Russia cuts off gas supplies to Ukraine
Sunday, January 1, 2006 Russia has ended exports of natural gas to neighbouring Ukraine following a failure to reach a compromise over prices. Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas behemoth, began cutting off supplies at 7:00 a.m. UTC Sunday, January 1. Gazprom claims to have taken this action because Ukraine refuses to pay the market rate for natural gas which is approximately four times higher than the price previously agreed upon by the two. Ukraine has stated that they are not averse to higher prices but believe they ought to be introduced sequentially. Additionally, Russia does not want to honor its contract to supply gas at $50 per 1000 cubic meters until 2008. By comparison, gas produced by OPEC costs $11.4 per 1000 cubic feet (December 28, 2005)[1], equivalent to $402.6 per 1000 cubic meters, an 8-fold rebate. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said enough gas was still being piped via Ukraine to…
Metropolitan Police to sell New Scotland Yard
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 The Metropolitan Police — the police force for the Greater London area — has announced they may sell their headquarters, New Scotland Yard, in order to cut costs. They are trying to reduce their £3.6 billion annual budget by £500 million, following cuts by the coalition government. If the sale of New Scotland Yard goes ahead, the Metropolitan Police would move to a new location on the Embankment in the Curtis Green building, formerly the site of Cannon Row Police Station. Other proposals have been raised including selling off other property assets and closing police counters during off-peak hours, but officer numbers are to be maintained. New Scotland Yard famously has a three-sided rotating sign that turns 14,000 times per day. John Tully, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents the interests of police officers, said it is “regrettable” that an “iconic building like New…
One dead in Michigan school shooting
Wednesday, March 7, 2007 At least one person is seriously wounded and one dead after a 17 year-old male opened fire and shot his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Forsyth, 17, four times outside the Herbert Henry Dow High School located in Midland, Michigan before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was pronounced dead on the scene and according to Midland Police Chief, James St. Louis, the shooter died in the parking lot of the school while the girl is in a local hospital. She is said to be in stable but serious condition at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan. Chief St. Louis says that the boy pulled out a gun and began to shoot the girl after the two had a conversation. He then shot himself. St. Louis also said that the mother of the girl, who had dropped her daughter off at school for the day, tried to stop…
World’s largest passenger airliner makes first flight
April 27, 2005 The world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, has made its maiden flight after lifting off from Toulouse in France. The take-off, at 08:30 UTC, was apparently normal and took place exactly on time. The aircraft flew into clear blue skies with a flight crew of six (all wearing parachutes as a safety precaution) and twenty tonnes of test equipment on board. Around 50,000 people watched the maiden flight, many sitting on grass banks lining the runway. More people watched the flight on a giant screen erected in the centre of Toulouse. The test flight lasted four hours, with the aircraft flying no higher than 10,000 nor further than 100 miles from Toulouse as it circled the Bay of Biscay. The A380, known for many years during its development phase as the Airbus A3XX, will be the largest airliner in the world by a substantial margin when…
UK Wikinews Shorts: December 23, 2009
A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Contents 1 Two-year-old child in Northern Ireland dies of H1N1 swine flu virus 2 Woman killed in collision with ambulance in Staffordshire, England 3 90-year-old man dies after car crash in Northern Ireland 4 Man dies while carrying child in railway station in Edinburgh, Scotland Contribute to Wikinews by expanding these briefs or add a new one. Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=UK_Wikinews_Shorts:_December_23,_2009&oldid=4458310”
Argentine footballer Mascherano announces international retirement
Sunday, July 1, 2018 Argentine footballer Javier Mascherano announced retirement from international football after losing 3–4 against France in the Last 16 knockout phase of the FIFA World Cup yesterday. Mascherano made his international debut on June 17, 2003, at the age of nineteen. Since then, he has won 147 international caps with Argentina, a national record. Mascherano has featured in four different FIFA World Cup tournaments, since the 2006 World Cup. After the match, 34-year-old Mascherano said, “It’s time to say goodbye and for the younger players to step in.” He also said, “Personally, from now on, I will be just another fan, it’s over” ((es))Spanish language: ?En lo personal, a partir de ahora, seré un hincha más. Se terminó. In the last four years, Mascherano has won the silver medal at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2015 Copa América ((en))America Cup and 2016’s Copa América Centenario. Retrieved from…
Hillary Clinton attends grand opening of the Erie Canal Harbor in Buffalo, New York
Thursday, July 3, 2008 Junior Senator of New York and former United States 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton attended a ceremony marking the grand opening of the Erie Canal Harbor in Buffalo, New York. This marks the first time in nearly 100 years that the inner harbor of Buffalo’s Canal waterfront has seen significant development, dedicated to tourism and the people. “Hello Buffalo!” stated an enthusiastic Clinton to a crowd of 500 people. “It is such a privilege and joy to see this project and all that it means not only for Buffalo, but Western New York. This truly has been a labor of love. All of the people before you, plus so many others have seen this vision and have been committed to making it a reality.” “In a few minutes [I will] walk to the center of the Whipple Truss bridge and reenact that famous ceremony that…
BC man is selling the boat from old TV series Gilligan’s Island
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 A man named George Schultz in Parksville, British Columbia is selling the boat from old TV series Gilligan’s Island at the cost of $99,000. The cruiser, originally cost about $290,000 in the 1960s. “There have been a couple of modifications, so it doesn’t look exactly like the original,” said Shultz, a boat broker who’s selling the 36-foot Wheeler Express Cruiser for fellow Parksdale resident Scotty Taylor. “But it’s still the original boat.” Originally, the boat’s name was The Blue Jacket. “Just for the show, for a stage name, it was called the S.S. Minnow,” Shultz said. The name was a reference to Newton Minnow, once chairman of the FCC. “He just liked the boat, he wanted to restore it, it was a nice looking boat, a wooden boat, a classic and he likes classic boats,” said Shultz. “The hole in the hull was actually the least…
Gregory Kurtzer discusses plans for Rocky Linux with Wikinews as Red Hat announces moving focus away from CentOS
Friday, December 18, 2020 Last week, on December 8, US-based software company Red Hat announced plans to shift their focus away from CentOS in favour of CentOS stream. Started in 2004, CentOS has been a free-of-cost free/libre open source software which provided binary-code compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) — Red Hat’s GNU General Public Licensed paid operating system. Gregory Kurtzer told Wikinews he started CAOS Linux around the time when Red Hat announced End of Life for their Red Hat Linux in favour of subscription-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux. CAOS was succeeded by CentOS when Rocky McGaugh, a developer of CAOS rebuilt the source code of RHEL to provide a monetarily free alternative. CentOS was absorbed into Red Hat in 2014, with Red Hat gaining the trademark rights of “CentOS”. Red Hat also sponsors the development of the Fedora operating system. Until now, software development took place on…
EU reaches budget deal
Saturday, December 17, 2005The leaders of the European Union have struck a deal on the 2007-2013 budget. Negotiations were characterized by host country’s Prime Minister Tony Blair as “extraordinarily complicated”. The biggest issues were different views between France, the UK and rest of the EU. UK wanted to keep it’s high membership discount, negotiated before economic growth made it one of the richest members, while other members wanted it to participate with relatively equal net payment. France’s primary issue was maintaining farming subsidies. Rest of the Europe was mostly interested in modernizing European economy by decreasing both UK’s discounts and France’s subsidies. Germany appeared as a pulling force between France and UK to secure the deal. France continues to receive it’s highly criticized subsidies. The UK gave up 10.5 billion euros in exchange for a review of farm subsidies in 2008-2009, but the net membership discount will actually increase. Small…