Tornadoes damage hundreds of Missouri homes, force closure of airport
Sunday, April 24, 2011 An EF4 tornado struck near St. Louis, Missouri Friday night, forcing the closure of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and damaging over 2,700 buildings in St. Louis County. The National Weather Service also confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down in neighboring St. Charles County and an EF2 touched down in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. The city of Bridgeton, in North St. Louis County, was hit by the EF4 tornado. According to the National Weather Service, it was the most powerful tornado to touch down in the St. Louis region since 1967, with winds ranging from 166 and 200 miles (267 and 322 kilometres) per hour. Aftereffects of that tornado were also reported in Maryland Heights, Missouri. One official estimated that anywhere from 50 to 200 homes in the Maryland Heights and Bridgeton areas incurred damage, but early numbers released by St. Louis County indicate that over 2,000…
Australian PM subject to scrutiny over Carer and Senior’s payments
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd faced intense scrutiny in federal parliament on Tuesday following days of speculation that he was considering scrapping cash bonuses to recipients of carer and seniors payments. Questions by the opposition during question time were dominated by the cash bonuses, with leader of the opposition, Brendan Nelson moving to censure the Prime Minister. It was the first censure motion moved against the Prime Minister since his election last year. For the past four years, the previous Howard government had made one-off payments to seniors of up to $500 and $1,600 to carers. Facing repeated questions, the Prime Minister said “I guarantee that carers will not be onedollar worse off as a consequence of the budget”. Mr Rudd said that the government was also looking at “the challenges of carers and pensioners in the long term” instead of through one-time bonus payments as…
Eleventh Docudays UA concludes
Monday, March 31, 2014 The Eleventh International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA, in Kyiv, Ukraine, ended on Friday. The Awards Ceremony was held in the Red Hall of the Kyiv Cinema House. There were 36 documentary films competing for prizes in three festival programs: DOCU/Short, DOCU/Right, DOCU/Life. There were also special prizes from Students’ Jury, Audience Award, and the Andriy Matrosov Award from Docudays UA Organizing Committee. The special guest of the Awards Ceremony was a symbol of the festival — Nikita Mikhalko. He is featured on the official posters of the festival. Nikita was on Maidan Nezalezhnosti on February 19, in the morning. The picture of him was chosen by the organizers as the “image that would deliver the spirit of our [Docudays UA] festival to the best of its possible might”. The piece of movie where he is taking tangerines from a woman that morning has…
Florida man charged with stealing Wi-Fi
Update since publication This article mentions that Wi-Fi stands for “Wireless Fidelity”, although this is disputed. Thursday, July 7, 2005 A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States. This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours. According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence. There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users.…
Fuel leak prompts 17,000-vehicle recall by Toyota
Sunday, June 27, 2010 Toyota announced on Friday that it will recall around 17,000 Lexus vehicles in response to risks of the fuel tank in the cars leaking after a collision. The Lexus HS 250h model was subjected to the recall following a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation. Despite previously passing Toyota safety inspections, the conclusions of an NHTSA sub-contracted investigator were that; when the vehicles in question collided with an object at more than fifty-miles-per hour, more than 142 grams of fuel, the maximum allowed by US law, leaked from the crashed car. According to Toyota, further tests did not show any additional failure of the fuel tank. In response to the findings, Toyota issued a recall of all affected vehicles, since the company had no solution immediately available. The recall includes 13,000 cars already sold, as well as another 4,000 still at dealerships. Toyota says…
News briefs:August 5, 2010
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Category:Iain Macdonald (Wikinewsie)/Aviation
Aviation articles by Wikinewsie Iain Macdonald. Rescue helicopter crash kills six in Abruzzo, Italy UK Civil Aviation Authority issues update on Shoreham crash response Nigerian jet attacks refugee camp, killing dozens Fighter jet crashes during Children’s Day airshow in Thailand Plane carrying 92 crashes into Black Sea near Sochi Hijackers divert Libyan passenger jet to Malta Pakistan International Airlines sacrifices goat, resumes ATR flights Judge rules Air Canada Flight 624 victims can sue Transport Canada PIA flight crashes near Havelian, Pakistan Indonesian police plane crashes near Batam, fifteen missing Investigators blame pilot error for AirAsia crash into Java Sea New Polish government takes down findings on Russian air disaster Pakistani female fighter pilot Marium Mukhtiar dies in jet crash Investigators blame pilot error for deadly jet crash near Boston Airshow collision kills one in Dittingen, Switzerland Vintage plane crashes into road during Shoreham Airshow in England Planes carrying parachutists collide,…
International Paralympic Committee holds first press conference
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 London, England — Yesterday, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) held their first formal press conference as part of the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Approximately 60 media representatives attended and had the opportunity to ask questions of Craig Spence, IPC President Philip Craven, Chairman of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralymic Games (LOCOG) Sebastian Coe, and LOCOG Director of Communications and Public Affairs Jackie Brock-Doyle following a short speech on the history of the Paralympic Games. The reporters asked a variety of questions. A British journalist asked about having ATOS as a sponsor given the negative history the business has had with disability services in the country. The IPC responded by saying this is an issue that should be taken up by the relevant British government agency. A Wikinews reporter asked if the high cost of technology for participating in disability sport at the elite…
Eight mountaineers missing on Mont Blanc in French Alps after avalanche
Sunday, August 24, 2008 Rescue crews have called an end to the search for eight mountaineers who went missing on the French side of Mont Blanc after an avalanche that occurred on at 0100 GMT August 24. Eight other climbers were also injured. Five of the missing are said to be Austrian and three were from Switzerland. “[There is] no longer any chance of finding someone alive,” stated the interior minister of France, Michele Alliot-Marie who also added that are more people trapped beneath the snow. “Thanks to technology, we know for certain there are people buried under the snow, but it’s impossible to be sure exactly how many.” Rescuers feared that there would be more avalanches and decided to end the search for survivors in the late afternoon today. The avalanche started at an elevation of 3,600 meters and went down the mountainside for nearly 100 meters, leaving a…
ACLU, EFF challenging US ‘secret’ court orders seeking Twitter data
Thursday, April 7, 2011 Late last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed objections to the United States Government’s ‘secret’ attempts to obtain Twitter account information relating to WikiLeaks. The ACLU and EFF cite First and Fourth amendment issues as overriding reasons to overturn government attempts to keep their investigation secret; and, that with Birgitta Jonsdottir being an Icelandic Parliamentarian, the issue has serious international implications. The case, titled “In the Matter of the 2703(d) Order Relating to Twitter Accounts: Wikileaks, Rop_G, IOERROR; and BirgittaJ“, has been in the EFF’s sights since late last year when they became aware of the US government’s attempts to investigate WikiLeaks-related communications using the popular microblogging service. The key objective of this US government investigation is to obtain data for the prosecution of Bradley Manning, alleged to have supplied classified data to WikiLeaks. In addition to Manning’s Twitter…