US Senator Robert Byrd dies at age 92
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving member of the United States Congress, died yesterday at the age of 92. A spokesman for the Democratic Senator from the state of West Virginia said Byrd had been hospitalized since last week. At first he was thought to have been suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration but other medical conditions developed. On Sunday, his condition was described as “serious”. Byrd was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and to the U.S. Senate in 1958. He suffered from ill health in recent years but retained his reputation for securing millions in federal funding for his home state. Throughout his career in the U.S Senate he held positions including Senate Majority Whip, Majority Leader twice and Minority Leader once. Due to his status as the longest serving Senator, Byrd was serving as President pro tempore of…
NFL: Cowboys cornerback Pacman Jones can’t discuss police incident
Saturday, October 11, 2008 Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was not available to speak with reporters Thursday after a Tuesday night incident involving Jones and a bodyguard in a hotel bathroom in the south-Central American city of Dallas, Texas. Officials are calling the incident private and said charges are not likely to be filed. As of Thursday, the Cowboys have not disciplined Jones. Police were notified by hotel staff after workers heard a disturbance in the hotel lobby men’s bathroom where Jones and his bodyguard arguing. Jones and his bodyguard told police everything was fine and were driven away by a friend. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spoke with members of the media on Thursday, saying that he was “very disappointed in that we’re having to deal with this,” saying that the altercation was not a big deal. “They were literally kidding each other,” Jerry Jones told the Associated Press…
Chilean earthquakes: in pictures
Thursday, March 18, 2010 On the Feb. 27, Chile was hit by an magnitude 8.8 earthquake; almost 500 were killed, with resulting tsunami destroying most coastal towns between Llolleo and Araucanía Region. A second earthquake last week, with its epicentre in Pichilemu, caused destruction in the Coquimbo and Bío Bío regions. A Wikinews contributor is in the area, and we look at the extent of this natural disaster’s damage through his photographs. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 People camping in La Cruz Hill, Pichilemu. They even constructed little houses, to make their stay more comfortable. Image: Diego Grez. Church of Santa Cruz, after the February earthquake. Image: Diego Grez. The Arturo Prat square…
Interview with Glen Stollery of ScienTOMogy.info
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 Glen Stollery is a New Zealand website developer who created the site ScienTOMogy.info in mid 2005. The site, which is a parody of Tom Cruise and his involvement with the Church of Scientology, became the centre of controversy when it was served with a number of cease and desist orders initiated by the Church. On March 19, 2006, Glen issued a media release stating that his web hosting provider, YouTube, had removed videos of Tom Cruise which formed part of the site. The release suggested that YouTube had taken this action under external pressure from Cruise or Viacom. Responding to a query by Wikinews reporters, YouTube stated “We have not received a DMCA notification letter from Viacom.” The Church of Scientology was offered the opportunity to respond to the claims made by Stollery during the interview. No reply was received. This exclusive interview deals with these…
Author Amy Scobee recounts abuse as Scientology executive
Monday, October 11, 2010 Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.
Smoke from massive warehouse fire in Buffalo, New York USA can be seen 40 miles away
Monday, May 14, 2007 Buffalo, New York —A massive warehouse complex of at least 5 buildings caught on fire in Buffalo, New York on 111 Tonawanda Street, sending a plume of thick, jet black colored smoke into the air that could be seen as far away as 40 miles. As of 6:40 a.m., the fire was under control, and firefighters were attempting to stop it from spreading, but could not get to the center of the fire because of severe amounts of debris. Later in the morning, the fire was extinguished. “The fire is mostly under debris at this point. It’s under control, but it’s under some debris. We really can’t get to it. We’re just going to have to keep on pouring water on it so it doesn’t spread,” said Thomas Ashe, the fire chief for the North Buffalo based fire division who also added that at one point,…
Bat for Lashes plays the Bowery Ballroom: an Interview with Natasha Khan
Friday, September 28, 2007 Bat for Lashes is the doppelgänger band ego of one of the leading millennial lights in British music, Natasha Khan. Caroline Weeks, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey comprise the aurora borealis that backs this haunting, shimmering zither and glockenspiel peacock, and the only complaint coming from the audience at the Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday was that they could not camp out all night underneath these celestial bodies. We live in the age of the lazy tendency to categorize the work of one artist against another, and Khan has had endless exultations as the next Björk and Kate Bush; Sixousie Sioux, Stevie Nicks, Sinead O’Connor, the list goes on until it is almost meaningless as comparison does little justice to the sound and vision of the band. “I think Bat For Lashes are beyond a trend or fashion band,” said Jefferson Hack, publisher of Dazed & Confused…
Armed gunmen attack cruise ship off Somali coast
Saturday, November 5, 2005 The Seabourn Spirit, a cruise ship sailing off the coast of Somalia, narrowly escaped an attack by gunmen believed to be pirates. The pirate attack occurred on Saturday, when two boats approached the ship and began firing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, injuring one crew member. The crew took evasive action and escaped safely by employing an acoustic bang which caused the gunmen to flee believing they were under fire. 302 passengers and crew, mostly from the United States, Canada, and Australia, were onboard when the gunmen opened fire. The attack took place 160km (100 miles) off the Somali coastline, which has a reputation for pirate activity. Deborah Natansohn, president of the Seabourn Cruise Line told CNN Radio, “The occupants of those boats did not succeed in boarding the ship and eventually turned away … our captain and crew did a terrific job taking responsive…
One dead in ski chairlift accident in Switzerland
Thursday, January 3, 2008 At 12:50 pm on January 3, a ski chairlift ride cost a German skier’s life and another German woman was left with serious injuries after the lift cable derailed from the mast sheaves in a windstorm. The derailed chairlift is the two-seater Fallboden lift at Kleine Scheidegg, next to the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland. Two more Australian tourists were lightly injured. About 20 further people had to be evacuated from the stopped chairlift. Wind velocity peaking at 90km/h prevented a helicopter from rescuing the trapped passengers, complicating the rescue. According to 20min.ch, the lift was manufactured by Garaventa AG, a major Swiss ski lift company, now a part of an international group Doppelmayr/Garaventa. When contacted no one was available for comment. Shortly before the accident, a wind alarm was activated few times by a 60km/h wind. The operator decided to close the lift and waited for…
U.S. government to improve recruitment for civil service jobs
Tuesday, May 2, 2006 According to the Washington Post, nearly sixty percent of the federal government’s workforce will be eligible for retirement over the next ten years; with ninety percent of senior executive service officials expected to do so. Besides depleting Social Security funds, baby boomers will once again leave a big impression on the American workforce and economy. Calling it a “federal retirement tsunami,” the United States Office of Personnel Management (the bureau responsible for government human resources) is preparing for this event in a few manners. In a news release today by the bureau, Director Linda Springer announced that the office would be releasing a major media campaign in efforts to recruit future employees. With only twenty four percent of United States citizens with a bachelor degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it’s no wonder it has been difficult to attract qualified or interested employees…