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Friday, November 3, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley West (Ward 26). Four candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Muhammad Alam, Bahar Aminvaziri, Orhan Aybars, Michele Carroll-Smith, Mohamed Dhanani, Abdul Ingar, Geoff Kettel, Debbie Lechter, Natalie Maniates, John Masterson, John Parker, David Thomas, Csaba Vegh, and Fred Williams.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Sunday, July 2, 2006

Two contestants from Big Brother in Australia have been escorted from the show. Ashley, a pseudonym for Michael Cox of Perth, and John, a pseudonym for Michael Bric of Melbourne, sexually assaulted a contestant known as Camilla. Camilla climbed into John’s bed after stating that she wished one of the boys “would put your arrow near me” at around 4.30am. John was then seen to have held her firm as a half-naked Ashley rubbed his penis on her face in an act know as “turkey slapping”. Immediately after the incident Camilla grabbed John’s penis and laughed as he jumped.

Its unlikely that charges will be laid over the incident. The Age newspaper reported that “Camilla” last night talked about the incident, saying she believed the men were joking. The only people alleging that this was sexual harassment are politicians and journalists.

“We had a great time in the house and it is unfortunate it had to end this way, but BB has rules and regulations and we broke them,” they said in a joint statement. “We are all very close in the house and we would never do anything to offend our fellow housemates.”

This is the first time contestants have been removed from the show for breaching rules.

They will not receive further endorsement or prizes from the show.

“I can’t comment [on the sexual allegations],” said David Brown, from Southern Star Endemol, “But their removal from the house should indicate how serious the matter is.”

The discussion forum of official Big Brother site has been shut down due to the incident. There is no notice on when the forum will be reopened.

There are now eight contestants competing for the remaining $275 thousand. It has been reduced after fines for not wearing microphones when talking, discussing nominations and singing commercial music.

Several weeks ago the show’s adults-only series, Big Brother: Adults Only, was axed.

Last year the show was under scrutiny when a male contestant rubbed himself on a female contestant during a massage.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called for the show to be pulled saying “Here is a great opportunity for a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid programme off the air” adding “It is just a question of good taste”.

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Saturday, July 22, 2006

The UK Film Council has said British films claimed a record one-third share of UK cinema takings last year.

The council has also revealed that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was Britain’s top-grossing film in 2005 after taking £435m ($808m) at the Box Office worldwide. It was one of eight British films to be included in the top 20 list of the world’s biggest grossing movies. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Kingdom of Heaven, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Nanny McPhee and Pride and Prejudice took £1.8bn ($3.3) in total globally and were seen by 600 million people.

John Woodward, the chief executive officer of the UK Film Council, said: “The figures show that the public love British films and 2005 was a great year for British films at the cinema with the largest slice of Box Office takings since records began.”

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell|, who has exposed tax incentives aimed at luring filmmakers to the UK, said: “Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee and Willy Wonka have all been hits at home and abroad – helping us achieve great success at the Box Office. I hope that next year, buoyed by the new tax incentive, the UK film industry will be in even better health.”

The amount of British people viewing foreign language films also increased. More than 200 foreign language films in 32 different languages were shown at cinemas across the UK. Downfall, a German-produced movie depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler, was the most popular, according to the council.

Movies are classed as being UK-made if they are filmed in the country, star UK personalities, and invest money in the UK or on British staff and services.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team.

Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project’s PR, compiled the below Q&A, which the full team approved prior to publication.

Sunday, October 2, 2005

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed 757 lawsuits against people who they alleged illegally shared music online. The vast majority of the lawsuits, 693, are against people who used peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as eDonkey and LimeWire to exchange music files. Of the remaining lawsuits, 64 are against students at 17 different universities who used the Abilene Network and a peer-to-peer file sharing program called i2hub.

The i2hub program is designed for use in sharing files over the Abilene Network. The Abilene Network is a high speed network in use by 207 U.S. universities. It was designed by Internet2 to provide a high speed alternative for researchers and other educators to share information. The Abilene Network allows for very high speed connections, many times faster than DSL or Cable connections. The RIAA became a corporate member of Internet2 two weeks ago.

Over the past two years, the RIAA has filed more than 14,800 lawsuits against people accused of illegally sharing music online. Over 3,400 of these cases were settled for an average of between $4,000 to $5,000 each. Almost 500 of these lawsuits were against students using the Internet2 network.

Friday, November 24, 2006

According to a report released by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) for United Nation’s Development Plan, the per capita GNP in Eastern Turkey, an area predominantly inhabited by Kurdish people, is as low as seven percent of that of the European Union on average. The report analyzed a region of 21 cities in Eastern Turkey*. One of the cities included in the report, ??rnak, was reported to be as poor as Botswana, Southern Africa.

Other points highlighted in the report included:

• 60% of the population in the region was under the poverty line. If this situation persists, people may start to migrate to Northern Iraq.
• If 1% of the national income is spent on Eastern Turkey’s infrastructure and social investment for 7 years, the region will be enabled to finance itself. If the economic and social conditions in the region are fixed, the fragile relationship between the Turkish government and the Kurdish people of the region may improve.
• Access to health services is a primary human right. Without access to health services, one cannot expect that people of this region can live in confidence. Health institutions should employ nurses who speak Kurdish so the patients can communicate with the health services staff.
• The use of the private sector is not reliable as a solution. The government should act to remedy the lack of infrastructure in the region.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Defying government warnings against further demonstrations, as many as twenty-thousand Chinese protesters turned out for a second weekend of anti-Japan demonstrations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Tianjin.

In Shanghai, a crowd broke many windows at the Japanese consulate, according to Kyodo News. The crowd also busted up a Japanese restaurant and set its sign on fire. The protesters then attacked a convenience store, according to the Los Angeles Times.

At the Japanese consulate, the crowd chanted “jia ru, jia ru” asking the police to “join us”. The police did not arrest the protesters, and stood by watching as the demonstration proceeded. The police permitted the protesters to throw eggs and rocks. Although the police provided at one point a sign which read “March route this way,” state-controlled media denied that the protesters had been given permission for their demonstration.

Southwest of Shanghai, in the city of Hangzhou, an estimated ten thousand protesters demonstrated against Japan, repeating recent demands for a boycott of Japanese products.

“Chinese people are angry,” student protester Michael Teng told Associated Press. “We will play along with Japan and smile nicely at them, but they have to know they have a large, angry neighbor,” Teng said.

In Beijing, Tiananmen Square was largely quiet as security tightened in anticipation of tomorrow’s visit by Japan’s foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura. Hundreds of police are guarding both Tiananmen Square and the Japanese embassy.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday seeking to reassure Japanese citizens and businesses operating in China.

“The Chinese government has attached great importance to the situation and has kept on urging the public to express their appeals in a calm, sane, law-abiding and orderly manner and to avoid extreme activities,” Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said in a press release issued on Friday.

As the protests continued in China, Japan lodged a “strong protest” against China.

“We cannot but say that the security system in Shanghai is insufficient,” Machimura told reporters.

Despite the protests, Machimura announced that he is not cancelling plans to meet with China’s foreign minister Li Zhaoxing on Sunday to discuss Sino-Japanese relations.

“China has been increasing its regional economic and political influence,” Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. told Bloomberg from Hong Kong. “Japan doesn’t want to have its position in the region dictated by China. Japan is adopting a more assertive policy, and China is trying to block it,” Broadfoot said.

On Friday, the Japanese government warned its citizens in China to keep a low profile during the protests.