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Wikinews:Briefs/August 20, 2006

The time is 18:00 (UTC) on August 20th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Volcano eruption in Ecuador kills five and destroys several small villages
Ecuador

The eruption of volcano Tungurahua on August 16 destroyed several small villages in the Ecuadorian Andes. At least 6 people have been killed and about 4000 residents of the affected area have been evacuated.

400 Australian soldiers sent to Afghanistan
Australia

400 Australian soldiers have been officially farewelled at a parade in Darwin, NT, ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Pair taken off plane because of "suspicious" behaviour
Spain

Two men who were reportedly seen acting suspiciously on a flight bound for Manchester had to be taken off the plane, it has emerged today. According to Monarch Airlines, a number of passengers informed staff of their worries surrounding the pair’s behaviour in Malaga on Wednesday.

South Carolina attracting Republican hopefuls
United States

2008 Republican presidential hopefuls are spending a lot of time in South Carolina in the run-up to the 2006 off-year elections. All the interest in the Palmetto State is widely viewed in the light of its place of significance in the GOP's primary calendar.

Australia's "most powerful" windfarm approved
Australia

The government of Victoria has announced plans to build what it says will be Australia's "most powerful wind farm." Planning Minister Rob Hulls has given the go ahead to a new $380 million wind farm at Mount Gellibrand in the state's south-west.

JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect on his way to America
Thailand

The man being held in Bangkok on suspicion of murdering six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey more than ten years ago has started his extradition flight to the US.

American athlete Marion Jones tests positive for EPO
sports - athletics

Track Star Marion Jones, winner of 3 gold medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has tested positive for the performance enhancing drug, EPO. The hormone helps create extra red blood cells which allows the user's body to obsorb extra oxygen.

Closing statements
We invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. This has been Audio Wikinews Newsbriefs. Thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day. This recording has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

title: Wikinews:Briefs/August 20, 2006


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Australia to detain Burmese boatpeople on Nauru

August 21, 2006 Eight Burmese boat people, who arrived off Western Australia's Ashmore Reef last week, say they wish to claim refugee status. The group of 8 men, aged between 24 and 40, are being held in detention on Christmas Island by the Australian Federal Government. They will be sent to Nauru after identity interviews and medical checks are completed.

According to The Age newspaper, the men are from a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border, and may be from the Karen tribe, who are battling Burma's brutal military Government. Karen rebels have been at war with the central Government for 57 years.

An Immigration department spokesman confirmed that the eight men claimed to be from Burma. Two of the men have contacted immigration lawyers, seeking assistance with asylum claims. David Manne, from Melbourne-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said the other six were likely to do the same. "There's a very strong likelihood that they are genuine refugees," he said.

The men were first spotted by the Australian Customs Service at Ashmore Reef, 610km north of Broome, WA on August 13. They were sent by Navy vessel to Christmas Island - 2,400 km northwest of Perth, WA. The men have been held since Friday as part of the Howard Government's Pacific Solution to keep asylum seekers out of the country.

In 2005, the Department of Immigration began construction of an Immigration Reception and Processing Centre on Christmas Island, due for completion late in 2006. The facility is estimated to cost $210 million, and will contain 800 beds.

No Legal Recourse for Burmese
The news of the boat people's arrival became public last week as Prime Minister John Howard scrapped controversial new migration laws. The proposed laws would have excised the Australian mainland for immigration purposes. Ashmore Reef, already excised from Australia's migration zone, means the men have no legal entitlement to be brought to Australia for processing. They have no access to the Australian court system to argue their claims or contest the rulings of the Immigration Department.

Mr Manne said he was concerned that the circumstances of the men's confinement could hamper their attempts to communicate with lawyers. He said the Burmese men should be afforded the same rights as the West Papuans or Vietnamese asylum-seekers who recently made it to Australian shores. "It's absolutely crucial these people be given a fair go, so that they can actually speak with us properly about the issues," he said. Mr Manne says he has made several requests of the Department of Immigration in Canberra.

"They're asylum seekers... they believe that they'd be persecuted if sent to Burma, and we have agreed to act on their behalf." He was unable to say whether the group was dropped off by people smugglers, as Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone claims.

"What we do know is they're seeking refugee status, that is, protection from brutal human rights abuse," he said. The Burmese regime has recently waged an aggressive attack on Karen insurgents - forcing thousands of villagers to hide in the jungle or seek refuge in Thailand. There are 140,000 refugees in seven camps along the Thai-Burma border.

Australian Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says the government must allow the Burmese group to be brought to Australia to process the asylum-seeker's claims. "The government needs to ensure that all asylum seekers are offered legal support," she said. "The best way to ensure the Burmese asylum seekers have full access to their lawyer is to bring them to Australia while their asylum claims are assessed."

Nauru
Meanwhile the near-bankrupt Nauru Government has urged Australia to "speed up asylum seeker processing" in their country. Nauru says Australia is taking far too long to process asylum seekers. Currently two refugees remain on Nauru - both Iraqi men. The men have been held in detention on the remote tiny island for five years.

According to The Age, the Nauru Government has approved a plan to impose financial penalties on Australia if asylum seekers are forced to languish on the near-bankrupt island. The report says if they have not been processed and either returned or resettled within three months, their visas will have to be renewed each month, with the cost increasing by $500 for each renewal.

Nauru's Foreign Minister David Adeang raised serious concerns about the mental state of the detainees. He says Muhammad Faisal's condition worsened sharply after he was re-interviewed by ASIO. Mr Adeang has asked for the Government to evacuate the Mr Faisal immediately, he says he is also concerned about the mental health of the other Iraqi man left on Nauru. The Australian Government claims advice from ASIO that the man may be a "security threat."

Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 km². Since 2001 it has accepted aid from the Australian government. In exchange for this aid, Nauru houses an 'offshore' detention centre for Australia.

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


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UK soldier killed in southern Afghanistan

August 20, 2006

The Ministry of Defence has tonight confirmed that a British soldier has been killed whilst fighting with insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

The unnamed troop was killed in a gun battle with Taleban forces in the volatile Helmand province at around midday local time.

A spokesman from the Ministry of Defence said: “The soldier died as a result of injuries sustained during the contact. Three other British soldiers received minor injuries.” The MoD also said that they are in the process of informing the soldier’s family about his death.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said: "I was deeply saddened to be informed of the death today of a British soldier and the injuries of three others as they supported the NATO mission in Afghanistan," he said. "I wish to express my sincere condolences to their families and friends. My thoughts are with them at this difficult time."

So far, twenty British armed forces personnel have died in Afghanistan.

Today, it has been reported that around seventy Taleban fighters were killed when they clashed with Afghan security forces and Nato-led troops.

Related


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Polish peace activist imprisoned

August 20, 2006 On August 9 in the Polish city of Poznań, Krysztof Wantoch-Rekowski, an anti-hunger, anti-war campaigner from the international Food Not Bombs network was detained by police.

He was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment on the charge of "destroying" his identity card, which is a criminally punishable action under Article 276 of the Polish Criminal Code.

In a press statement made on August 15, supporters said that Wantoch-Rekowski did not destroy his card, he only stuck a "paper illustration" on it to prevent it from falling apart ("podkleił 'papierową ilustracją' swój rozpadający się ze starości dowód"). Typical (old-style) Polish identity papers are made of paper and soft carton and must be carried at all times.

Wantoch-Rekowski's supporters claim that his detention is an example of the "absurdity" of an increase in imprisonment rates against "the homeless, the unemployed and those living on the margins of society" which has taken place, according to them, since the parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2005 were won by the right-wing Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) party and one of its leaders, Lech Kaczyński.

The number held in prison in Poland increased by 5% from about 83,000 to about 87,000 in the first six months of 2006, making it one of the highest imprisonment rates in the European Union. The imprisonment level in Poland increased 100% since the post-communist epoch, beginning in 1989.

title: Polish peace activist imprisoned


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User:NthDegree99

User page.

title: User:NthDegree99


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User:Ma xyz

Goto my Wikipedia Userpage

title: User:Ma xyz


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Demand for biofuel irrigation worsens global water crisis

August 21, 2006 A report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) says rising demand for irrigation to produce food and biofuels will aggravate scarcities of water. "One in three people is enduring one form or another of water scarcity," states the report compiled by 700 experts.

IWMI warns there has to be a radical transformation in the management of water resources - citing as examples Australia, south-central China, and last year’s devastating drought in India. Report authors claim that the price of water could double or triple over the next two decades. The report, backed by the United Nations and farm research groups, shows that globally, water usage had increased by six times in the past 100 years and would double again by 2050 - driven mainly by irrigation and demands by agriculture.

Record oil prices and concerns about rapid onset climate change are driving more countries to produce biofuels - from sugarcane, corn or wood - as an alternative to fossil fuel. "If people are growing biofuels and food it will put another new stress," says David Molden, who led the study at the Sri Lanka-based IWMI. "The big solution is to find ways to grow more food with less water. Basically, more crop per drop," Molden said. "The number one recommendation... is to look to improve rain-fed systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia."

The report says conquering hunger and coping with an estimated 3 billion more humans by 2050 will result in an 80 percent increase in water use for agriculture. Irrigation absorbs around 74 percent and is likely to surge by 2050.

"We will have to change business as usual in order to deal with growing scarcity," said Frank Rijsberman, director general of the IWMI, of the report released at the 2006 "World Water Week" conference in Stockholm. Solutions included helping poor countries to grow more food with available fresh water via simple, low-cost measures, a shift from past policies that favoured expensive dams or canals, the report said.

According to Rijsberman, there are two types of shortages: those observed in regions where water is over-exploited, causing a lowering of groundwater levels and rivers to dry up; and those in countries lacking the technical and financial resources to capture water - despite its abundance.

Billions of people in Asia and Africa already faced water shortages because of poor water management, he said. "We will not run out of bottled water any time soon, but some countries have already run out of water to produce their own food," he said. The report said that a calorie of food took roughly 1 litre of water to produce, with a kilo of grain needing only 500-4,000 litres compared to a kilo of industrially produced meat taking 10,000 litres.

"Without improvements in water productivity the consequences of this will be even more widespread water scarcity and rapidly increasing water prices." Rijsberman said water scarcity in Africa was caused by a lack of infrastructure to get the water to the people who needed it. "The water is there, the rainfall is there, but the infrastructure isn't there," Rijsberman told reporters.

Other recommendations for certain regions include the extension and the improvement of agriculture using rainwater, the introduction of cereal varieties that need less water as well as the development of irrigation systems.

But the priority, Rijsberman stresses, is to change mentalities and often outdated government policies. "Government policies and their approach to water are probably the most urgent that need changing in the short term," he said.

There is, he says, enough land, water and human capacity to produce enough food for a growing population over the next 50 years, but one of the challenges is to provide enough water for agriculture without damaging the environment. "Agriculture is driving water scarcity and water scarcity is driving environmental degradation and destruction," he said.

In Australia last week, Rijsberman said he would "not be surprised to see the price of water double or triple over the next two decades."


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User talk:Jahiegel

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Doldrums 03:22, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Jahiegel


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User talk:Kjetil r

Welcome
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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! Doldrums 03:23, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
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Unauthorized bio...

 * Uautorisert Tom Cruise-biografi når toppen av bestselgerlistene - wow, thanks for this link! Wilhelm 16:53, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

 * What is there to thank for? You know, translating stories from en.wikinews is far easier than writing your own story! [[Image:Face-wink.svg|16px]] --Kjetil r 00:02, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kjetil r


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User talk:AmolKoldhekar~enwikinews

Welcome
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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

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

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:13, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:28, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:AmolKoldhekar~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Ma xyz

Welcome
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title: User talk:Ma xyz


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User talk:Mjbarberio

Welcome
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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! Doldrums 03:26, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Mjbarberio


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NASA chooses Woomera, South Australia for rocket launch site

August 21, 2006 NASA has announced that rockets will be launched from Woomera in outback South Australia to service the International Space Station (ISS) — starting in 2008. NASA has selected two American companies to launch rockets from the Woomera base. Rocket Plane Kistler and Space-X will conduct orbital flight tests and commercial operations. The Woomera site would also be used to launch cargo such as fuel and food to the ISS as often as every two weeks.

Woomera, named for an Aboriginal spear-throwing tool, was originally involved in testing of long-range missiles and rockets for Britain during the Cold War. The site was also recently used by the Australian government to incarcerate asylum-seeking refugees.

SpaceX based in California, and Rocketplane-Kistler of Oklahoma City, will share up to $US500 million in NASA seed money to develop their launch vehicles. NASA has stated it wants commercial firms to take over ISS transportation services after the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk, made its launch debut in March with the Falcon 1 rocket but the vehicle failed shortly after lift-off. The two companies secured the NASA contract to demonstrate its "commercial orbital transportation services". Kistler has scheduled the first launch of its K-1 rocket from Woomera in late 2008. Kistler said work on a $100 million launch site at Woomera was expected to start in October. The site should be completed by the end of next year. Kistler Woomera chairman Alan Evans said the contract meant "hundreds of jobs" would be created within the aerospace industry in South Australia. "The jobs will be within the high-level end of the spectrum of the space industry, which is great news for the state," he said.

K-1 will have crew transportation capabilities, meaning the Woomera site could see astronauts leave from Australia. The site may also be used to transport satellites into space for telecom companies and defence organisations. The K-1 launch vehicle is designed to be re-used 100 times. It is powered by liquid-propellant engines and lands back on Earth with the help of parachutes and airbags.

"Woomera was chosen because it can be used for polar and equatorial launches and because of its clean land areas," Mr Evans said. "Kistler has already spent US$700 million developing this idea."

Rocketplane Kistler say their K-1 launch system will also provide low cost space access for satellites and research payloads. Their sub-orbital XP Spaceplane is 50% complete, and scheduled for first flight in late 2008. The K-1’s hardware is 75% complete — and is scheduled for first flight in 2008.


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User:Cybergrape/How the future began

Ever wondered How The universe started? i mean, the big bang is an explanation, but the rest is just a mystery. sit back, and read this article, about what me and a few futurists think.

in the future, we could have clothes, that sensed earthquakes, danger? what if divination was true? well, we could never know.

so thats why, we should take an interest, utill it's too late,and our chance of finding out what could help preserve our earth.

maybe, there was a more sophisicated civilisation, back when the egyptians built the structures?

questions now asked, may never be answered. find out the theories in my next issue of how the future began. (publish)

title: User:Cybergrape/How the future began


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New Zealand riot police use batons to disperse unruly pub-crawl

August 21, 2006

The annual 'Undie 500' road-trip, in which 400 Canterbury and Otago university students took part, turned into a riot when students started throwing bottles around and lighting fires. The riot started in Dunedin on Castle Street North, which is known for its parties. In the Undie 500 road-trip, students go from Christchurch to Dunedin and along the way stopping at five pubs. It is the biggest pub crawl of its kind in Australasia.

The police found students watching the New Zealand Fire Service battling the fires they had lit.

Maggie Kleist, an Otago University student, said: "The police were so outnumbered, and people were just getting each other worked up more and more and more and it was yeah, pretty intense."

Riot police then turned up to move students away with batons but more bottles were thrown and more fires were lit. "At this stage police moved the crowd with the use of batons," Allan Grindell, Police Senior Sergeant said.

Paul Chong, Students Association president, said: "Couch-burning and bottle-smashing aren't serious enough offences to justify bringing in baton-wielding police."

Allan Grindell said: "Many in the crowd were heavily intoxicated and drinking from bottles and cans."

An unnamed student said: "This is just out of control."

Sergeant Wayne Pitcaithly says 95 arrests were made. The police continued to dispersed crowds for 45 minutes.

"People were throwing bottles, everyone was getting arrested, the riot police came, and they were hitting people with their batons," said Canterbury Student Josh Binns.


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Talk:New Zealand riot police use batons to disperse unruly pub-crawl

Sigh.....
I guess the inaccuracies in this article will never be tidied up, and will forever serve as a reminder that, with the exception of wikipedia, openly editable sites do not work. That is a shame, I have offered to correct the page, but it has been locked, and my concerns ignored. Nzjrs 13:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Page Locked
Why has the page been locked before all of the glaring innacuracies have been tidied up? Can I fix these? Nzjrs 07:03, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

"outrage"
article does not report any "outrage" from the students over the use of force, but the headline does. Doldrums 07:01, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * How about now, with the addition of this paragraph: Paul Chong, Students Association president, said "Couch-burning and bottle-smashing aren't serious enough offences to justify bringing in baton-wielding police." -nzgabriel 07:23, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * fine. my suggestion is to change the title to something like Riot police use batons to disperse unruly pub-crawl in NZ, so that the title reflects the focus of the article - which mostly reports the events and only lightly touches upon the "outrage". "unruly" and "pub crawl" may be replaced by any other, more appropriate, phrases. Doldrums 07:30, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The title change is fine by me. Changing the phrases im im not too sure about. nzgabriel 07:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Headline missleading. Pub crawl was from Christchurch to Dunedin, taking place on 18-19 08/2006 while the confrontation with the police took place in the centre of Dunedin (Castle Street North) near the Otago University campus on 18/08/2006 after 21:00. The riot was a combination of a number of things; mainly increased numbers of students due to 1: 'Undie 500', 2: Graduation, 3: Two rugby tests taking place, 4: A fine warm day (rare in Dunedin). What was outragous about the use of force by the police was the use of batons, storming peoples houses and making everyone from those premises leave (even inocent bystanders), and thirdly the police tatics of herding the students, using systematic police lines with officers wheelding batons, into the university campus. Also worrying was the way police officers ramdomly selected intoxicated students within the crowds, charging them and dragging them off to await arrest in 'paddie' wagons, basically using individuals as examples to others. This might seem exceptable, however it was the large number of arrests that has incited outrage. Over 30 people in the space of one hour. Altogether just under 100 students were arrested between friday night and sunday afternoon. This compares to a 'normal' weekend of 5-10 arrests.—Cnz 09:38, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

This article blames the riot on the undie 500. The author infers this as none of the referenced articles make this confusion. As a student who was there, and partly responisble for the organisation of the event I find this article inflamatory and inacurate.

 * article is based on the sources listed. can u pls point to the specific statement in the article that u take issue with? (by the way, u can sign ur posts by appending ~ to the end of ur comment. this adds ur IP address (or username, if u sign up, which is better privacy) to the comment.) Doldrums 03:54, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

 * The title of the article "...disperse unruly pub-crawl" implies that the riot contained a majority of people belonging to the undie. This completely false. From memory, of the 100 or so arrests for the weekend 25 were christchurch students. How is this a majority? Furthurmore, this article seems to base its interpretation that the riots were the undie500s fault from the referenced crime.co.nz story, which as the commenter at the start of the page pointed out, is incorrect. The riot was the night after the undie arrived. Finally, and to once again agree with the poster above, the other referenced news stories cite the undie as not the reason that the riots occured, but just a contributing factor. You asked me ot point to a specific phrase which I take issue with; as mentioned I take issue with the title and the first paragraph which in no uncertain terms attribute the riot not only to the undie, but also claim that it consisted soley/majority of undie participants.Nzjrs 02:28, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * note that the tvnz source says pretty much the same thing, "An annual student road trip from Christchurch to Dunedin turned into a riot on Saturday night.". Doldrums 07:09, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Once again, The impression this article gives (saying the sole cause of the riot was the undie500) is a lot stronger than the other linked sources, they do not say the same thing at all. More specific examples: 1) Quote from tvnz: Adding to the melee, hundreds of Canterbury students are in Dunedin this weekend for the annual Undie 500 road trip. i.e. undie was a contributing factor not the sole reason. 2) There were over 1500 participants on the undie (I know i have taken part in the organisation), the tvnz article lists Four hundred students worked themselves into a frenzy.. It does not say that 400 students rioted, nor does it imply that the 400 people are a majority from the undie. . How can the author of this article know the proportion of undie participants in the riot? As I was there I would be very certain that canterbury students did not make up more than 50%, which is reasonable considering the riot was in dunedin on a major flatting street. In conclusion, I believe that the only way the tvnz article can say the same thing is if the author only read the very first sentance An annual student road trip from Christchurch to Dunedin turned into a riot on Saturday night., stopped reading, and then on their own accord decided that the riot was casued by the undie, and had only undie participants take place. In some ways I disagree with the tvnz reporting also, but it is not as innacurate as this story at least. Nzjrs 12:08, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


text:
User talk:67.161.110.224

Welcome
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title: User talk:67.161.110.224


text:
User talk:65.167.69.65

Welcome
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Additionally, 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 will be reverted quickly.Doldrums 07:57, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:65.167.69.65


text:
Indian shehnai Maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan Passes Away

August 21, 2006 The legendary Indian shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib (March 21, 1916 - August 21, 2006) was the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (in 2001), the highest civilian honour in India. According to the Indian Home Ministry officials, the musical maestro would be given a state funeral. Flags would be flown at half mast in all the government buildings as part of the mourning.

He also had the distinction of heralding in India's Independence, mesmerizing audiences before the start of Pandit Nehru's speech and the unfurling of the tricolour on August 15, 1947. Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib was one of the few people to be awarded all the top four civilian awards.


text:
User talk:81.187.22.193

Welcome
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title: User talk:81.187.22.193


text: Category:Mumbai

title: Category:Mumbai


text:
Category:New Orleans, Louisiana

ca:Categoria:Nova Orleans es:Categoría:Nueva Orleans

title: Category:New Orleans, Louisiana


text:
User talk:MSharma

Welcome
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title: User talk:MSharma


text: Category:Queensland

title: Category:Queensland


text:
User talk:89.240.220.168

Welcome
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Additionally, 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 will be reverted quickly.Doldrums 10:02, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:89.240.220.168


text: Category:Sicily

title: Category:Sicily


text:
Category:Sydney

es:Categoría:Sídney fr:Catégorie:Sydney it:Categoria:Sydney pl:Kategoria:Sydney ru:Категория:Сидней sr:Категорија:Sidnej sv:Kategori:Sydney tr:Kategori:Sidney

title: Category:Sydney


text: File:Bismillah khan.jpg

title: File:Bismillah khan.jpg


text:
Manhunt underway after woman and her three children found dead

August 21, 2006

A woman and her three children, aged five to 11, have been found dead in their home in Cheadle Hulme in Greater Manchester, prompting a murder investigation by police.

Officers were summoned to the scene on Turves Road last night after neighbours became concerned about the well being of the house's inhabitants. Greater Manchester Police had to break into the house, and when they got in, they discovered four bodies which had been there for some time.

In a press conference this afternoon, Greater Manchester Police said that they want to trace Rheman Arshad, a thirty six year-old male who was living with the four victims in the house. Detective Superintendent Martin Bottomley said: "We are keen to trace the fifth occupant of the house, Mr Arshad. We are concerned for his welfare. We are treating it as a murder inquiry, therefore we need to speak to him. There are a number of strands to the inquiry but the most immediate one is to trace the whereabouts of Mr Arshad."

He has been missing for four weeks, and Mr Bottomley have asked him or anybody who has seen him to contact them. "We have alerted every police force in the country. We want to speak to him in relation to the horrendous events in the house. We are liaising with forces abroad." Mr Arshad, a local taxi driver, may be driving a BMW 320 series sports coupe.

Mr Bottomley said the cause of death is not yet known. He also said that post-mortem examinations are yet to take place. "The bodies may have been lying there for up to four weeks and you can imagine in the hot weather we have been faced with a devastating scene."

This morning, a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: "A murder investigation has been launched after four bodies were discovered in Cheadle Hulme. Police were called to the address and officers attended and forced entry. They discovered four bodies, believed to be a woman and three children. It is believed the bodies may have been there for some time."

Winifred Lomax, a seventy four year-old retired shop worker who lives on Turves Road, said: "They had not been seen for a few weeks and someone looked through their letterbox and there was a nasty smell."

This afternoon, an eyewitness told Wikinews what she saw: "I walked past the scene earlier today, and the terrace house was surrounded with tape. Several officers in white forensic suits were examining the barricaded area and a huge white tent was erected in front of the house's front door."

The woman and her children are thought to be Asian.


text:
JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect back in America

August 21, 2006

John Mark Carr, the man who has been accused of killing six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey ten years ago, has arrived in the US after being extradited from Bangkok in Thailand.

The forty-one year-old American schoolteacher was escorted by US security officials from Bangkok, but officers from the Los Angeles Police Department accompanied him after he went through customs. He was then whisked off in a helicopter and taken to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.

"Mr. Karr is expected to remain in the custody of local authorities while the Boulder District Attorney's Office seeks his extradition to Colorado," a statement from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Karr confessed to being with JonBenét when she died, adding that her death was an accident. "I was with JonBenét when she died. I loved JonBenét. She died accidentally. I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenét. It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."

Despite his confession, Karr's then ex-wife said that he was in Alabama with her when the murder occurred.

JonBenét was found beaten and strangled in her Colorado home on the day after Christmas in 1996.

Related news


text:
Talk:Manhunt underway after woman and her three children found dead

I've just got a quote from a college friend who lives near the area, but she doesn't want to be named. So can someone tell me if I am I still able to use her quote?

Mick 13:00, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

editprotected

Please add Portal:Greater Manchester category. Rayboy8 (talk) 06:14, 17 September 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅--Brian McNeil / talk 15:16, 23 September 2009 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Demand for biofuel irrigation worsens global water crisis

There is nothing about this article that justifies the title. The cited articles indicate that it is a combination of food and biofuel production that worsens the crisis. And most of the articles including this one indicate that the mismanagement by governments are the primary cause of the crisis not the choice of grains and biofuel production.

Woodsjay 13:21, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

 * You are right. Indeed, as I hacked away at it the story ended up being more about water management than biofuels. Thats what I get when comipling an article after the headline has been written! At least there's this from the article: "...Record oil prices and concerns about rapid onset climate change are driving more countries to produce biofuels - from sugarcane, corn or wood - as an alternative to fossil fuel. "If people are growing biofuels and food it will put another new stress..." Perhaps a title change? To - "Water mis-management adds to global water crisis" Or something... --elliot_k 15:51, 21 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
User talk:Christopherdunlap

Welcome
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title: User talk:Christopherdunlap


text:
Channel Tunnel closed after smoke seen coming from train

August 21, 2006

Thirty-four people had to be evacuated this lunchtime after a fire started on a lorry, which was being transported on a freight train in the Channel Tunnel.

Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel Tunnel, said all services had to be suspended this afternoon due to the small blaze in which nobody was hurt.

John Keefe, a spokesman for Eurotunnel, said: "It was a freight shuttle going through with about 34 people on board, who have all been evacuated safely.

"Eurotunnel is conducting checks of the tunnel and its equipment. Once these investigations are completed, Eurotunnel will commence a progressive restart of commercial services."

The company also said services through the Tunnel would hopefully resume later today. "Unfortunately with this being a very busy time of year, it's going to take a few hours to clear the backlog once we've got started again," said Mr Keefe.

A Eurostar spokesman said: "We are advising passengers to avoid travelling today if possible. Tickets can be exchanged for another day."

The Channel Tunnel is a 31 mile long rail tunnel beneath the English Channel which connects Folkestone in Kent to Coquelles near Calais in northern France.


text:
User talk:166.87.255.132

Welcome!

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Here are some other hints and tips:

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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!Doldrums 14:31, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:166.87.255.132


text:
Google re-opens online word processor service

August 21, 2006

According to published reports and information posted to the Writely.com website and blog, the service has re-opened its Writely account beta program.

The Writely beta was launched in August 2005, and Google acquired the Writely technology on March 9, 2006. The core Writely service provides a free online collaborative word processor which is widely viewed as an alternative and potential competitor to more traditional locally-run word processing software.

The service has claimed that thousands of people had previously registered for the service exclusively driven by word-of-mouth and the Writely blog. Shortly after being acquired by Google, the company greatly restricted the service and maintained a future customer sign up waiting list.

Writely re-opened its beta service on August 17, 2006. According to the company's blog, the timing of the re-launch was due to a positive product review on CNET combined with persistent email requests asking the service to re-open. Additionally, Writely is planning to make its service available as part of the Google Account sign-in sometime on the near future.

A number of industry sources have speculated on why Google chose to issue a press release on August 17, 2006 touting its involvement in a Star Trek convention and failed to release any information on the Writely beta re-open. While Google has proven reticent to release and publish product information in the past, the lack of any published information for the Writely beta re-open has generated a greater than usual number of web posts and articles addressing the subject.


text:
Manhunt underway for 2 murders in Virginia; Virginia Tech closed

August 21, 2006 William Morva, who escaped from a hospital in Blacksburg on Sunday, is in custody. He is a suspect in the murders of hospital security guard, Derrick McFarland on Sunday, and police officer Cpl. Eric Sutphin.

Virginia Tech has closed their campus and cancelled classes on Monday. They issued an emergency advisory at 10:30 am local time.

William Morva, 24, was taken to a hospital after complaining of a sprained wrist and leg, and escaped early Sunday morning after wounding a police officer and killing Derrick McFarland, an unarmed security guard. Around 7:30 am, Morva shot and fatally wounded Cpl. Eric Sutphin while he was on patrol on a local trail. Virginia Tech cancelled classes after a report that Morva was seen in a campus building. The building was evacuated, but he was not found.

At 3:36 pm EDT August 21, 2006, Montgomery County Police reported over the police scanner that William Morva was captured and taken into custody. He was captured west of the rugby fields on the Virginia Tech campus. This has been confirmed by a statement by the Blacksburg Police..


text:
Buffalo, N.Y. restaurant to end nearly 30-year tradition

After nearly thirty years, Pano's Restaurant at 1081 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York will end a tradition of being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ending its overnight food service.

The tradition for Buffalonians, who are able to enjoy drinks at the bars and clubs until 4:00 a.m. will end sometime at the end of August or September, according to overnight manager Wendi Dittmar and restaurant accountant Roseanne Jones.

"We will be starting the closure of the overnight shift sometime in the next 2 weeks to a month," said Dittmar in an exclusive interview with Wikinews.

Jones told Wikinews that owner Pano Georgiadis is "just fed up" with the "destruction, the walk-outs of bills and fights that the 'drunk' people cause" in his restaurant.

Pano's opened in 1977 on the day of the blizzard of '77' and has "remained open for 24 hours since then", only closing for an hour at a time on the weekends to clean up and prepare the restaurant for breakfast, said Georgiadis.

Artvoice, which holds the "Best of Buffalo" competition every year where readers vote for their favorite Buffalo place, has listed Pano's as the Best of Buffalo for best brunch, best Greek restaurant, best patio and best super-cheap breakfasts for 2006.

Dittmar also says that Georgiadis is expected to make several "public service announcements" within the next few weeks to "thank customers for their patronage."


text:
Talk:Buffalo, N.Y. restaurant to end nearly 30-year tradition

Original
The quotes and images are original. Jason Safoutin 16:24, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I will try to get a better image, but I had to use the original uncropped and un edited image due to a bad upload earlier and for whatever reason, the image would not save to disk. They have a website, but is currently not in service. Jason Safoutin 17:12, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

nice work
Doldrums 17:10, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks :) Jason Safoutin 17:12, 21 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Channel Tunnel closed after smoke seen coming from train

Press office contacted
I've emailed the Eurotunnel press office and asked for any information they can provide to help expand our coverage. I'll likely not get anything until tomorrow so it'd be a new story *hopefully* with the reason for the closure. --Brian McNeil / talk 16:53, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * No answer from the press office - next time I'll phone instead of email. --Brian McNeil / talk 07:10, 23 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
User talk:Sarah2003

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Doldrums 17:05, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Sarah2003


text:
User talk:Imaizlin~enwikinews

Welcome
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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

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

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:19, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Imaizlin~enwikinews


text:
UK soldier killed in Afghanistan named by Ministry of Defence

August 21, 2006 The British soldier who was killed in southern Afghanistan yesterday has today been named by the Ministry of Defence.

Cpl Bryan Budd, of the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, was killed in Helmand province at about noon local time during a gun battle with Taliban forces in the volatile area.

"Cpl Budd died as a result of injuries sustained during the contact. Three other British soldiers received minor injuries," said an MoD spokesman.

So far, twenty British armed forces personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

Yesterday, Defence Secretary Des Browne said: "I was deeply saddened to be informed of the death today of a British soldier and the injuries of three others as they supported the NATO mission in Afghanistan. I wish to express my sincere condolences to their families and friends. My thoughts are with them at this difficult time."


text:
User talk:149.28.18.49

Welcome!

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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:
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Here are some other hints and tips:

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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!Doldrums 18:21, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:149.28.18.49


text:
Talk:UK soldier killed in Afghanistan named by Ministry of Defence

Added links to Wikipedia on Taliban and Hermand province. Uzerzero 19:52, 21 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
User talk:82.38.255.159

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

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Additionally, 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 will be reverted quickly. Jason Safoutin 20:16, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:82.38.255.159


text:
11 suspects in UK air bomb plot charged

August 21, 2006

Charges have been laid against 11 of the 23 suspects being detained by British police for an alleged plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic airliners.

Eight men were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism, said Peter Clarke, deputy commissioner of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch during a news conference in London, Monday.

The eight are Abdullah Ahmed Ali, 25, Tanvir Hussain, 25, Umar Islam, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 25, Assad Ali Sarwar, 26, Adam Khatib, 19, Ibrahim Savant 25, and Waheed Zaman, 22.

Two others were charged with failing to disclose information about potential acts of terrorism, whilst a 17-year-old is charged with possession of articles useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism under Section Five of the Terrorism Act, 2006.

A woman was released without charges being laid leaving an additional 11 suspects in custody without charges, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The suspects have been in detention since August 10 when they were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to set off explosives on at least 10 flights between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Susan Hemming, head of the CPS counter terrorism division, said the alleged plot was to "manufacture and smuggle the component parts of improvised explosive devices on to aircraft and assemble and detonate them on board".

title: 11 suspects in UK air bomb plot charged


text:
User talk:Uzerzero

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

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title: User talk:Uzerzero


text:
Talk:Wikinews interview with America's Got Talent finalists Celtic Spring

Need notes
You need some notes (which should be posted to this talk page) about how and where you interviewed Celtic Spring. And also, you might want to get them to answer some of the questions. --SVTCobra 23:01, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, I know. I'm just laying this page out as preperatory for the interview. They will be interviewed via email, and the interview will be posted unedited. --  Zanimum 15:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

The questions have been sent. -- Zanimum 19:30, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Lightning fast response from the mother/manager. I'm publishing the interview essentially unedited. Truely unedited is this edit. -- Zanimum 19:12, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Typo
editprotected

The article says 'are are' in a quote. Either the quote is correct and [sic] should be added; or the quote is incorrect and one 'are' should be removed. Van der Hoorn (talk) 19:49, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Done — Gopher65talk 02:02, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Edit
editprotected Please change the wikilink target from to  as it currently points to the drink. Heavy Water (talk) 05:00, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ —chaetodipus (talk · contribs) 01:21, 5 March 2023 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Brisbane woman charged with Sizzler poisoning

This isn't the only food contamination incident in the queen st myer centre, there has been at least two others.


text:
Hungary's St Stephen's Day hit by storm: 3 left dead

August 21, 2006 On Sunday, between one and one and a half million people had gathered in Budapest for St Stephen's Day fireworks when a severe storm hit.

According to the Budapest Fire Department, a 30-to-40 year-old man and a 12-year-old girl died when a large tree fell on a crowd of spectators on the Buda side, while the cause of an elderly woman's death in Pest remains unclear yet. One man is still missing.

The storm brought winds of at least 100 km/h and large hail. Roof tiles were torn off, trees knocked down, and cars and windows smashed. A stage at the celebration collapsed, causing panic among the audience.

Most of the injuries were caused by falling tiles and debris from roofs. The fire services were called to 250 locations during the night and reports of damage are expected to increase during the day.

"Five minutes into the display a wind starts rolling in, about a minute later, the wind is reaching 70km/h... then the rain comes, but so hard and so large that it slaps your skin like a needle, then hail fell from the sky, people panicking and screaming and running over each other. I lost my sister and her friend, and on my way there were two disabled people in wheelchairs, people just jumping over and pushing them," Armand Versace said.

Meteorologists say they had warned that the storm was approaching. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has ordered an inquiry into why the event went ahead.

The Budapest City Council security committee held an extraordinary meeting late on Sunday and the civic security directorate decided to set up a special unit to help those in need.


text:
Talk:Hungary's St Stephen's Day hit by storm: 3 left dead

comment
I see you added a source, but it does not contain nearly all the information in the article. --SVTCobra 00:05, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

i see
Simply because foreign media aren't covering the story fully. Though, information is available from Hungarian newspapers. BTW I'll add another - more detailed - source. 80.98.211.234 00:13, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
 * very nice. I added MTI to Wikipedia just for you. --SVTCobra 00:55, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

 * I did a rewrite. I tried to use only the sources. (If you click edit, you can see your paragraph about blame, I couldn't source that - perhaps you can find a source so that can be put back in.) --SVTCobra 01:26, 22 August 2006 (UTC) Oh, and thanks Rocker.

4 confirmed dead by the authorities...
i know those sources tell only 3, but they were published before the 4th victim's body was discovered.
 * there was 5 deaths * - in hungarian

commented out material
have removed the paragraph below from the article, where it was commented out as editorial, to here, where it can be seen, and modified and added back, if required. Doldrums 04:55, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

"Yet, no one has taken responsibility for the events, though the Hungarian Weather Service has warned the authorities hours prior the storm. According to the 37th law of 1996 the mayor of the capital, as the principal of the defense and security committee has the rights and responsibilties for such events. Despite this, he is acccusing the country's government, while the government is trying to blame the tragedy on the weather service."


title: File:22August2006.pdf


title: File:22August2006.sxw


text:
Bomb scare on China-Australia flight

August 22, 2006

Australian media have reported that a passenger on board a plane from China to Australia discovered a note warning that a bomb would explode on the China Southern Airlines flight from Guangzhou to Sydney. The note was apparently found one hour into the journey, AAP reports.

The note forced the pilot to take emergency action and return to Guangzhou. Australian passenger Jason Harper said: "They dumped all the fuel. Then all the lights went out. But no-one knew what was happening. Then we landed and there about 20 police cars and fire engines and stuff everywhere."

Authorities have confirmed Flight CZ325 from Guangzhou in China was turned around about 40 minutes into the flight.

China Southern Airlines refused to release full details, but said a note was found, which "did reflect something of a dangerous item on board the plane ... adequate to cause the tech crew to turn around and return to Guangzhou," reports The Sunday Times.

National Nine News said passengers were forced to leave the plane and were interviewed by authorities for two hours. No bomb was found. Passengers were later allowed back on board and resumed their journey.

Sydney Airport said the plane was now due to land at 3 pm (Australian time) today. It was not known this morning how many people were on board the plane. A spokesperson for China Southern Airlines would only say it was "fairly full".

Chinese state media say police have detained an Australian for threatening to blow up the flight, Xinhua news agency said. Police detained an Australian man, originally from Hong Kong, and said he had made the threat over a failed love affair.

Xinhua did not say if the man had been charged.

title: Bomb scare on China-Australia flight


text:
New Zealand man sentenced to life in prison for murder

August 22, 2006

James Junior Lawrie, 26-year-old, has been sentenced to life in prison at the Auckland High Court for a minimum of 16 years after he killed the Uptown Mini Mart owner 58-year-old Bhagubhai Vaghela on 19 June, 2005.

Vaghela was found dead at the scene by ambulance officers.

Lawrie had entered the store planning on stealing phone cards from the New North Road shop. Instead he shot Vaghela in the chest at point-blank range when he activated the alarm and Lawrie panicked.

Lawrie had pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him even though he could not remember most of the incident. The court was told today by the prosecutor Ross Burns that he had smoked one kilogram of methamphetamine (P) two months prior, which is worth NZ$1 million. The P had fuelled six previous aggravated robberies in the attempt to gain more money for his P habit. Lawrie has had 32 previous convictions of which nine were relating to violence.

Roger Chambers, Lawrie's lawyer, said: "Lawrie's late expression of remorse is genuine, in spite of a pre-sentencing report that said he had no recognition of the trauma he had caused to his victims. He pleaded guilty to some pretty horrendous crimes - and knew that any expression of remorse was likely to be laughed at. For Lawrie, prison is home."

Burns said, "Mr Vaghela had come to New Zealand to enjoy a well-deserved and planned retirement. He was a kind, considerate and gentle man who put his family first." His wife had now gone back to India where she has been ill, while the rest of the family struggle with the death. "His son had said: 'This world is a far worse place without my father being here'," the court was told by Burns.

Lawrie had shown no remorse, Burns said.


text:
User talk:Hackeron

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Jacques Divol 10:56, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Hackeron


text:
User talk:Halla24~enwikinews

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Jacques Divol 10:56, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Halla24. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Halla24~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:15, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Halla24~enwikinews


text:
Men charged in US and Canada over alleged plot to arm Tamil Tigers

August 22, 2006 Numerous men have been charged in Canada and the United States with various crimes related to a plot to arm the Tamil Tigers who are listed as a terrorist organization in both countries. Some are accused of plotting to buy and  rifles that would have been sent to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Eight people, including three Canadian citizens, were charged in Brooklyn, New York yesterday with various offences. At the same time the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a 26-year-old in Ontario in relation to the plot. He faces extradition to the United States.

Charges against the nine include fundraising and money laundering through US bank accounts and charitable organizations for the Liberation Tigers of Talim Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting the Sri Lankan military in a civil war since 1983.

Two of the men allegedly tried to bribe undercover US State Department officials with $1 million in order to remove the Tigers from the official list of terrorist organizations which bars the group from raising money, obtaining weapons or lobbying. A more extensive investigation ensued involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The RCMP was brought in when the FBI learned of a Canadian allegedly being involved. Ultimately, the three Canadians arrested in the United States are accused of traveling to New York to purchase the military equipment including 50 to 100 SAM missiles, assault rifles, truck mounted missiles, aerial vehicles for jamming radio transmissions and radar, submarine design software as well as flight lessons and military training.


text:
Russian mathematician declines Fields Medal

August 22, 2006 A Russian mathematician, Grigori ("Grisha") Perelman, who is credited proving the Poincaré conjecture declined to accept the Fields Medal, regarded as the highest honor in the field of mathematics.

The Fields Medal, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics", was awarded this year to Andrei Okounkov (Russia/US), Terence Tao (Australia/US) and Wendelin Werner (France) in addition to Perelman. The award was handed out by King Juan Carlos of Spain and is accompanied by a C$15'000 (approximately US$13'400 or 10'400EUR) cash prize (less than the one million Euros that come with the Nobel prize). Nominees have to be under 40 years, because the founder of the award, Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields wanted the medal to be a stimulus for future endeavours.

Perelman submitted two papers in 2002 and 2003 outlining a proof for Thurston's geometrization conjecture, which in turn, implies a proof for the Poincaré conjecture. Other mathematicians filling in the details have found no flaws in Perelman's approach yet. In 2003, Perelman made a short tour in the United States to explain his proof of the conjecture. When he went back to the St Petersburg department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, he gave up his job, and is reported to be unemployed and living with his mother ever since.

"The reason Perelman gave me is that he feels isolated from the mathematical community and therefore has no wish to appear as one of its leaders." declared Manuel de Leon, chairman of the Congress, when asked about Grisha's motivation to decline. Prof. John Ball, retiring president of the International Mathematical Union, added: "The reason centres on his feeling of isolation from the mathematical community." Perelman's friend Anatoly Vershik said the reclusive math genius just wanted to be declared correct, and regarded recognition as superficial.

The Poincaré conjecture is widely considered one of the most important questions in topology (a branch of mathematics concerned with spatial properties preserved under deformation like stretching without tearing or gluing). It is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems for which the Clay Mathematics Institute is offering a $1,000,000 prize for a correct solution.

Observers speculate that he will also refuse this prize. In 1997, he also refused an award by the European Congress of Mathematicians, because he deemed the judges unable to understand his work. A spokesman for the Institute said it would decide on the prize in two years. Richard Hamilton's "Ricci flow" equation could also earn him a part of the prize, since it formed the basis for Perelman's papers.

In 1966, German Alexander Grothendieck refused his Fields Medal in Moscow out of protest against the presence of the Red Army in Eastern Europe. But later he accepted it. The Poincaré conjecture is not an easy thing to explain in plain English. A sphere as we know it is called a two-dimensional sphere in topology (because it's surface can be approximated by a two-dimensional plane). The four-dimensional analogue of such a 2-sphere is a 3-sphere (which is an example of a 3-manifold).

Now imagine a ball and a donut made of rubber. If you throw a lasso around the ball and pull, you can squeeze it to a single point and slide off the lasso. But you can't do that with the noose through the hole of a donut, the only way is to cut through the donut. So in topology, there are basically two kinds of objects: objects with or without holes. By deforming objects without holes you can make them look like a sphere, but this is impossible for objects with holes. So basically, Grisha proved that in topology a ball and a banana are the same.

The Poincaré conjecture surmises that if a closed three-dimensional manifold (our multiple-dimension banana) is sufficiently like a 3-sphere (a kind of hypersphere) in that each loop in the manifold can be tightened to a point, then it is really just a three-dimensional sphere.


text:
Russian jet with 170 aboard crashes in Ukraine

August 22, 2006

A Russian plane has crashed in the Ukraine killing all 170 passengers on board, according to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry. The Tu-154 passenger jet owned by St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Airlines flight number 612 had a roster that included at least 45 children and 11 crew members onboard. It crashed in eastern Ukraine at approximately 2:30 p.m. near the Russian border. A distress signal is reported to have gone off moments before the crash. The plane was on its way to St. Petersburg from Anapa. Wreckage and many bodies have been found.

Ukrainian officials are reporting at least 160 people onboard with at least 10 crew members on hand.

According to Russian officials, terrorism did not play a role in the crash and that the aircraft may have encountered heavy turbulence which caused the plane to go down. The plane then caught fire after hitting the ground and breaking into several pieces.

Other reports say that the plane was "hit by lightning."

"The plane most likely was hit by lightning. There was no damage on the ground. After it fell, it broke apart and burst into flames," said Irina Andriyanova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry.

Reports say that there are no survivors and at least 30 bodies have been recovered.


text:
Scottish Socialist Party to split as Sheridan launches new party

August 22, 2006

The crisis in the Scottish left has intensified as former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan has announced his intention to launch a new left wing party.

Sheridan, currently an SSP Member of the Scottish Parliament, was forced to resign as leader after the News of the World accused him of frequenting sex clubs. Sheridan successfully sued the newspaper last month, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. Eleven leading members of the SSP, including 3 MSPs supported the newspaper's allegations against him and testified against Sheridan in court.

Sheridan had intended to attempt to reclaim the leadership of the SSP but has instead decided to found a "new party of the left" leaving what he described as the "colossal train wreck of the SSP" which is divided between two factions, the pro-Sheridan "SSP Majority" and the anti-Sheridan "United Left".

Colin Fox, the current SSP leader, has urged Sheridan to abandon his plans. "I disagree with Tommy that the SSP has 'reached its historical limits'. The SSP has huge potential still ahead of it. Hundreds of thousands of people wish to see it survive and thrive and take the socialist project which it uniquely promotes, still further forward...There is no basis for two socialist parties in Scotland with indistinguishable political programmes," said Fox in a statement.

Two major platforms within the SSP, the International Socialists (CWI) and the Socialist Worker Platform (IST) support Sheridan's call as does the SSP's South of Scotland regional committee.

Sheridan claims that several leading Scottish celebrities including actors and directors Peter Mullan, David McKay and Martin McCardie, support his call for a new party.

"I predict hundreds, maybe thousands, of ordinary, everyday workers will fight for equality and justice. The war is with inequality, not with fellow socialists. And Scotland is big enough for more than one socialist party, " said Sheridan.

"The atmosphere a faction in the SSP has created is poisonous and unacceptable. It's obvious that those who are involved with the faction, which has hijacked the SSP and all its apparatus, have hatred for me as their motivating factor. The SSP have been bastardised, they're now a grotesque caricature of what we had hoped. It's time for them to fight among themselves. It's time to make a clean break. The new party will share some of the political ideology of the old SSP and the internal regime will be one of tolerance, friendship and genuine solidarity," said Sheridan in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.

The SSP executive has issued a statement declaring that Sheridan is "on the road to oblivion" accusing him of engaging in an "act of political irresponsibility which can only delight the enemies of socialism in Scotland." The statement continues "Tommy Sheridan has decided to run away from the SSP and wreak as much damage as he can in the process."

Sheridan replied to the statement saying "I can't win either way. If I stay I am a problem according to my SSP colleagues who say they will not work with me again, but if I go I am splitting the socialist cause. Frankly, the SSP has been distorted by the faction which has hijacked its apparatus and the internal regime is now longer conducive to building a socialist party". He added there is an "unstoppable momentum building up" for the creation of a new party.

Sheridan and his supporters plan to hold a meeting on September 3, 2006 to plan the new party. The SSP, meanwhile, will hold an event the day before to rally its support.

The SSP currently has six MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, two of whom, Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne are supporting the new party.


title: File:Icm2006.jpg


text:
Talk:Scottish Socialist Party to split as Sheridan launches new party

pov
"has instead decided to found a "new party of the left" rather than continue to fight with his opponents" is pov, and should be attributed. his opponents may well claim he decided to leave for some other reason, eg. lack of support for him. Doldrums 13:23, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

I've rewritten it as "Sheridan had intended to attempt to reclaim the leadership of the SSP but has instead decided to found a "new party of the left" leaving what he described as the "colossal train wreck of the SSP" which is divided between two factions, the pro-Sheridan "SSP Majority" and the anti-Sheridan "United Left"." Crimson 14:26, 22 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
User:MD:astronomer

Hi.

title: User:MD:astronomer


text:
User talk:MD:astronomer

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Doldrums 14:47, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
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title: User talk:MD:astronomer


text:
Violence in Congo after first round election results are announced

August 22, 2006

There have been three days of violent clashes in Kinshasa between supporters of Jean-Pierre Bemba and incumbent Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila following the release of results from the first round of Congo's elections. The two presidential candidates will face each other in a run off election October 29th after the first round of votes, July 30th, failed to produce a victor. The results were announced on Sunday with Kabila received 45% of the vote, short of the absolute majority required to avoid a run-off, while Bemba gained 20% and Antoine Gizenga won 13%. Bemba's support is concentrated in the western provinces of the country while Kabila's support is concentrated in the east.

Bemba's supporters claim that Kabila's presidential guard is attacking Bemba's house. Most downtown streets are deserted and shops closed as people stay in their homes to avoid the sporadic fighting which left five people dead on Sunday.

Kabila's rivals, including Bemba, claim there was widespread fraud in the elections.

400 European Union peacekeepers from the Netherlands and Germany currently stationed in neighbouring Gabon are flying into the capital to quell the fighting. Spanish EU troops and 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers are already in the capital.

The June 30 election was the first democratic vote to be held in the Congo since it gained independence in 1960 and occurs following the official end of five years of conflict.


text:
Talk:Russian jet with 170 aboard crashes in Ukraine

How many russian plane crashes have their been now in the last couple years?

Update
''In May, 113 people died when an Armenian airliner crashed into the Black Sea near the coastal town of Sochi during bad weather. Air traffic controllers later attributed the crash to pilot error.

In July, 127 people died when a Russian airliner flying from Moscow to the Siberian city of Irkutsk veered off the runway after landing and crashed into neighbouring buildings. There had been 203 people on board.''

All 170 of the passengers and crew aboard the plane are dead, Interfax news agency quoted the Russian emergency situations ministry as saying. “Everyone is dead, according to preliminary information,” the agency quoted spokeswoman Irina Andrianova as saying.

[News Ltd: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20223993-2,00.html] --elliot_k 19:16, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki nl
Vliegtuig crasht in Oekraïne
 * Done. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:06, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

"The Ukraine"
should just be "Ukraine" Xioyux 01:13, 5 November 2006 (UTC)


text:
Romanian oil company claims Iran has seized one of its rigs

August 22, 2006 An Orizont oil platform in the Persian Gulf, owned by the Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) of Romania, has allegedly been boarded by Iranian troops after being fired at by a helicopter. Romanian officials have not "heard anything" from the workers on the platform "since then [the attack].", according to a company statement. The Iranian news agency IRNA claims that the personnel who boarded the platform were not "troops" but "police".

"We were called by one of our employees at 9.15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT), who told us a military helicopter opened fire against the Orizont rig, and by 9.45 Iranian troops got on board. Since then, we haven't heard anything from them," said Radu Petrescu, a spokesman for Servicii Petroliere.

According to a representative of GSP, Lulu Tabanesku, "Iranian [troops] used machine guns" and Iran is "in control of the rig. We cannot contact the rig." There were at least 26 workers on the 13,000-ton platform when it came under fire. There is no word on whether there are any casualties.

The Foreign Minister of Romania is scheduled to have a meeting to discuss the attack with Iranian officials on Wednesday, but so far Iran has yet to release an official statement regarding the attack. Romanian president Traian Băsescu was unable to reach Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, the day of the rig's seizure. August 22 is an Iranian National holiday.

The Romanian company GSP operates the Orizant and Fortuna rigs that are both subjects of a legal dispute with the Oriental Oil Company who rents the oil rights to Petro Iran Development Company (PEDCO), a broker for the National Iranian Oil Company. According to PEDCO, an Iranian court ruling in the contract dispute between the two companies found that both rigs should remain in Iranian waters. GSP moved the Fortuna rig on August 15, claiming the contract was cancelled illegally, Iran accused the Romanians of "hijacking" the platform.