin 05:25, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

John Pace is with Amnesty International, nuff said.- --66.32.68.214 19:40, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

John Pace is not entirely correct here. What he says is true if you consider things from one point of view - namely, that Iraq is currently a sovereign state that's full functioning. But that is not exactly the case. While Iraq's political process is being run by the Iraqis (outside pressures not withstanding), it is also without a complete and functioning government. I think that election is Dec. 15. But aside from the technicalities of full-statehood versus transitional statehood, Pace is also wrong in another sense. The US is at war in Iraq. As such, the rules state that from then on they must abide by the Geneva Conventions. But beyond that, the US doesn't have to care a bit what other countries (or even organizations, like the UN, ha) think or want. That said, the US chose formally restore Iraqi sovereignty a year or so back. However, Pace is ultimately wrong because both Iraqi governments (transitional council and this elected assembly) have requested the US to stay. What that means is that, regardless of what this person (wrongly) says, the US is still operating at war. If that's the case, then of course habeus corpus is suspended. But that is another misleading link because habeus corpus is a right guaranteed to US CITIZENS not Iraqis. And if habeus corpus is also written in the International Criminal Court charter, well the US doesn't abide by the charter. So basically, John Pace is wrong on BOTH the US and the Iraqi side of things. Furthermore, the kinds of comments are hardly newsworthy and almost always bias. Think of it this way, John Pace works for a large organization. This story carries weight because it suggests that this large organization is acting in some meaningful way against the United States. It is not. In fact, John Pace's snide comments to the press about human rights abuses (notice he didn't say "violations of the Geneva Convention" which is the only multilateral UN charter applicable here) are simply jibes at the US (more particularly, at the US gov't and possibly its foreign policy). But what is disconcerting about this article is the fact that it is newsworthy in today's times. For a lawyer, John Pace has yet to present anything but hearsay. Objection...


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Talk:Scissors, screwdrivers accepted on US flights beginning December 22

 * "The TSA hopes that by relaxing restrictions on scissors and screwdrivers, screeners will be able to more closely guard against items such as box cutters and bomb making materials."

Why would this be true? Does TSA elaborate anywhere or can someone else follow their logic? If so, the article ought to explain it and if not perhaps this should be a quote instead of an attribution. 193.63.217.208


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Interview with Jimbo Wales

December 10, 2005

While this wasn't Interview with the Vampire, getting a live interview with Jimmy Wales of the Wikimedia Foundation is requiring more work and planning than ever. Four contributors to four different Wikinews language editions (with Swedish, Netherlands, and Polish) arranged to interview "Jimbo" in the Wikinews IRC channel, squeezed in before interviews with a periodical and a cable news source.

Wikinews
The interview was held publically in the Wikinews IRC channel because Wikinews was one of the prime topics for the interview.

Wikinews is approximately one year old, with the English and German editions premiering the first week of December 2004. Since then the project has produced more than 13,000 articles in 16 languages, including the recently added Hebrew, Russian, and Japanese.

The project has not been without its detractors, and the questions asked of Mr. Wales reflected some of the most common criticisms.

 * Wikinews: Wikinews seems primarily dedicated to regurgitating what is already being published on main stream media news sources. Was this the vision for Wikinews?

 * Jimmy Wales: I would not use the term 'regurgitating', which sounds rather negative, but rather 'synthesis' which is a more subtle and more important process. This was always a part of the core vision for Wikinews, though of course we want to do a lot more in time.

 * The wiki movements seem focused on local expertise; people work on things they are interested and expert in. Why is there very little local news on Wikinews, which it seems like it would be best qualified to produce?

 * Wiki editing thrives on local knowledge, but 'local' in an epistemological sense, not necessarily in a geographical sense. For example, I personally know a lot more about world news on topics that interest me and could synthesize much better in those areas, than I know about local politicians where I live.

 * Do you believe that Wikinews, or any of the Wiki projects qualify as a meritocracy?

 * I hope so. :-) Although the wiki process sometimes strikes people as being inherently favoring egalitarianism or anarchy, there is a certain sense in which the wiki editing tool is neutral to social structures. As a matter of simple description, it does turn out that users who do quality work end up having a lot more power than users who do bad work. So in that sense, yes, it is a meritocracy, but an informal one.

 * "Current Events" is not "encyclopedic" enough to reside on Wikipedia! On many Wikipedia projects content have been moved to Wikibooks and Wikisource, shouldn't "Current Events" be transferred to Wikinews in the same way?

 * I have no very strong opinion about this. Encyclopedia articles about current events are in many ways different from news articles about current events. I suspect we should have some parallel work going on, and Wikinews should be more prominently featured in this way on the Wikipedia homepage. But that's a big internal community discussion that other people know more about than I do.

 * All Wikimedia Foundation projects currently use the free MediaWiki software, which was purposely-designed for the Wikipedia project. Which makes it an excellent tool for an online community-developed encyclopedia, but perhaps not so perfect for other forms of knowledge bases like Wikisource or Wikinews. For Wikinews, an important tool was the creation of Dynamic Page List, an extension to the software which allows lists of current articles to be built dynamically when they are published so the latest news is on the main page.

 * When Wikinews was started a year ago, a need for new functions quickly appeared. Dynamic Page Lists are crucial to Wikinews and several other tools should be developed as they are asked for. The situation is similar on other projects (e.g. Wiktionary), maybe a plan for developing a project specific software package should precede the creation of new projects?

 * I do think we could do a better job of anticipating the software needs of new projects, but it is also important to understand that a lot of needs are not readily apparent a priori. Sometimes we have to try to do things for awhile before we really have an understanding of where the problem points are.

 * The Associated Press has changed their copyright notice with articles to include "you may not rewrite this article." Is Wikinews creating an impact on how other news sources release their information?

 * I think that mainstream news sources are very much paying attention not just to Wikinews but to the entire citizen journalism movement. I think that many thoughtful people in the business understand that a sea change is happening, and are interested in figuring out how to empower more community input while still getting the best out of the old models.

 * I had dinner with Don Graham last Friday night, and he's an example of someone who isn't reacting to new media with shock and horror, but rather with keen interest in trying to see what the trends will be and how to adapt.

 * Could you expand on "the best out of the old models."?

 * Well, to expand on 'best of the old models' -- one thing that often comes up is that you have a reputation mechanism in traditional publishing, a mechanism which sometimes breaks, but which mostly works. Citizen journalism has to find ways to generate the same kind of reputation mechanisms. Blogs are finding that, to some extent.

 * What is your opinion on Wikinews users gaining credentials to be used in the field?

 * It sounds cool to me, although I'm sensitive to the concerns that people have put forward about it. It's something I plan to study further this month, to see how it is working in practice so far, and to see what users feel about it.

 * Have you had any reports back about it so far? As in experiences that people have had?

 * None.

Wikimedia Foundation fund drive
The Wikimedia Foundation has turned to its constituency to cover basic operating costs as well as the ongoing capital expenditures which seem to grow at the same rate as Wikipedia's popularity: exponentially. From the first fundraiser in December/January of 2003/2004 (which raised about $30,000 after a server catastrophe) to the Fall Quarter fundraiser in 2005 (which raised $244,000), each fund raiser has met the goals laid out for it, usually in a very brief time frame.

"We wish to cover two quarters," said Florence Nibart-Devouard, member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board.

The draft budget for just the first quarter of 2006 is projecting costs of more than $400,000; and projections put the year's expenditures near $3.2 million over all. But beyond the general goal of covering the budgets for two quarters, the foundation has not placed a specific financial goal for their upcoming fund raiser.

 * This fund drive is open-ended; there is no financial goal. One can find rumours there are estimates of unstated goals which start at a million dollars US and go up from there. How much money does the Wikimedia Foundation need to raise from this drive?

 * [JWales] Rumors sounds strange to me. Rumors? Anyway, our best estimate for the bare minimum needed in the next year just to keep the website running is $1 million to $2 million depending on how long and how fast traffic continues to grow. Traditionally we have been constrained in our growth by the website responding slowly during the time we are waiting for new servers to be purchased and integrated into the system.

 * Our _stated_ goal is to create and distribute a freely licensed high quality encyclopedia to every single person on the planet in their own language.

 * We know that we are achieving that goal very well in some parts of the world, and not so well in other parts of the world.

 * It is my intention that we should experiment with some ways that funding could help with this: for example, hiring co-ordinators for some small languages, to recruit native speakers to work on the project.

 * 1-2 million USD is a big jump from the past budgets; is that kind of budget growth sustainable with the fundraiser model?

 * [JWales] Well, that's an open question but I think so. Needs increase with traffic increases, but with traffic increases we have a bigger audience to ask for help. Hopefully those two things scale together reasonably well.

 * Ward Cunningham was discussing a distributed wiki model at wikimania, has this avenue been pursued further?

 * [JWales] I don't know of any serious technical work being done on a distributed wiki model, but I'm personally a skeptic about whether such a model would serve our actual needs. I'm open to ideas though. :-)

 * Do you think having an open fundraiser will bring in more or less money than having a fundraiser with a definite goal? Why do you think so?

 * [JWales] I think that having an open fundraiser will bring in more money, for two reasons.

 * First, I think people have often looked at the pace of the fundraising and the amount being raised, and made a decision not to give based on the fact that we seemed to be meeting our goal.

 * Second, I just go by the general behavior of other large charities, which often have open fund drives. I assume they do so for a good reason. In any event, we should try it and see.

 * But is there a reason to call it a "drive" at all if there is no goal?

 * [JWales] I often think that, as Wikipedians, we project our own ways of thinking onto our audience. We are the sort of people who look closely at budgets and think about goals and achievability. That's great for us. But a lot of people are ready to trust us and will respond better to our big picture vision. They don't care to know in grand detail (though of course we will always stand ready to tell them) where every penny is going. They respond, instead, to an appeal to the aesthetic beauty of our project.

 * The fundraiser is very low-key, and barely visible. If raising money is so important to the future of the project, why doesn't WMF put it front and center, giving it real space and bandwidth on the main pages and even article pages?

 * [JWales] Well, we do that during the actual fund drive, but we're hopelessly tasteful of course, so I doubt we will ever be too horribly glaring about it. :-)

 * The current fundraiser is manually updated, takes place exclusively online, and so on. It's rather like a high school prom fundraiser in the USA. Have you considered developing an integrated campaign with feedback, for example automating a graph of the funds raised and tracking the donations across countries and currencies?

 * [JWales] Yes, we would love to have a fancier system. It is my feeling that we're going to have to pay for the development of such a system, because volunteer developers are (quite rightly) more interested in more intellectually challenging programming issues. So part of why we need to raise money is so we can be more efficient about raising money in the future.

 * You have become a cause célèbre, and famous with the rise of the Wikipedia project. Are you using your celebrity to encourage the rich and famous people you’ve come in contact with to make donations?

 * [JWales] Yes. I'm now a full-time beggar. :)

 * Many traditional charity programs spend the majority of fundraising dollars on fundraisers. What is the estimate for the cost of this fundraiser, versus what you expect to raise? To qualify this question; some of the fundraising ratios seen are upwards of 80% of funds raised go for fundraising.

 * [JWales] For the exact numbers, it will be best to consult with Mav (our CFO) and Michael (our Treasurer) as well as published results from past efforts. But obviously since the fund raising is done almost exclusively on the website itself (which costs no money), our efficiency is very very high. I don't know the exact numbers, but our costs are mostly just the bank fees and paypal fees.

 * I think it's terrible when charities are that inefficient. I think fundraising expenses should be as low as reasonably possible.

 * The current conflict over the Seigenthaler article has raised some ire outside the internet wikimedia community; How do you think this will affect, if at all, corporate or personal donations during this fund drive?

 * [JWales] I don't think it will affect it. It's just news, there's always some news. If anything, I am hopeful that donations will increase just because more people are learning of us.

 * On what do you intend to spend this fundraiser's donations? Do you plan to use some of the funding raised to improve the reliability of Wikipedia? For example, will you hire fact checkers?

 * [JWales] The bulk of the money will go, as usual, to hardware purchases. Some of the money will go to improving the software, which in turn will improve reliability. Hiring fact checkers is not being considered.

 * Fundraisers are not the only source of funding for Wikimedia Foundation. What other revenue streams, such as grants and contracts, does the Foundation currently have? What others are being applied for or worked on?

 * [JWales] We have a small but growing amount of income from partners who pay us for the service of a realtime data stream. For people who reuse our content commercially this is a nice way for them to get a more quickly updated result. We have gotten a few grants in the past, and some grants are being worked on now.

 * Danny Wool recently joined the foundation, working in the office as my assistant, but a portion of his time is devoted to grant applications. We anticipate that in the future he will work fulltime on grant applications after training a replacement assistant for me.

 * What companies are paying realtime data streams?

 * [JWales] Answers.com for example.

 * You've mentioned hiring some new employees, like Danny Wool. What's the projection for increasing the budget for employee time?

 * [JWales] I expect that in the coming year we will want to hire a minimum of 5-10 people, but depending on getting grants, I could see the number going much higher.

 * One thing which is certainly true at the moment: at the foundation level we are overwhelmed with work.

Follow-on questions
As the interview progressed, with more and more observers, we got to that point where we really wanted to dig deeper into certain aspects of answers to our questions, but were short on time. Then it turned into a classic press conference, with interviewers tossing out questions rapid fire and Mr. Wales answering quickly and briefly to as many as he could... with all of us wishing we had more time to get more details and explanations.

 * Today on en.wikipedia the ability to create new pages has been turned off for anonymous users. Is The Wikimedia Foundation slowly turning away from the original wiki principles?

 * [JWales] I don't view minor tweaks here and there to our model as either turning towards or away from wiki principles.

 * The mainland People's Republic of China has blocked WP, and today Onet.pl has removed WP from their search engine. Will changes in accessibility harm the fund drive?

 * [JWales] We don't traditionally get much money from Mainland China, and I doubt if the Polish search engine example will hurt the traffic of pl.wikipedia very much. (It will probably hurt the search engine more!)

 * Mr. Seigenthaler's bio, and we've just discovered Mr. Graham's, were posted by anons. The first was a smear campaign, the second a copyvio of a press release. Obviously the former is a problem, but doesn't the latter also open Wikipedia up to being an advertising site?

 * We don't have a huge problem with people using Wikipedia for PR purposes, although I'm sure a little of it goes on here and there. I've never seen a really convincing case.

 * I'm a contributor mostly on the Swedish projects. You don't speak Swedish, so I'm wondering if you ever look at non-English projects? Do you even notice us?

 * [JWales] :)

 * I am learning to speak German, so I do try to read German Wikipedia. And I do look at other languages, although of course I can't read anything there.

 * What I do to try to be useful to other languages is communicate with people as much as I can, visit people in person as much as I can, and monitor the statistics pages to see what is going on.

title: Interview with Jimbo Wales