text:
Wikinews:Conflict of interest

A Wikinews conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility, or appearance of impropriety, between the aim of Wikinews to produce a neutral article, and the aims, affiliations, or political views of an individual editor or group of editors.

COI editing involves contributing to Wikinews in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. Where an editor must forego advancing the aims of Wikinews in order to advance outside interests, they stand in a conflict of interest.

COI edits are strongly discouraged. When they cause disruption to the project in the opinion of an uninvolved administrator, they may lead to accounts being blocked and embarrassment for the individuals and groups who were being promoted. Editing in the interests of public relations is particularly frowned upon. This includes, but is not limited to, edits made by public relations departments of corporations; or of other public or private for-profit or not-for-profit organizations; or by professional editors paid to edit a Wikinews article with the sole intent of improving that organization's image.

What is a conflict of interest?

 * See also:What Wikinews is not

Wikinews is an online news source, not a forum for advertising or self-promotion, or a vanity press. As such, it should contain only material that complies with its content policies, and Wikinewsies must place the interests of the project first. Any editor who gives priority to outside interests may be subject to a conflict of interest.

If other editors suggest that your editing violates Wikinews' standards, take that advice seriously and consider stepping back, reassessing your edits, and discussing your intentions with the community.

Examples
If you fit either of these descriptions:
 * Financial

 * 1) you are receiving monetary or other benefits or considerations to edit Wikinews as a representative of an organization (whether directly as an employee or contractor of that organization, or indirectly as an employee or contractor of a firm hired by that organization for public relations purposes); or,
 * 2) you expect to derive monetary or other benefits or considerations from editing Wikinews; for example, by being the owner, officer or other stakeholder of a company or other organisation about which you are writing;

then we very strongly encourage you to avoid editing Wikinews in areas where there is a conflict of interest that would make your edits non-neutral (biased). Wikinews' neutral point of view policy states that all articles must represent views fairly and without bias, and conflicts of interest do significantly and negatively affect Wikinews' ability to fulfill this requirement. If your financially-motivated edits would be non-neutral, do not post them.

If you are involved in a court case, or close to one of the litigants, you would find it very hard to demonstrate that what you wrote about a party or a law firm associated with the case, or a related area of law, was entirely objective. Even a minor slip up in neutrality in a court-case article on Wikinews for an active case-in-progress could potentially be noticed by the courts or their parties, and this could potentially cause real-world harm, not just harm to Wikinews. Because of this, we strongly discourage editing when this type of conflict exists.
 * Legal antagonists

Conflict of interest often presents itself in the form of self-promotion, including advertising links, personal website links, personal or semi-personal photos, or other material that appears to promote the private or commercial interests of the editor, or their associates.
 * Self-promotion

Examples of these types of material include:
 * 1) Links that appear to promote products by pointing to obscure or not particularly relevant commercial sites (commercial links).
 * 2) Links that appear to promote otherwise obscure individuals by pointing to their personal pages.
 * 3) Biographical material that does not significantly add to the clarity or quality of the article.

 * Close relationships

Closeness to a subject does not mean you're incapable of being neutral, but it may incline you towards some bias. Be guided by the advice of other editors. If editors on a talk page suggest in good faith that you may have a conflict of interest, try to identify and minimize your biases, and consider withdrawing from editing the article. As a rule of thumb, the more involvement you have with a topic in real life, the more careful you should be with our core content policies — Neutral point of view and Citing sources — when editing in that area. The definition of "too close" in this context is governed by common sense.

Activities regarded by insiders as simply "getting the word out" may appear promotional or propagandistic to the outside world. If you edit articles while involved with organizations that engage in advocacy in that area, you may have a conflict of interest.
 * Campaigning

Producing promotional articles for Wikinews on behalf of clients is strictly prohibited.
 * Promotional article production on behalf of clients

How to avoid COI edits
Wikinews can be edited by anyone, but if you have a conflict of interest avoid, or exercise great caution when:
 * 1) Editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with,
 * 2) Participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors,
 * 3) Linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam);
 * and you must always:
 * 1) Avoid breaching relevant policies and guidelines, especially neutral point of view, and Citing sources.

How to handle conflicts of interest
Conflict of interest often raises questions as to whether material should be included in the project or not. It also can be a cause, or contributing factor, in disputes over whether editors have an agenda that undermines the mission of Wikinews. Suspected conflict of interest incidents may be reported on the Admin Action Alerts page.

The first approach should be direct discussion of the issue with the editor, referring to this policy. If persuasion fails, consider whether you are involved in a content dispute. Editors and admins may act in conflict of interest situations as in any case of point of view pushing. However, using COI allegations to gain the upper hand in a content dispute is frowned upon.
 * Dealing with suspected conflicted editors

All text created in the Wikinews main namespace is subject to rules covering criteria for articles (what Wikinews is not); editorial approach (neutral point of view); as well as the Wikinews copyright policy. All editors are expected to stick closely to these policies when creating and evaluating material, and to respect the good faith actions of others who edit content to ensure it complies with these policies.
 * Primacy of basic content policies

Who has written the material should be irrelevant so long as these policies are closely adhered to. The imputation of conflict of interest is not by itself a good reason to remove sound material from articles. However, an apparent conflict of interest is a good reason for close review by the community to identify any subtle bias.

During debates in articles' talk pages and at articles for deletion, disparaging comments may fly about the subject of the article/author and the author's motives. These may border on personal attacks, and may discourage the article's creator from making future valuable contributions.
 * Importance of civility

This is accusatory and discouraging. It is not helpful, nor reason to delete an article. Never assume prohibits the assumption an editor is acting in bad faith (or good faith).
 * Avoid using the word "vanity" or similar judgmental terms

Another case is within disputes relating to non-neutral points of view, where underlying conflicts of interest may aggravate editorial disagreements. In this scenario, it may be easy to make claims about conflict of interest. Do not use conflict of interest as an excuse to gain the upper hand in a content dispute. When conflicts exist, invite the conflicted editor to contribute to the article talk page, and give their views fair consideration.
 * Conflict of interest in point of view disputes

How not to handle COI
There is a little drama that is enacted more often than it should be.

 * Act One: Someone writes a hatchet job about a company with a less than stellar reputation.

 * Act Two: The company arrives, and is (justifiably) horrified and angered by the hatchet job. They respond without experience, clumsily, by trying to force a change to a whitewash.

 * Act Three: A self-righteous Wikinewsie responds in anger against the attempt to "censor" or "whitewash" by yelling at the company and forcing the article back to a hatchet-job status.

 * Act Four: The company comes crying to otrs and the office.

 * Act Five: In the happy version of the ending, otrs/the office comes in and reminds everyone to act with love and neutrality to write a good article which is acceptable to both reasonable critics and reasonable supporters of the company. Reliance on solid sources, neutral language, etc. carries the day.

In reality, Act Five often ends up cycling back through Acts One through Four. This is a Bad Thing.

Remember: an editor with a self-evident conflict of interest turning up on the talk page is an indication that they are playing it straight. Even if the changes they advocate are hopelessly biased, treat them with respect and courtesy, refer to policy and sources, and above all be fair.

Editors who may have a conflict of interest
This section of the policy is aimed at editors who may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikinews' neutral point of view policy, edits in mainspace where there is a clear conflict of interest, or where such a conflict can be reasonably assumed, are strongly discouraged. Significantly biased edits in mainspace are forbidden.

Declaring an interest
Some editors declare an interest in a particular topic area. They do this in various ways. Many Wikinewsies show their allegiances and affiliations on their user pages. You may choose to reveal something about yourself in a talk page discussion. Disclaimer: Wikinews gives no advice about whether or how to use its pages to post personal details. This guideline only raises some pros and cons.

Advantages:
 * By declaring an interest, you pre-empt anyone outing you or questioning your good faith.
 * Most editors will appreciate your honesty.
 * You lay the basis for requesting help from others to post material for you, or to review material you wish to post yourself.

Disadvantages:
 * Your declaration may be invoked against you at some point.
 * Your edits to the area in question may attract extra attention.
 * Your declaration will give you no special rights as an advocate. You may even be cautioned or, in extreme cases, told to stay away from certain topics.

In the case of commercial editing (editing on behalf of a company):

 * 1) a disclosure enables you to ask openly for help in getting material posted and edited, but
 * 2) once your position is known, you will have to adhere stringently to neutral edits of affected articles, or no edits at all. Note that if you only correct bias against your company and its interests, and not bias in its favour, your editing will be different from that of a regular Wikinewsie, who would be expected to do both.

Defending interests
In a few cases, outside interests coincide with Wikinews' interests. An important example is that unsupported defamatory material appearing in articles may be removed at once. Anyone may do this, and should do this, and this policy applies widely to any unsourced or poorly sourced, potentially libellous postings. In this case it is unproblematic to defend the interest of the person or institution involved. An entire article that presents as an attack piece or hostile journalism can be nominated for speedy deletion and will be removed promptly from the site. Those who post here in this fashion will also be subject to administrative sanction.

On the other hand, the removal of reliably sourced critical material is not permitted. Accounts of public controversies, if backed by reliable sources, form an integral part of Wikinews' coverage. Slanting the balance of articles as a form of defence of some figure, group, institution, or product is bad for the project.

Suggesting changes to articles, or requesting a new article
An editor with a conflict of interest who wishes to suggest substantive changes to an article should use that article's talk page (The collaboration tab at the top). When making a request please consider disclosing your conflict of interest to avoid misunderstanding.

Non-controversial edits
Editors who may have a conflict of interest are allowed to make certain kinds of non-controversial edits, such as:

 * 1)  Removing spam and reverting vandalism.
 * 2)  Fixing spelling and grammar errors.
 * 3)  Reverting or removing their own COI edits.  Cleaning up your own mess is allowed and encouraged.
 * 4)  Making edits that have been agreed to on the talk page.

To determine what is controversial, use common sense. If another good faith editor objects, then it's controversial.

Photographs and media files
Wikimedia Commons encourages even parties with potential conflicts of interest to upload digital media files, such as photographs, illustrations, audio files and video clips, so long as the media is of good quality, is in a format we use and the copyright holder is willing do so under one of the free licenses we accept.

While Commons prefers full resolution media, reduced resolution images are acceptable when the copyright owner is unwilling to freely license a full quality image. See Commons:Welcome for detailed requirements.

Once media files are uploaded to Commons, they can then be incorporated into Wikinews articles where appropriate. The best approach is to mention the availability of the image or media files on the article's talk page. But it is usually acceptable to edit the article directly to add one or two images that illustrate the existing article content, e.g. adding a publicity mug shot to an article on a performing artist.

Consequences of ignoring this policy

 * {| style="border:black solid 1px" width="90%"

 * style="background-color:#c8ffc8" | If you write in Wikinews about yourself, your group, your company, or your pet idea, once the article is created, you have no right to control its content, and no right to delete it outside our normal channels. Content is not deleted just because somebody doesn't like it. Any editor may add material to or remove material from the article within the terms of our content policies. If there is anything publicly available on a topic that you would not want included in an article, it will probably find its way there eventually. More than one user has created an article only to find himself presented in a poor light long-term by other editors.

In addition, if your article is found not to be worthy of inclusion in the first place, it will be deleted, as per our deletion guidelines, and if you edit war to try and obtain a version of your choosing you may have your editing access removed, perhaps permanently.

Therefore, don't create promotional or other articles lightly, especially on subjects you care about.
 * }

Blocks
Accounts that appear, based on their edit history, to exist for the sole or primary purpose of promoting a person, company, product, service, or organization in apparent violation of this policy should be warned and made aware of this policy. If the same pattern of editing continues after the warning, the account may be blocked.
 * See:Blocking policy

"Outing" and embarrassment
An undisclosed conflict of interest, if discovered, can be a public relations nightmare. On Wikipedia, edits made by congressional staff, FOX News employees and a person who was paid by Microsoft in attempts to improve the appearance of articles on related subjects have backfired, and generated ill-will towards those involved. Any editor who thinks they may have a conflict of interest should ask themselves the question "If I didn't disclose my connection with the subject, and someone else discovered it, could it go against me?" when considering whether to declare the possible conflict.

hu:Wikihírek:Elvi érdekellentétek és összeférhetetlenség

title: Wikinews:Conflict of interest


text:
User talk:Malith

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. , 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! DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 17:40, 6 January 2008 (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 an article 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
 * And of course, stories need writing!

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

title: User talk:Malith


text:
User talk:202.69.203.223

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. , 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! DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 17:46, 6 January 2008 (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 an article 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
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:202.69.203.223


text:
Six die in Alaskan plane crash

January 6, 2008 A Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain owned and operated by Servant Air has crashed shortly after takeoff from Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States. Six people were killed and four others were rescued.

The flight was a 100 mile scheduled domestic charter flight from Kodiak to Homer. Servant Air are a small local airline that serves Kodiak, which has a population of around 6,000. The airline was founded in 2003 and currently operates seven planes. The plane took off at 1:48 p.m. local time Saturday and subsequently crashed in a shallow harbor 50 yards from the runway.

Dean Andrew, who was piloting a float plane taxiing on the water nearby, was able to rescue four people from the crashed plane. "Once I got them in they were really cold, and they were just pretty hysterical because they had told me that their family's in that plane," said Andrew, who the International Tribune Herald reports operates his own small air service, although the Seattle Times reported that he flew the plane for Trident Seafoods. Alaska State Troopers and Kodiak Police divers were called in to retrieve the bodies of four others. A fifth was pulled out the water after attempting to swim 300 yards to shore, but he had already succumbed to the cold.

The passengers were Russian Orthodox Old Believers who had chartered the flight home in order to celebrate Russian Christmas, which is celebrated on Monday. The deceased have been identified as Homer citizens Stefan F. Basargin, 36; Pavel F. Basargin, 30; Zahary F. Martushev, 25; Iosif F. Martushev, 15; Andrian Reutov, 22 and local pilot Robin Starrett, 50. The survivors, who have not been identified, are all in good condition or out of hospital. Two were flown to Anchorage for treatment and two remained in Kodak; in both cases one was released and one remains.

Andrew described the moments leading up to the crash: "I heard Servant Air's Navajo taking off, and shortly after he took off, he said, 'I need to return to the airport.' I know the pilot, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that it was probably something serious."

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened a full investigation. NTSB investigator Clint Johnson told reporters it's possible that mechanical problems with the plane caused the accident.

Ted Panamarioff, spokesman for Servant Air, said of Starrett "Very humble, very caring. Very detail oriented. Very precise in the way he did things. He was an excellent family man. Excellent co-worker." He also said that Starrett had served in the Coast Guard, and that those involved were regular customers well known with the small airline. "We're all family and friends here. We knew these customers for several years. This is really, really tragic."

title: Six die in Alaskan plane crash


text:
Talk:Suicide bombing in Kusadasi, Turkey

Suicide boming?
Article should likely be renamed or updated to reflect that the "suicide bomber" theory reported in the first hours after this incident was very quickly ruled out. I would do so myself, but the article appears to be locked/archived/uneditable. Guliolopez 19:01, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

 * I would disagree since the article was based on the information availible at the time. What should have been done was to publish an update later on when the new facts were availible, but it's far too late now. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:04, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Flag of Turkey
Please switch the Flag of Turkey from File:Flag of Turkey.png to File:Flag of Turkey.svg. FireDragonValo (talk) 21:58, 11 June 2022 (UTC)


text:
Wikinews:Briefs/January 06, 2008

Introduction
[Opening music] This is Wikinews News Brief, summarising today’s top stories on Sunday 6th January 2008 at 19:32 hours GMT. I’m Nicholas Turnbull.

Nevada, Northern California struck by massive storm
A ruptured canal has flooded approximately 800 homes in the western U.S. state of Nevada. According to local authorities, a nine-meter section of the Truckee Canal broke early on Saturday morning, sending a nearly one-meter high flood into the small town of Fernley. It is thought that more than 3,000 people have been affected by the flooding; many have been evacuated to a local school. No reports of any injuries or fatalities have yet been issued. Neighbouring California has suffered winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour brought by the fierce Pacific storm system, leaving more than one milion people without power on Friday. The Sierra Nevada mountain region has been hit particularly hard, the storm turning into an arctic blizzard at its highest points. Weather forecasters estimate two to three metres of snow will fall in the region by Sunday. It is also thought that 25 centimetres of rain may fall in parts of southern California, which could trigger flash floods and mudslides in areas burned in last year’s extensive wildfires. Officials have ordered a mandatory evacuation of thousands of home near Los Angeles.

2008 Dakar Rally cancelled over terrorist threat
The 2008 Dakar Rally, due to start yesterday, has been cancelled due to reported threats of attack by terrorist group al-Qaida. The Dakar Rally is an annual off-road motor vehicle race that runs from from Lisbon in Portugal to Dakar in Senegal, traversing the Sahara Desert, and is the world’s biggest off-road rally. More than 500 vehicles were to participate in the race, the 30th since the rally’s inception. It has been reported that specific threats have been made against the rally by al-Qaida. It is thought that al-Qaida were responsible for the murder of a French family of holidaymakers in Mauritania on Christmas Eve, and the rally was due to spend eight days in Mauritania. The Mauritanian government had promised a security force of 3,000 personnel to protect the competitors; however, it is thought that the remote location of the desert and scrubland would have rendered this security effort ineffective. Event organisers had initially stated that the event would take place as planned regardless of the threats, but pressure from the French government is thought to have lead to Friday’s decision to cancel the event this year.

Baby attacked by dog in New York
In Brooklyn, New York, an eight-month year old boy named Andrew Stein was mauled to death yesterday by a pet dog whilst being babysitted by his grandmother. The dog, a three-year old Doberman pinscher, was shot with a tranquillizer and impounded after a neighbour removed the dog from Andrew and attempted to rescuscitate him whilst awaiting assistance from the emergency services. Despite medical professionals operating on Andrew for nearly an hour, the attack proved fatal, the boy dying at 2006 hours UTC. Police have stated that the baby’s head was severely disfigured by the attack and that the boy’s skull had been broken. The city’s Department of Health is investigating the incident.

Former Indonesian president, Suharto in critical condition
The former president of Indonesia, Suharto, aged 86, is in a Jakarta hospital in critical condition as a result of heart problems. The former president was admitted to a hospital on Friday with swelling throughout his body, and it appears that his heart and kidneys are deteriorating. Mr. Suharto is accused by the anti-corruption organisation Transparency Internation of embezzling over $15 billion USD from Indonesia’s government; Mr. Suharto has vehemently denied these accusations. He stepped down from Indonesia’s presidency following demonstrations and rioting during the Asian economic crisis of 1998, ending 32 years of uninterrupted rule.

President Bush urges progress on Palestinian state; Israel to welcome President Bush with 'open arms'
United States President George W. Bush is due to visit the Middle East next week in an effort to encourage dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian authorities towards creating an independent Palestinian state. Mr. Bush is intending to keep Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [ehood-all-mert] and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas focused on the main agenda, despite the considerable obstacles present towards establishing Palestinian independence. Mr. Olmert says that Israel will welcome the arrival of Mr. Bush warmly. Mr. Bush leaves on Tuesday for Israel and the West Bank, where he will hold separate talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders prior to visiting Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Extremist group claims responsibilty for killing of American diplomat in Sudan
A previously unknown militant group, which names itself Ansar al-Tawhid (Companions of Monotheism), claimed responsibility for killing United States Agency for International Development diplomat John Granville and his Sudanese driver Abdel Rahman Abbas in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on New Year’s Day. The name of this militant group has been used by other groups in the past. The claim was posted on a Web site used by Islamic fundamentalists. The claim has not yet been authenticated. Granville was being driven home from a New Year’s Day party when another vehicle blocked the road ahead of his car, and the assailants opened fire. It had previously been suggested that Abbas and Granville had been killed accidentally in crossfire, but this is no longer thought to be true. Sudan’s foreign ministry has stated that the shooting was an isolated incident with no political connotations.

Lakota Freedom Delegation says spokesman Russell Means 'hijacked' organization
The Lakota Freedom Delegation (also known as “Lakotah Oyate”), an organisation of activists campaigning for the Sioux Indian Nation to withdraw all treaties with the United States, has been “hijacked” by its spokesman Russell Means according to Naomi Archer, a liason of the organisation. A letter was hand-delivered to the United States States Department claiming a declaration by the Lakota Indian Tribe to cancel all treaties between the tribe and the United States on December the 19th by Means and other members of the delegation.

In an interview with Wikinews, Ms. Archer claims that Means took control of the organisation and its official website and that this declaration is not representative of the views of the Lakota people. Ms. Archer added that the Lakota Freedom Delegation is not a government entity, does not make decisions for the Nation, and that the actions of the Lakota people are not determined by one person alone.

Kucinich suggests tonight's Democratic debate unfair, files FCC charges versus ABC
A complaint has been filed with the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against tonight’s Democratic party broadcast on the US television station ABC. The complaint has been filed by the “Kuchinich for President” campaign, which claims that the exclusion of Kuchinich from the public debate is in violation of ABC’s obligation to operate in the public interest. However, Mr. Kuchinich did not contest the inclusion rules when they were announced. An ABC spokesperson refused to comment on the basis that she had not yet read the FCC filing at the time of interview.

Childhood pneumonia can be cured at home
A new study of children suffering from pneumonia in Pakistan carried out by researchers of Boston University's School of Public Health has shown that children with severe pneumonia can be effectively treated at home and do not need to be hospitalized. Current World Health Organisation guidelines recommend that pneumonia should be treated in a hospital with injectable antibiotics. Over 2,000 children infected with pneumonia were examined across Pakistan, half of which were given antibiotics to take at home and half were given intravenous antibiotics in hospital. Both groups recovered with equal progress. This finding is hugely significant for developing countries where children cannot be brought to a hospital easily or where no hospitals exist.

Queen voted Britain's greatest band
In entertainment, British rock band Queen have been voted Britain's greatest band by BBC Radio 2 listeners. More than 20,000 people voted for the band, which was one of five finalists selected by listeners over the previous week. DJ Mark Goodier then hosted a three-hour live show on New Year's day to discuss the five contenders. Votes were cast via e-mail, text message and telephone, with Queen competing with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Take That and Oasis. It was then revealed live on air that Queen were the winners, with iconic band The Beatles just 400 votes behind their score.

London Knights trade Steve Mason to Kitchener Rangers
In Canadian sport, ice hockey goal keeper Steve Mason has been traded by the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights to the Kitchener Rangers, receiving a telephone call informing him of the agreement whilst at the 2008 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Mason stated that he had enjoyed playing for the London Knights but also that he sees a bright future playing for the Kitchener Rangers.

Footer
Thank you for joining me, Nicholas Turnbull, for this Wikinews News Brief. [Intro music] Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, and can be accessed at the following URL: http://en.wikinews.org. This recording is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/. Goodbye. [Outro music] [END]

title: Wikinews:Briefs/January 06, 2008


text:
User talk:70.236.3.220

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. , 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! Jcart1534 20:37, 6 January 2008 (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 an article 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
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Blocks
You are blocked from editing Wikinews. If you may want to contact Jcart 1534. If you have a username or a password. Please create an account. Contact the Wikinews:Chatroom. They may want to unblock you

title: User talk:70.236.3.220


text:
User talk:75.134.104.83

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. , 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! Jcart1534 20:37, 6 January 2008 (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 an article 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
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:75.134.104.83


text:
User:Wojciech Pędzich

/Sandbox

title: User:Wojciech Pędzich


text:
Wikipedians support the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity by bidding on Wikipedia DVDs

January 7, 2008

On Thursday, January 3, a special Allegro.pl auction for the benefit of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity featured items donated by Stowarzyszenie Wikimedia Polska, the local polish chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. Among the items were ten DVD's containing the Polish language edition of Wikipedia. Most of the offers in the online auction came from people who actually helped to create the contents of the DVD.

One of the discs reached the "Featured Items" status on the same day when the item was offered for sale. Each of the ten DVDs has been autographed by a number of Wikipedians, mainly those who helped in creating the edition, together with Helion Publishing House. The release contains 238,000 articles whose quality had been checked by a panel of editors, complete with illustrations. It is the first stable version of the Polish-language Wikipedia.

The decision to offer the ten copies at the auction was taken in September 2007. Since then, the covers of the auction items have been circulating throughout Poland, in order to collect as many Wikimedians' signatures as possible during a number of Wikimedia events. All of the autographs are nicknames that the editors use in their daily work. Among them is e.g. the signature of the founder of Polish Wikipedia. Krzysztof Jasiutowicz, nicknamed Kpjas.

Among the people who placed an offer to buy one of the ten copies in the initial 24 hours of the auction were the Polish Wikipedians known as Zureks, Jersz, Pimke, Vindicator, Rdrozd, Paterm, Bartekbas, Airwolf, Mathel, Nemo5576, Wyksztalcioch, Wpedzich and Kotasik. Earlier, Stowarzyszenie Wikimedia Polska, a local chapter of The Wikimedia Foundation, decided together with Helion for those DVDs which have not been sold yet to be donated to various communities that would find them useful, mainly schools. Although currently Wikipedia contains about twice as many articles as the DVD version and it is freely available online, the income from the auction will add to the budget of a much older organisation, which is one of Poland's charity NGOs.

Stowarzyszenie Wikimedia Polska will prepare a special website for those people who offer the highest bids for the ten Wikipedia DVD copies, where they will be able to put their photos (together with the discs they have acquired), if they wish.

The auctions will end on the day of the Grand Finalé of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, January 13th, at 20:00 CET.


text: File:Logo aukcji WOŚP.gif

title: File:Logo aukcji WOŚP.gif


text:
User:Wojciech Pędzich/Sandbox

A few weeks ago Internet saw an appeal, protesting against activities that aim at closing Polish Museim in Rapperswil. The appeal reads:

 * The construction of a modern city museum in Rapperswil, the so-called Bryni Haus, planned by the municipality of Rapperswil and the city of Jona-Rapperswil has been put on hold by the "Pro Schloss" group, formed in the autumn. As the name itself suggests, not only the museum project, as approved by the municipality, has become a point of criticism. the main point of the group became the closing of the Polish Museum, located in the Rapperswil castle fopr the past 140 years.

Anna Buchmann, the Rapperswil Polish Museum Director, as well as the appeal's author, writes also:

 * Until now, as requested by Rapperswil-Jona's and the municipality's authorities, I have stopped more direct activity concerned with the demands of "Pro Schloss". However, the development of the situation makes me uncertain. I feel that I should accentuate the point of view of the members of the Friends of the Polish Museum Society more stronly, as well as that of our allies regarding this issue.

The case does not look lost, however I think that being faithful to the developments of past generations of Poles we ought to take the stand to protect our best interest.

It is a sad thing that after many years of perfect cooperation with the city's authorities we are forced to protect a place which is so important to our cultural identity.

We did not exist on the castle as its guestst, who can be disposed of at any time - our 140-year long coexistence with the Rapperswil castle has been lavishly paid for by the Polish money as well as labour.

The appeal's author maks, however, that the castle's owner - the municipality of Rapperwsil, which has a contract with The Association of Friends of the Polish Museum, renting rooms to the Association - as well as the city of Rapperswil-Jona's authorities do not support the activities of the "Pro Schloss" group.

Wikinews reporters decided to interview the museum's director, Anna Buchmann, especially in reference to the issue at hand.

Sebastian "Przykuta" Skolik: The Polish Museum in Rapperswil, where you work as the director, is not as well-known as national museums in Poland, although it certailny exhibits valuable items. Does it also exhibit any unique items?

 * Anna Buchmann:Polish Museum exhibits a number of valuable collections, including that of miniatures by

 * Anna Buchmann: W Muzeum Polskim znajduje się wiele cennych kolekcji. Do nich zaliczamy zbiór miniatur W. Lesseura, nadwornego malarza króla A. Poniatowskiego. Są one wykonane na kości słoniowej. Malarstwo polskie reprezentują obrazy przedstawicieli szkoły monachijskiej: A. Wierusza-Kowalskiego, J. Brandta, M. Wywiórskiego. Poza tym obrazy O.Boznańskiej, T. Axentowicza, J. Chełmińskiego, J. Chelmońskiego, M. Trębacza, J. Falata, Z. Stryjeńskiej, J. Czapskiego i wielu innych innych. Zbiory muzealne uzupełniają kolekcje map dawnej Polski i rycin.

'''Jak bardzo jest ono popularne dla Polonii i Polaków odwiedzających Szwajcarię? Ilu z nich szacunkowo odwiedza to muzeum?'''

 * Wielu Polaków, szczególnie zamieszkałych za granica, odwiedza muzeum. Poza tym coraz częściej przyjeżdżają zorganizowane grupy wycieczkowe. Trzeba pamiętać, ze przez okres PRL-u muzeum to było zupełnie przemilczane, stąd wiele osób nie wie, że takie muzeum istnieje. Rocznie około 2000 Polaków odwiedza muzeum.

'''Adres strony internetowej "muzeum-polskie.org" sugeruje, ze jest to placówka szczególna. Czy tego typu muzeów promujących kulturę polską poza granicami kraju jest dużo?'''

 * Rapperswil jest jedyny w swoim rodzaju. Jest to instytucja tworzona i prowadzona przez Polaków, ale jednak otwarta przede wszystkim dla cudzoziemców. Ze względu na położenie przyciąga turystów z całego świata.

'''Od kilku tygodni trwa wystosowany przez Państwa apel o podpisywanie petycji związanej z protestem przeciwko zamknięciu muzeum. Muzeum znajduje się w zamku w centralnej części miasta, który część mieszkańców chciałaby zagospodarować w inny sposób. Jaki jest w ogóle stosunek Szwajcarów, a szczególnie mieszkańców Rapperswil wobec tego muzeum i polskiej kultury? Ponad stuletnia jej obecność w tym mieście sugeruje, że są z nią dobrze zapoznani.'''

 * Muzeum Polskie jest dobrze znane Szwajcarom. Było tworzone przy ich współudziale, mieszkańcy Rapperswilu są nim mocno związani. Grupa niewielu osób, głównie spoza miasta, nie stanowi większości. Jednak trzeba o muzeum bardzo dbać, go popularyzować. Odchodzi starsze pokolenie, które pamięta okres wojny i komunizmu w Polsce. Dla młodszego pokolenia, mniej wrażliwego na historię muzeum ma może mniejsze znaczenie.

Ile osób do tej pory podpisało petycję?

 * Są dwie petycje- jedna w muzeum, tu zbieramy wśród gości, którzy nas odwiedzają. W ciągu półtora miesiąca podpisało petycje 1125 osób z 31 krajów. Pod drugą petycją prowadzoną na stronie internetowej ( www-rapperswil-castle.com) podpisało się już blisko 7000 osób.

'''Szwajcarzy, a przynajmniej Państwo szwajcarskie wydaje się być nieco zamknięte na obcokrajowców. Czy relacje między Szwajcarami i Polakami można by określić jako ciepłe czy też raczej chłodne? Jak traktowana jest Polonia w tym kraju?'''

 * Polacy stanowią jedną z najmniejszych grup narodowościowych w Szwajcarii. Jednocześnie kraj ten ma liczne polonika, oprócz naszego muzeum znajduje się tez Muzeum T.Kościuszki, I.J. Paderewskiego. Szwajcaria była krajem edukacji dla Polaków, inspiracji dla artystów. Polacy wiele wnieśli nie tylko do kultury duchowej Szwajcarii, ale też do jej kultury materialnej. Stosunek Szwajcarów do Polaków można określić jako życzliwy.

'''Samo muzeum wspierane jest przez założoną w 1978 roku Polską Fundację Kulturalną "Libertas" w Rapperswilu. Czy jesteście też Państwo związani z instytucjami znajdującymi się w Polsce? Czy Państwa apel i w ogóle działalność jest wspierana instytucjonalnie z terenu Polski?'''

 * Muzeum jest instytucją niezależną. Kierowane przez Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Muzeum Polskiego i finansowane przez powołaną przez niego fundację Libertas musi samo dbać o finanse. Od trzech lat otrzymuje ono merytoryczne wsparcie od Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego. Współfinansowane są konferencje naukowe, prace archiwalne, inwentarzowe. Obecnie, planowana modernizacja wystawy stałej otrzymana duże wsparcie ministerstwa. Przedstawiciele ministerstwa uczestniczyli rozmowach z władzami miasta i gminy grodzkiej, wskazując na chęć pomocy i znaczenie muzeum dla Polski.

'''"Polskiej Kolumnie Wolności": "MAGNA RES LIBERTAS" - WOLNOŚĆ TO WIELKA RZECZ. Te hasło wyryte jest na zamku. Jak odczytywane jest ono dzisiaj przez odwiedzających i mieszkańców?'''

 * Kolumna Barska nazywana jest przez Szwajcarów Kolumna Polską. Szwajcarzy bardzo cenią sobie wolność – od wielu lat umieli ja tez sobie zapewnić. Idea wolności stanowi jedna z filarów tożsamości Szwajcarów.

'''Od kilku miesięcy internauci związani z Wikipedią, a także ze skupiającym historyków portalem histmag.org starają się o możliwość swobodnego fotografowania zbiorów w niektórych polskich muzeach, które w swoich regulaminach nie zezwalają na digitalizację zbiorów osobom z zewnątrz. Czy w Państwa muzeum można dokonywać dokumentacji zbiorów, a w szczególności tych, do których wygasły prawa autorskie, przy uwzględnieniu kwestii bezpieczeństwa (bez lamp błyskowych, bez fotografowania urządzeń alarmowych itp.)?'''

 * W muzeum nie można fotografować obiektów lampa błyskową. Sprawa digitalizacji zbiorów będzie teraz dopiero regulowana. Jest to bardzo trudny problem, który wiąże się z bezpieczeństwem obiektów.

Jaki ogólnie jest Państwa stosunek wobec szerokiego propagowania polskiej kultury poprzez internet?

 * Mój stosunek do popularyzacji sztuki przez Internet jest bardzo liberalny. Internet jest doskonałym źródłem informacji, o wiele skuteczniejszym i szybszym niż pozostałe metody. Uważam, ze Internet będzie coraz bardziej wypierał telewizje i zbiory polskie powinny być prezentowane w Internecie.

'''Zakładając, że mająca się odbyć pod koniec czerwca debata, co do przyszłości muzeum zakończy się dla Państwa pomyślnie, czy rezultatem tej dyskusji może być umowa zakładająca kolejne długoterminowe wydzierżawienie zamku? Biorąc pod uwagę specyfikę relacji obywatele-instytucje w Szwajcarii założyć można, że po jakimś czasie ten scenariusz się powtórzy. Czy jest możliwe inne, bardziej korzystne dla muzeum rozwiązanie?'''

 * Debata czerwcowa nie da wyraźnej odpowiedzi. Jest tylko wstępem do prowadzonych rozmów, które będą się toczyć jesienią. Z pewnością będziemy musieli walczyć o warunki pozostania na zamku, o profil muzeum, metody prezentacji.

'''Przy założeniu, że jednak debata nie zakończy się sukcesem, czy zbiory będą mogły być zabezpieczone? Czy macie państwo zagwarantowane na taki wypadek wyjście awaryjne?'''

 * Nie przewidujemy takiego scenariusza. Towarzystwo ma z gminą podpisany kontrakt do roku 2011. Jeśli rzeczywiście zaistniałaby groźba likwidacji muzeum, będziemy jeszcze mieć trzy lata, by zastanowić się co począć ze zbiorami.

'''Skoro obywatele, a przynajmniej jakaś część obywateli miasta domaga się zagospodarowania zamku w inny sposób, można przyjąć, że podczas negocjacji trzeba będzie szukać kompromisu. Czy ze względu na specyfikę placówki, jej historyczny kontekst, tego typu rozwiązanie jest do pomyślenia?'''

 * Zapewne trzeba będzie zawrzeć kompromis. Pytanie pozostanie, na ile będziemy mogli z naszych praw zrezygnować lub w optymistycznym wariancie, ile będziemy mogli skorzystać. Gdyż na tym polega kompromis, że obie strony są zadowolone z wyników rozmów i podjętych decyzji.

'''Jak na tę sprawę reagują szwajcarskie media? Czy jest ona żywotna, czy jest ona traktowana jako lokalny problem?'''

 * Szwajcarskie media reagowały bardzo żywo. W Neue Zürcher Zeitung ukazał się artykuł pozytywny dla naszego muzeum. Podobnie w innych gazetach. Jedynymi artykułami negatywnymi o muzeum były artykuły w Obersee Nachrichten. Jest to gazeta należąca do naszego oponenta.

Dziękuję za rozmowę

24 czerwca 2008r w Dużej Sali Rycerskiej (Grosse Rittersaal) na zamku w Rapperswilu o godz. 18:00 rozpocznie się "Dyskusja otwarta" na temat przyszłości Muzeum Polskiego.

title: User:Wojciech Pędzich/Sandbox


text:
Mikheil Saakashvili re-elected President of Georgia

January 6, 2008 Election officials have declared Mikheil Saakashvili the winner of the Georgian presidential election, which occurred earlier than usual due to anti-government protests in November 2007. He garnered 52.8% of the vote, while the leading opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze came in second with 27% of the vote.

The election had been a controversial one, with opposition leaders claiming it was unfair and that Saakashvili had rigged the vote in his favor. Allegations of intimidation, media bias, and vote buying were widespread.

In a report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called the election "consistent with most O.S.C.E. and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections", but also noted violations, including people apparently voting more than once at certain polling stations and some ballot boxes not being properly sealed. Giorgi Kandelaki, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, responded by saying there were "very few violations that could be regarded as serious".

After exit polls showed Saakashvili in the lead on Saturday, he declared an early victory, which prompted thousands of protesters to gather in Tbilisi. Gachechiladze spoke at the rally, saying, "We have won despite pressure, despite intimidation, despite televised terror exerted against us." He said that the opposition will contest the results in court and scheduled another rally on January 8, since Georgia celebrates Christmas on Monday.

Alcee Hastings, United States Congressman and coordinator of OSCE, called for the protesters to regard the election as legitimate and for the government to institute electoral reforms in time for upcoming parliamentary elections. "I perceive this election as a viable expression of free choice of the Georgian people, but the future holds immense challenges," Hastings said.


text:
Shimon Peres discusses the future of Israel

January 9, 2008

This year Israel turns sixty and it has embarked upon a campaign to celebrate its birthday. Along with technology writers for Slate, PC Magazine, USA Today, BusinessWeek, Aviation Weekly, Wikinews was invited by the America-Israel Friendship League and the Israeli Foreign Ministry to review Israel’s technology sector. It's part of an effort to 're-brand the country' to show America that there is more to Israel than the Palestinian conflict. On this trip we saw the people who gave us the Pentium processor and Instant Messaging. The schedule was hectic: 12-14 hours a day were spent doing everything from trips to the Weizmann Institute to dinner with Yossi Vardi.

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

Shimon Peres spent his early days on kibbutz, a bygone socialist era of Israel. In 1953, at the age of 29, Peres became the youngest ever Director General of the Ministry of Defense. Forty years later it was Peres who secretly gave the green light for dialogue with Yassir Arafat, of the verboten Palestine Liberation Organization. It was still official Israeli policy to not speak with the PLO. Peres shares a Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzak Rabin and Arafat for orchestrating what eventually became the Oslo Accords. The "roadmap" that came out of Oslo remains the official Israeli (and American) policy for peace in the Palestinian conflict. Although the majority of Israeli people supported the plans, land for peace was met with a small but fiery resistance in Israel. For negotiating with Arafat, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shouted at Peres, "You are worse than Chamberlain!" a reference to Hitler's British appeaser. It was during this time of heated exchanges in the 1990s that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a Jew who thought it against Halakhic law to give up land given by God (Hashem).

Peres is the elder statesman of Israeli politics, but he remembers that he has not always been as popular as he is today. "Popularity is like perfume: nice to smell, dangerous to drink," said Peres. "You don’t drink it." The search for popularity, he goes on to say, will kill a person who has an idea against the status quo.

Below is David Shankbone's interview with Shimon Peres, the President of Israel.

Israeli technology
'''David Shankbone: One of your big initiatives in technology has been nanotechnology.

 * President Shimon Peres: Yes.

'''DS: What made you focus on nanotechnology as a sector for Israeli investment?

 * SP: Well, nanotechnology is not a vocation but a dimension. It’s a new dimension and it concerns all walks of life, not limited to one, from the military to the civilian.  Everywhere you turn around you can see the eventual effect of nano.  It also raises some of the most complicated moral issues because until now the human race knew how to build.  It didn’t know how to grow.  What we did is collected wood and stones and steel and glass and we built from up to down.  Structure.  Now, what is common to both building a structure is the smallest particular, the nanometer.  The minute you can manage it, you can begin to make things grow.  And that’s a tremendous change; it is also a tremendous dilemma for humanity.  Now actually, like on many other occasions, we discover the nano from the negative side.  The bomb.

'''DS: The bomb?
 * SP: Yes. The nuclear bomb.  The nuclear bomb was to release the hidden powers of a combination or dispersion of nanostructures.  The minute you dismantle an existing structure, then you create a lot of energy and you create new dimensions and new measurements.  I mean the size has nothing to do with power.  You can, say, take a nuclear bomb where the core is six or seven kilos of plutonium and you can destroy a city.  Why can’t you build a city with the six kilos?  Same story. And the answer is clear.  It was easier to destroy because then you don’t have to control the nanostructure.  It’s simple when you want explosions; then, fission or fusion does not matter.  The minute you want to build, you have to control the nano, and for a very long time we couldn’t, we weren’t able to see the nano, it is so small.  No microscope could grasp it.  The size of a nano is like 1/100th of a single hair, which is unbelievable.  Or if you want to, to compare the nanometer with the meter is to compare an orange to the globe.  Same proportion.  That’s nothing.  And the minute they discovered the microscope, the electronic microscope that can see the nanostructure, we can begin to build.  And to build with materials and powers and combinations that we weren’t aware of.  And then you can create a lot of things, like I said, on the military side.  But  it doesn’t make sense to chase it in modern warfare.  It’s not armies against armies.  It’s strength against, the strength of a collective army against the strength of an individual terrorist.  It does not make sense to take an F-16 that costs $40-50 million and chase a terrorist.  Nano enables you to miniaturize everything.

'''DS: To miniaturize?

 * SP: Yes. And from the beginning you can create invisible sensors that will inform you about every movement in armies all over the world.  Then you can hand over the soldier, a new uniform made of nano which is immune against cartridges, against biology and chemical warfare.  It’s a strong material because the nano material is 100 times stronger than steel and it weighs only 1/6 of it.  It can warm up the soldier in cold weather; cool him in the warm weather.  It enhances his strength 3 times; he can lift 120 kilos with one hand.  And then you can go on and say not only to protect the protector but as well to create robots as in planes without pilots and military units without soldiers.  You don’t need a soldier; you can run it by proxy.  Small weapons, small robots that can penetrate or perform in conditions that a human being cannot.  He is too large, too inflexible.

'''DS: That’s amazing.

 * SP: Then take the nano in medicine. You can produce the smallest instruments that you don’t have to invade the body.  You can do it from the outside control, with such tiny little instruments.

'''DS: Are you satisfied with the progress in the nanotechnology sector here in Israel?

 * SP: Look, I started it 5 or 6 years ago to explain to the people the importance of it, then I was instrumental in collecting several hundred million dollars that was given to the universities and the research institutes. As a result, we have a very good group of nano experts, you see, all of the best, and now they are working with me voluntarily.  I have 30 top scientists in Israel who have developed different ideas in the domain.  This type of research can be applied to whatever you want:  Alternative energy, because if you want to have solar energy, you need very large equipment.  With nano you can condense it.  The same is true about desalinization.  It can replace the uniform of humankind.  In the future ladies will have a dress.  You can press a button and it will change the color.  The nano has what has been called the lotus effect.  Lotus is a flower that keeps cleaning itself.  And so is a nano so it doesn’t shrink, doesn’t get dirty.

The future of the peace process in Israel
'''DS: Mr. President, as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and as one of the fathers of the modern peace process in Israel, do you still think that there is a future to the peace process?

 * SP: The future is only peace. The problem is how long will it take and how many victims will it call for.  Why do I say peace?  Because when you look historically, at the development of humanity, most of our lives we are living on the land.  The history is written with red ink.  The reason for it is because people were fighting for our land, either defending it or extending it, because that was the main source. The land, the natural resources, the markets, all these go together.  The minute the land was replaced by science, what is there to fight about?  Armies cannot conquer science.  Customs cannot check what a scientist has in his mind, they can see what he has in his pocket but not what he has in his mind so it’s uncontrolled; it means that borders aren’t important and distances aren’t important.

'''DS: How do you approach the difficult challenge of talking to the Palestinians when, in the end, they don’t want Israel to exist. How do you come to an understanding to make peace possible?

 * SP: Well, what is the problem? I mean, is the problem national, say between Jews and Arabs; or is it a matter of generations between an old age and a new age?  You see, the terrorists are protesting against modernity.  They think that modernity may endanger their tradition.  They are simply afraid and hate modernity.  They consider modernity as their enemy, but then they have two problems.  First of all, can they exist on tradition?  They cannot.  Sooner or later they will have to enter the new age.  All the talks about nationalities, etcetera, well, the new age has very little patience for history.  History is becoming more and more irrelevant.

'''DS: How do you feel about that?

 * SP: Well, I distinguish between two histories, the spiritual and the material. Or the history of events and the history of values.  The history of values is okay because wisdom is ageless; it doesn’t grow old, like material.

 * But events are totally unimportant for 2 reasons. First, the event is unimportant.  Tell me, what events is today important such as how many elephants Hannibal had on the Alps,  when you can have helicopters?  Why should I bother my children with all this nonsense?  What sort of a nose did Cleopatra have?  God, I don’t know!  You can invite people to war over noses, but nobody will go to fight for noses any more.  On the other hand, there are already machines that can replace our memory.  Why should I bother my child with memory when he can buy a computer that will remember everything you asked him to remember?

The waning importance of history
'''DS: Isn’t the answer to that question that wise decisions are made with a basis from memory? Although a computer can have…

 * SP: No, no. Forget memory.  Look, the new age is unprecedented.  When something is unprecedented, it means it doesn’t have a past, doesn’t have a history.  It’s totally oriented on the future.  And whoever dwells in the past, doesn’t understand the future because the past is full of prejudices, of commitments.  It arrests us.  And then you say you won’t commit a mistake, so you’ll commit new mistakes.  It doesn’t matter.

'''DS: What about the adage, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”?

 * SP: So they will make new mistakes. Mistake is inevitable as long as there are human beings.  But you cannot repeat mistakes because the world is not built on repetition; it’s built on mutation.

'''DS: Don’t you think Darfur is repetition?

 * SP: I think Darfur is, again, the last, or among the last battles between old and new. What are they fighting for?  What are they killing killing killing over?  They don’t carry futures.  It’s not a mistake.  It belongs to a past.  It doesn’t have a moment.  I am sure that the reasons for war are over, even though still there are wars which are an inertia from the past, a continuation that doesn’t make sense.  I’m answering your question.  The problem is how to enable the whole world to enter the new future, including the Arabs.  And there are already Arabs who did it.  Look at Turkey, who is knocking on the doors of the united Europe.  Why?  It’s not a geographic endeavor, it is an intellectual endeavor.  They say you can be Muslim and modern.

'''DS: Like Dubai?

 * SP: Dubai…you must be very careful because Dubai is a small people with a large service sector. The citizens of Dubai are almost unnoticed.  The rest are hired people.  Turkey is different.  Take Dubai or Qatar; in Qatar you have 180,000 citizens with 700,000 foreign workers.  That also belongs to the past, because you see what’s happening: they live on oil.  Oil is not produced by human beings, the producer of oil is the land.  It takes a million years to produce oil without any human interferences.  The need for oil is growing, so the cost of oil goes up which is forcing people to go to alternative energies to balance it.  Just because oil is discovered doesn’t mean every year more and more and more people will pay for the same discovery.  To hell with you, I shall look for an alternative!  Even for Israel.  If you have to make a choice between Saudi Arabia and the sun, it should go to the sun.

'''DS: A criticism of the Arab states is that back in the 1990s they had squandered the wealth that they were making on the high oil price because they had not invested it wisely. It seems that that has changed, that the Arabs are creating these new wealth funds and that much of the money that is generated in the Middle East is now coming from Arab states. Are you worried that Israel will become increasingly marginalized in the Middle East? Right now it’s very Iraq War focused or Iran-focused or the Emirates around the Gulf with their money.

 * SP: Look, if you’ll ask me “What is the real wealth, money or brains?” I say brains is the greater producer of wealth, not oil.  It’s limitless, and you’ll see that the GNP of Israel is very close to the Saudis’.  So they are 3 times larger than us and they have all the oil in the world.  We have brains.  We have to develop it.  And for that reason I say that whoever dwells in the past is ignoring the future.  Modern society is not based on the experience of the past but on risk-taking for the future.

Is Israel a united society?
'''DS: As you know, I’m part of a group from a technology mission over here of journalists. We went to Meytav, your largest technology incubator, and spoke with their Vice President Norman Sandberg. One of the things that he raised as an issue is that Israeli society is becoming dichotomized between Tel Aviv and the rest of the country. How do you develop the brainpower without Israel becoming a city-state with Tel Aviv? Mr. Sandberg told us nobody wants to go to the North. They want to stay in Tel Aviv. They don’t want to actually spread out and work on developing the rest of the country and invest outside of there. Is that a problem that you foresee that this bubble is forming around Tel Aviv in terms of brainpower?

 * SP: The whole world is moving from rural to urban life. Now everybody is made up of city-states; they are not a state of cities but cities that are states on their own.  First of all, Tel Aviv is becoming noisy like all cities.  It has all the flaws of a city, the crime and drugs, and the pollution.  Like in America, you see people and companies are leaving the cities.  It will happen here, too.  Secondly, it’s a matter of transportation.  If we shall speed up transportation, it’s a small country, then people will move.  In the United States, if you go half an hour, an hour, to work, it’s normal.  Here, an hour is the other side of the moon.  It’s nonsense.  They’ll get used to it.  And then, more and more people today are not working in the same building, but using the same computers.  So you computerize from home, which is again a difference.  Today, a young boy is attending three schools: the formal school in the morning,; the informal school—television—in the afternoon; and the new language, which is Internet.  We talk all the time that education is in the school; the school is just a third of the education of the children.  What keeps them up-to-date is more the television and now more the internet.  They look upon their teachers as old-age and a little bit boring, because they already know more than the teachers do.  They have a new language, they have a new mind, they have a new sensitivity.  In my judgment, the greatest thing is to bring over people from the old past that was slow--the cultivation of land--to a new future, which is as quick as an Internet.

'''DS: When you speak of language, Hebrew is very unique. At a time when languages are disappearing, Hebrew is the only example that I know of a language revived successfully. Although I don’t speak Hebrew, I understand that the quality of Hebrew spoken by the younger generations has decreased.

 * SP: Don’t listen to the old generation. They think everything is being ruined and is decaying.  It’s different!  They would like that we shall still dance a hora.  And the boys and the girls want to have all the jumping stuff:  They want to jump, let them jump, my God!  They still want that they should sing Slavic melodies and they complain the dresses are becoming shorter.  What do you care?  Let them have their own taste.  And by the way: they can have it!  Why are the girls wearing such short skirts?  Because they are not afraid to show their legs; they take care of themselves.  In previous generations, the women were not as up to develop the lady, so she couldn’t show her legs.  Today, on the contrary.

'''DS: You used to not want to see the legs. [Laughs]

 * SP: They didn’t show because you didn’t want to see! [Laughs] So every generation handles it, they have new advantages, they have new problems, and the older want that we shall obey older traditions, and that children will behave like their parents.  But the children have their own culture so they say they are deteriorating.  They are not deteriorating!  They are stronger, they are better informed, they are full of energy, they have a strategy.  They are ready-made persons at an early age—14, 15, 16—physically and mentally and we don’t give them a role in our society.  So they go off on drugs.  It’s crazy! Let them play a role.  Let them introduce themselves in the new hierarchies of our life.  I believe that an inventor, a researcher can be the age of 15, 16, 17.  We spoke about languages.  What is the best time to learn a language?  At the age of 2, 3, then you are becoming tired.  Maybe at the age of 15 or 16 you have talents which are disappearing.  Let them work.  In the past generations they would not let the children work because it was a physical effort.  Today, to work is to think.  Let them think; don’t send them to drugs.  Let them have their own challenges, their own curiosities

'''DS: What informs the question I asked about Hebrew is that it seems to build such a cohesive society here in Israel. It’s one of the binding forces...

 * SP: You said culture as justifying history, because I don’t suggest to forget the language. No.  I am also for having individuality for nations.  That can be cultural.  But otherwise, I mean, let science run, let values stay permanent.  I’ll give you just one example.  Take away the land, okay.  Take away a dunam of land.  But in our culture, the yield per dunam is 25 times higher than it used to be.  So maybe you lost one dunam but you won 25 yields.  On the other hand, take away the Ten Commandments and the world becomes all of a sudden poor.  You don’t have anything to replace these 169 words.  So that’s what I mean, the permanence of the values and the mobility of the assets.

'''DS: One value used to be military service. 20 years ago it was anathema to not serve in the military and that was another binding cohesive force in Israeli society and now it’s quite common....

 * SP: Go over to sport, fight without killing, what’s wrong? Go over to chess, go over to competition or a creativeness to sing, to create.  I would like to see the democracy not just a matter of real expression but a matter of self-expression.

'''DS: Do you think Israel’s security is at a point where it can move from being concerned with military service to being unconcerned and moving more towards competition in sports or the creative elements?

 * SP: The minute we shall be free of danger, yes. Right now, no.  as long as we have dangers, we must be prepared to face them.  You cannot become all of a sudden a philosopher instead of a soldier.  It doesn’t make sense.  But you see there are two things which are really fascinating.  What makes Israel greater than our size?  And that is the size of our enemies.  We are forced to organize our defense, which means our agenda, not with the size of the land but with the size of the enemies of the land.  So all the time we have to be more tense, more alert, more developed.  The minute this will disappear, we will have to compete with the world to find our way. I think there is something in Judaism, by the way, which makes us inclined to do so.  The greatest thing about Judaism--you can take it as a joke, you can take it seriously--is that introduced to life is dissatisfaction.  A Jewish person cannot be satisfied, cannot be satisfied.  The minute he is satisfied he begins to be non-Jewish.  Dissatisfaction is the source of creation.  All the time, because we were oppressed, we were small, we couldn’t sit down and have a glass of wine.  All through time we have had to try and struggle and invest and renew.  That is the reason why the Jewish people, in a way,  are the permanent revolutionaries of history.

Iran: will Israel strike first?
'''DS: With Iran, do you think that Israel would ever need to act unilaterally again, to make a strike, in response to their nuclear capabilities? The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, which is quite controversial, said that they’ve stopped their nuclear weapons program, yet there are many centrifuges in Natanz that are still producing material.

 * SP: First of all about intelligence. One must understand the nature of intelligence.  Intelligence is an organization to report and not to prophesize.  They are not prophets and they don’t claim to be.  They are experts on what has happened; you can’t ask them to be expert on what may happen because the best intelligence person in America will never have a Persian mind.  So how can you know how the mind acts?  Don’t expect them.  What will finally bring down the danger of Iran is the Iranians themselves; they are sick and tired.  Ahmadinejad almost replaced Allah with enriched Uranium.  It becomes a holy profession.  “We are enriching uranium!”  What are you enriching uranium, what for?  If you try to use it, you will be hit.

'''DS: Are you saying the Iranian people will be the agents of change?

 * SP: Yes.

'''DS: But there was so much hope for Mohammad Khatami and yet his administration ended up a disappointment--

 * SP: Yes. There are hopes that become disappointments.  It doesn’t mean you don’t have to try again.

'''DS: But the Iranian people seem to be rallying around their nuclear program.

 * SP: You’re only as great as your word, don’t forget. But the Iranian economy cannot hold it and they are mobilizing the world against them.  Gradually.  Every time more and more.  The world is sick and tired.  Finally, the world will have to decide if we live in a world with nuclear devices that can fall in the hands of terrorists or we are going to organize ourselves against this danger.  So I will be very careful not to describe Iran as an Israeli problem.  It’s a world problem and Israel must be sanguine about it.  Keep cool.

'''DS: As part of a coalition?

 * SP: If they want us, yes. But we shall not insist.  We are naturally in the coalition; I don’t know if we shall be formally.

'''DS: And you feel it would be a mistake for Israel to act unilaterally, or not?

 * SP: Yes. I don’t think Israel should say it; I don’t think Israel should talk about it.  The minute we shall talk about it we shall be left alone.  Israel is the only country that has never had a foreign army to defend it.  All the European countries had foreign armies, most of the Asian countries.  We don’t.  And…

'''DS: You don’t feel America plays that role with Israel?

 * SP: America helps us a great deal. We are grateful.  But we have never asked for American soldiers to defend Israel.  And one of the popularities of Israel in the United States is that American mothers know that their children don’t face danger here.

'''DS: Although they face it quite often in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 * SP: But here we defend it ourselves. Even in the early times when the United States recognized us, they didn’t give us rifles to defend our lives.  It’s only later that they gave us arms and we are very grateful.  But with Iran, we shall do what we have to do in our own way.  We don’t want to bother anybody because it’s a world problem.  Until now, the problem was will the world stand on the side of Israel.  Today, the question is will the world stand on the side of the world?  Iran is a world danger.

The 2006 Lebanon War
'''DS: How did the Lebanese War help Israel’s security?

 * SP: Look, Israel is almost 60 years old next year. In the 60 years we went through seven wars, two intifadas, all of them outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered.  We didn’t lose a single one.  So there were wars that were more successful, less successful, never a failure.  Now about Lebanon, it became a question of did we do rightly or wrongly.  But clearly it not wind up better for Hamas, not better for Hezbollah winning.  They don’t know to answer, “Why did they go to the war?” Today, everybody recognizes that Hezbollah is a danger to Lebanon more than to Israel.  Today when you speak to a Frenchman or to the United States, they are worried more about Lebanon and Hezbollah than about Hezbollah and Israel.  So, we have learned our lessons too, and but I think by and large, some people say we could have saved the lives of 30 soldiers.  Maybe.

'''DS: Do you think it’s hurt the peace process, the Lebanese War?

 * SP: I don’t think so. You know what is promoting the peace prospect more than losing it?  That no one in the Middle East wants to fall under the spell of Iran.  Iran today is a country with an appetite.  An imperial appetite.  They want an Iranian hegemony in the Middle East in the name of god and enriched uranium.  And nobody wants it.  So they attended Annapolis for the same reason.  So everything, you know, it’s not a one-sided situation.  It’s very dialectical, including Iran.  So they think they won.  What did they win?  They are less accused; they are not less watched, not less disliked and not less suspected.

'''DS: Do you think there is still a strong peace movement in Israel?

 * SP: I think the situation is a peace movement because the more that the Arabs are learning, the more they are becoming peaceful. Look, we have in Israel 50,000 Arab citizens who are academicians.  Ask where are they.  Some of them are teachers who will remain in the vicinity of their university.  Most of them are doctors.  You won’t find in Israel today a hospital without Arab doctors and Arab nurses.  Now an Israeli that goes to the hospital, maybe he would be reluctant to employ an Arab at his factory but he doesn’t hesitate to come to the hospital, lie on the bed and here comes an Arab doctor with a knife in his hand and operates on him.  And he says thank you.  So if you have healthy relations in hospitals, maybe it’s a cure for the others.  The more people who become professional and modern from both sides, this is the peace movement!  The peace movement is not an attempt to write more songs about peace.  We have enough songs.  What we need is the development and we have to be passionate.

On American politics
'''DS: How have you seen America’s role in the peace process change between Clinton to Bush?

 * SP: Look at America after the elections. In my journal, the two parties will come together and try to work up a bipartisan policy.  You know somebody said that the difference between the Republicans and Democrats is the Democrats are reformers and the Republicans are maintainers.  So they put in a little bit the Democrats to reform, then they put in the Republican to maintain.  Then they change, but they keep basic on foreign affairs; America is revolutionary in technology, in economy, but very balanced in foreign policy and even when the United States commits mistakes in her foreign policy, a foreign policy without America would be the greatest mistake of our generation.

'''DS: You earlier spoke about modernity and the importance of science and how a lot of the terrorists are very scared of modernity and how it will affect their traditions yet one of Israel’s greatest supporters are the evangelicals in America, who are often seen in America as fighters of science and modernity.

 * SP: Look, I am not going here to make a license office. [Chuckles]  I can judge on the general trend but I am not going to make any one remark.  You know, one of the candidates is now Romney, who is a Mormon--

'''DS: Mitt Romney

 * SP: Yes, the Mormons too are becoming modern, and the evangelists they participate in all modernity. They are not terrorists.  I mean, if you have an idea, you have an idea.  The problem begins when you want to shoot when you have a different idea, to kill the future.  You cannot kill it.  Nobody can kill the future.  Nobody can stop it.  The terrorists will discover that they cannot live on their traditions.  They will lose because they are not sustainable.  Take a simple, single item: the attitude towards women.  If they will not give equal rights to women, they will always be inferior because a nation that doesn’t give equality to women is half a nation.  So by definition they are half of modern nations.  You lose a lot.  It’s not that you lose the women; you lose also the children because if the woman is uneducated, she cannot help the children to be educated.  She doesn’t have to make a balance between the number of the children and the state of income of the family.  This contradiction will grow and grow and grow and grow.  It will take time, I don’t know, it will take 5 years or ten years or fifteen years…  But it is so clear that they cannot make a living by killing others or by hanging on tradition.

Peres on his Presidency and learning from the future, not the past
'''DS: What do you hope to achieve with your presidency?

 * SP: In the long term I would like to help our people to live on two foundations: on the heritage of our spirit and our talent at modernity. That we should be as old spiritually as the Ten Commandments, and as new economically as the latest model of the Internet.  It’s an educational process.  Here the proportion between authority and freedom is in favor of freedom.  Being free is the greatest, the best administration in life. Administrations are still becoming old, they are becoming bureaucracies.  They represent a world that is disappearing.  The modern economy is based on global companies that don’t have armies, don’t have police; that don’t have laws.  They are based on good will, on inventions. So I don’t see any contradictions.  Since we shall always remain a small land and a small people, we have all time to see how to reach the size that is necessary to exist, to defend ourselves, to offer a future to our children.

'''DS: Do you hope to have another term as president?

 * SP: Oh, maybe next time I shall go and be a shepherd or a poet. Why go back to government? [Laughs]

'DS: [Laughs''] I think you are already seen as both of those things.

 * SP: Yes, I’m not orthodox about it and I’m not particular. You know, once I was free of administration, I discovered the great advantage of being free.  And I feel free.  Most of my life, I was quite controversial.  [Laughs]  Now I know I am tremendously popular.  I don’t know what is better, to be controversial and fight or to be popular and becoming a little bit…

'''DS: It is unique that when you look at your standing 20 years ago versus now, it’s so different--

 * SP: When was better? [Laughs]

'DS: [Laughs''] Well...

 * SP: I think 20 years ago when I was fighting. What do you need popularity?  Popularity is like perfume: nice to smell, dangerous to drink.  You don’t drink it.  Why are people against you?  Because you are against the status quo.  Why was I unpopular?  I didn’t commit any crime in my life.  The only crime I committed was to be a little bit ahead of time.  And if this is the reason for being controversial, maybe the reason is better than the result.

'''DS: What do you look at as your greatest legacy in your career?

 * SP: I am bored by it. My greatest legacy...

'''DS: What pops into your head right away when I asked that? [Laughs]

 * SP: [Laughs] It is what I’m going to do tomorrow. What I did yesterday, for me it’s boring and I’m very careful not to talk to my children about it because they will be bored.  So why should I?  My mind is set to see what will happen tomorrow.

'''DS: You don’t speak to your children about the things you’ve done in you life or your grandchildren?

 * SP: No I learn from them what they are doing. Why should I bore them?  They know more about the computers and the internet and all; I am taking advantage.

'''DS: They probably know Wikipedia.

 * SP: My children are my parents because they teach me the future. Traditionally, I should have taught them, but I think it’s a waste of time.  Why should I?  Why should I load their minds with what I may think are heroic stories?  They have their own heroism which is now giving birth to new possibilities, to a new age.  So my time?  They don’t ask and I don’t bother them.  I imagine they know because [the press writes] about me negatively so much, that they can not escape. [Laughs]  But they know one thing:  I don’t complain. I generally never complain.  They know we have an honest life.  So whatever people are writing they do not care, because they know the truth.

'''DS: You’re very unique in your generation but also in Israel as someone who’s saying “Listen to the younger people.” Wikipedia is something that was basically built by people under 30 and it’s become perhaps the most influential media in the—

 * SP: Tell that to all those elder statesmen already. Go earlier and approach them.  You know what is dying the fastest way?  The daily newspaper.  Tomorrow, it’s dead.  Who remembers the newspaper of yesterday?  Israel is not only quite technologically developed, but the revolutionary mind is also expressed in all forms of life.  No country in the last a hundred years stayed at a kibbutz or a moshav.  So it’s not only new forms of technology but new forms of life.  Now let me tell you, the kibbutzim and the moshavim are, all told, today one-and-a-half percent of the Israeli population.  Not much.  But they are 8.5% of the Israeli production.  Unbelievable.  They are 20% of our pilots.  They are a third of the soldiers that were decorated.  What do I mean with this?  They are not billionaires.   Their capital is pioneering and not collecting.  If I have to advise young people that enter politics these days I say don’t try for popularity; it will kill you.  Because at the beginning you have an idea you want to make popular.  But then you become so addicted to popularity that you forgot the idea that you wanted to sell.  Better stick to your idea than to your popularity.

'''DS: Mr. President, I think that that is advice that many of our presidential candidates could heed as much as any young person. Thank you for your time.


text:
User talk:71.125.153.69

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. , 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! --Jcart1534 00:11, 7 January 2008 (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 an article 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
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:71.125.153.69


text:
User:Wikinews Importer Bot/Environment

 category=Environment count=4 category=published notcategory=disputed suppresserrors=true ordermethod=categoryadd addfirstcategorydate=true addcategorydatefirst=true

Note. This page is used by the Wikinews Importer Bot to update the Wikipedia Environment Portal news.

title: User:Wikinews Importer Bot/Environment


text: Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Releases/Spoken Wikinews/Archive/2008


text:
Talk:Wikipedians support the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity by bidding on Wikipedia DVDs

If this is original reporting, shouldn't some OR notes go here? --Jcart1534 01:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Newsworthy? --84.13.175.4 00:15, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Probably not --User:Anonymous101 Talk 19:05, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


text:
Comments:2008 Dakar Rally cancelled over terrorist threat

International Dakar Security Program
I think that that an some of the major countries who are involved in the war on terrorism should come together and pool their resources in order to in sure the saftey of competitors and the event should be run as soon as possible. I understand how difficult this is and expensive but it also sends a message that the world absolutely will not tolerate terrorism and is willing to stand together to make sure that terrorists have as little impact as possible on events such as Dakar.

I do not care if this means the U.S. Army must give the competitors attack helicopter and A-10 escorts to make sure no one is a threat to the vehicles. If all countries who are fighting terrorism made a contribution it would be possible to hold the event. This is the type of thing I want my tax dollars to go to because this would sent all terrorists a message that no matter how difficult the circumstances the world will over come terrorism!

no they should not stop yhe event,as it is an internattional event,its botheringgggg

Islam
I really hate Islamic terrorist. Dakar was such a wonderful race and my company has lost $6 million dollars because of the cancellation.

The west must kill these people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.177.194 (talk) 06:23, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Not nice but probably the right decision
It's bad news for the sport and bad news for the war on terror. The only excuse is the short notice - I admit it was by all means impossible to take security precautions, given so little time to act.

I do hope the next year's venue will be held. I don't think those terrorist bastards would be any good in aiming moving targets, they are much more into cowardly killing innocent civilians in market places or alike. So with some air patrolling of the route and guarding the night camps the security should be possible at reasonable cost.

We must send that signal that we won't back off on terror threats. This year, sadly, there was not enough time to prepare.

I am already looking forward to the next year's venue.

-- DuCh —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.187.88.60 (talk) 22:48, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

p.o.ed
Why cant the terrorists just stay out of international affaris. The U.S. has a right to try and destroy terrorism —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.167.157.226 (talk) 20:17, 2 May 2008 (UTC)


text:
Wikinews:CommonsTicker/20080107

7 January

title: Wikinews:CommonsTicker/20080107


title: File:7January2008.pdf


title: File:7January2008.sxw


text:
Talk:Mikheil Saakashvili re-elected President of Georgia

I don't think any sources indicate that Saakashvili ever called an "early victory". Quite on the contrary, a BBC reporter says "Mr Saakashvili appears to be waiting for the results to be made fully official before claiming victory". 142.157.198.10 02:33, 7 January 2008 (UTC)


text:
Police in Texas arrest man eating dead girlfriend

January 7, 2008

Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, from Tyler, Texas in the United States has been arrested after police found him possibly preparing to eat the body parts of his dead girlfriend, Jana Shearer aged 21. He was also charged with stabbing his ex-wife's boyfriend, William Veasley, 42.

According to reports, Shearer's mother was told by McCuin to "look in the garage" where she discovered the mutilated body of her daughter. She then flagged down a police officer on the road.

McCuin called 911 after the mother left the house. According to reports, he told the dispatcher that he was boiling Shearer's body parts and preparing to eat them. When police got to his home, they discovered one of Shearer's ears boiling in a pot, and an unnamed piece of her flesh on the kitchen table, with silverware placed beside it. The rest of her body had several "chunks" missing from it, according to the  quoting Sheriff J.B. Smith of the Sheriff's Department.

Police later found out that McCuin had stabbed his ex-wife's boyfriend, and also broke into Tyler Custom Openings, a local business, sometime on Friday or Saturday. He started by going to Shearer's home on Friday January 4 to have a discussion with her, but she was never seen alive again. Before stabbing Veasley, he beat Shearer "with a blunt object, multiple times" to death. On Saturday morning, he arrived at his ex-wife's home and fought with Veasley, stabbing him. He is currently in critical condition at a local hospital.

McCuin then broke into the Tyler Custom Openings and then went to his mother's house where he took her to his home to show her what he had done. Although McCuin was inside the house when police arrived, he was able to escape and was chased for a short distance before being caught again.

McCuin is currently being held on a $2,000,000 bail at Smith County jail.


text:
Comments:Police in Texas arrest man eating dead girlfriend

Did he kill her because he wanted to eat her? Or is he not being wasteful?

This is crazy!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.22.210.231 (talk) 05:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

this is really wrong. I hope he gets executed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.12.73.253 (talk) 12:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

lawl —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.11.46.10 (talk) 13:21, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

thats crazy!

Personally, I hope the bastard's lawyer doesn't use his cannibalism as evidence of mental illness.--65.9.44.245 15:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I think this young man has lost his mind completely. He may need spiritual or psychological assistance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.185.25.188 (talk) 15:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree with you, 58.185.25.188 . --User:Anonymous101 Talk 16:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm sure his cannibalistic urges can be satisfied with communion wafers.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.224.212.100 (talk) 19:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

They really need to moderate these comments. :(

[Comment from 158.140.1.25 moved to talk.] --Brian McNeil / talk 19:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 * According to this, it says that Christopher Lee McCuin said that God told him to do it. 192.139.27.18 20:34, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

In texas, people have been put to death for less heinous crimes..
but for being a state with the highest usage of capital punishment, it doesn't appear to be a big deterrent. At least in this case. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vfrbud (talk • contribs) 21:13, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I wonder if Texans are wannabe cannibals themselves. That might explain their high execution rate. 68.36.214.143 19:49, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

what a sick mother (the hannabol the cannabol junior)
I think this guy needs to go back to sex-ed. for he doesn't know how to eat out a women the right way !!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.211.194.233 (talk) 00:32, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

O_o wow that was weird —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.1.36 (talk) 01:58, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

yo this guy mad cool i eat dem bitches too —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.146.26.5 (talk) 18:58, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Um, Hannibal the Cannibal only ate men. Go look him up if you don't believe me. 68.36.214.143 19:48, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Nasty story
This is a really disturbing and nasty story....news...whatever! It's just plain nasty~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.178.150.81 (talk) 23:13, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

i think that mccuin should get the death penalty for doing such a disgusting thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.3.97.209 (talk) 01:42, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

YUCK, YUCK, YUCK! What would propel him to do such a thing? PurplePerson 00:56, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

ewwwww!
shit's grose what was the big deal he didn't have to eat the girl to get over his anger i wonder what the sentence will be if it ain't the death penalty then it ain't right. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.65.50 (talk) 21:10, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

ITS THEM MARTIANS!
I told you! The Martians are on their way, come to eat us. End of Days, end of Days.

Love,

Rev. Josiah Strong —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.54.14.84 (talk) 15:46, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

crazy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.62.95.85 (talk) 00:39, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

sick
Dude thats nasty why should he even have bail?? sick freaks out there man. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.185.61.19 (talk) 15:52, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Insane
I bet he was insane. My first reaction is WTF?! Crazy guy. This sort of proves that "To Serve Man" could happen. Also, was this really necessary?

—Spockezri 14:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Crazy
This man is crazy and needs some serious help. How could one human being eat another one. Thank god that the mother had enough since to call the police. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.82.162.8 (talk) 13:58, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

i think he is a sick man come on

What?!

This is what you call Crazy with a capital C! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.236.134.124 (talk) 07:06, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

What a sicl and demonic person —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.174.58 (talk) 20:39, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

OMG
What is wrong with these people????? OMG I can not imagine!! He is freakin Psycho!! He needs mental Help!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.76.26.101 (talk) 22:47, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "this is cccccccccccccccccccccc..."
this is ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy —12.220.224.66 (talk) 20:23, 20 September 2011 (UTC)