Tuesday, May 9, 2017

On Sunday, En Marche! candidate Emmanuel Macron won the second round of the 2017 French Presidential election, winning about 66.1 percent of the votes, defeating Front national’s Marine Le Pen with the final result declared yesterday. Winning the race with a significant vote difference, Marcon tweeted, “Everyone told us that it was impossible. But they did not know France!” ^{((fr))French language: ?Tout le monde nous disait que c’était impossible. Mais ils ne connaissaient pas la France !}

With this victory, winning almost twice as many votes as Le Pen, 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron became the youngest President-elect of the Republic of France. In the first round of the election, held on April 23, no candidate won the absolute majority. The abstention rate increased from 22.23% to 25.44% in the second round, AFP reported, the first such second-round increase since 1969. He won the presidential race in the continuing state of emergency which was announced after the November 2015 Paris attack.

Known for her anti-European and anti-globalisation programme, far-right leader Le Pen managed to win about twice as many votes as her father and founder of the Front national party Jean-Marie Le Pen who lost to Jacques Chirac in 2002. Front national won the highest number of votes in their history.

In his speech in front of the glass pyramid near the Louvre Museum, Macron said, “I understand the divisions of our country that have led some to vote for extremists. I understand the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that a great part among us have also expressed.” ^{((fr))French language: ?Je sais les divisions de notre nation qui ont conduit certains à un vote extrême. Je sais les colères, les doutes, l’anxiété que certains ont exprimé.} He also added, “I will defend France, its vital interests, its image, I promise you in front of you. I will defend Europe, our civilisation is at stake, our way of being free. I will work to re-establish the bonds between Europe and the citizens. I address to the nations of the world, the salvation of fraternal France.” ^{((fr))French language: ?Je défendrai la France, ses intérêts vitaux, son image. J’en prends l’engagement devant vous. Je défendrai l’Europe, c’est notre civilisation qui est en jeu, notre manière d’être libre. J’oeuvrerai à retisser les liens entre l’Europe et les citoyens. J’adresse aux nations du monde, le salut de la France fraternelle.} Macron said he would serve as per the motto of France — Liberté, égalité, fraternité ^{((fr))French language: ?Liberty, equality and fraternity}. Acknowledging the “immense” awaiting task, he said, “I will do everything I can in the coming five years to make sure you never have a reason to vote for extremism again”.

“Congratulations Emmanuel Macron! Let’s meet soon, and keep working to grow and strengthen the deep ties between Canada and France” ^{((fr))French language: ?Félicitations Emmanuel Macron! Rencontrons-nous rapidement et continuons à renforcer les liens de fraternité entre le Canada et la France}, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. German chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Macron via a telephone call.

French parliamentary elections are to be held in June, and Emmanuel Macron, who describes himself as “neither left nor right” does not have a party in the parliament. En Marche! was formed last year. Marine Le Pen tweeted that Front national “must renew itself to live up to this historic opportunity and expectations of France” ^{((fr))French language: ?doit se renouveler pour être à la hauteur de cette opportunité historique et des attentes des Français}.

Current president, François Hollande announced he would not run for re-election in December.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Eben Moglen, Columbia University Law Professor, will head the newSoftware Freedom Law Center (SFLC). An initial 4 million dollars has been provided by Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to fund the project.

The law center will provide free legal service for open source projects and developers. In 2004 OSDL established a separate $10 million Linux Legal Defense Fund providing legal support for Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creator and end user companies subjected to Linux-related litigation by the SCO Group. The new law center will not be affiliated with the OSDL.

“This is about taking care of the goose that laid the golden egg and not letting wolves come in the middle of the night and steal it away,” Moglen said during a press conference. “This is a legal firm not involved so much in litigating and defending as it will be for counseling and advising and nurturing non-profits and to prevent millions of dollars in litigation.”

Moglen will serve as chairman and director-counsel of the non-profit organization. Also on board as directors are: Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford Law School; Daniel Weitzner, director of the World Wide Web Consortium‘s technology and society activities; and Diane Peters, general counsel at the OSDL. Daniel Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, will help manage as legal director.

Moglen, one of the world.s leading experts on copyright law as applied to software, will run the new Law Center from its headquarters in New York City. The Law Center will initially have two full-time intellectual property attorneys on staff and expects to expand to four attorneys later this year. Initial clients for the Law Center include the Free Software Foundation and the Samba Project.

Other services provided by the SFLC include: asset stewardship, to avoid intellectual property claim conflict; license review and compatibility analysis; legal consulting and lawyer training.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mark Vinar, an Australian climber from Perth, has been presumed dead after falling over half a kilometre from New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook. He is said to have lost his footing whilst descending the Zurbriggen Ridge.

His brother, Miles Vinar, was rescued by an alpine rescue team after being stranded for two days on a ridge on the mountain and airlifted by helicopter to Plateau Hut in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park on early morning Saturday.

Guides at Plateau Hut became concerned for the two brothers on Friday, when the latter did not return as was scheduled.

Police reports say that the two brothers were descending the ridge, with Miles Vinar going first: “Miles had to climb down using an ice pick and crampons. He instructed Mark about it, but for some reason Mark lost his footing and fell backwards and started rolling. He went behind some rocks, then appeared again rolling down the hill. He went down about 500 metres and then disappeared,” said Omarama police constable Les Andrew, adding that Miles was certain that it was poor that he was obliged to take cover in the snow and wait for rescue.

“There is no sign of the missing climber and it is presumed he has either fallen into a crevasse and become buried, or has been buried under snow and ice debris,” stated the New Zealand Department of Conservation, adding that there had been thirty centimetres of fresh snow.

Mark Vinar is the seventieth person to die on Mt Cook in a century, as well as the ninth to die on Zurbriggen Ridge. This is the second death on the mountain in only eight days: Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, a Japanese climber, died after being stranded on Mt Cook for a week, just hours before help arrived.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Australian police have questioned four more people in connection with the failed bombing attempts in London and Glasgow, seizing computers and other evidence in several raids.

The four being questioned are all doctors, working in hospitals in Perth and Kalgoorlie. They are reported to be of Indian origin, and have all been linked to the UK’s National Health Service. Two of the men arrested in the UK have similarly been linked to Western Australian hospitals, to which they had applied for jobs, receiving multiple rejections.

Police have been granted an extra 96 hours to question Mohammed Haneef, who was arrested at Brisbane International Airport on July 3. They will be examining several thousand files stored on Haneef’s laptop and a mobile telephone SIM card which had been left with a suspect.

Raids have also taken place in Cambridge, UK, at which four of the arrested suspects are believed to have lived and met in 2005.

The four men being questioned in Australia have not currently been placed under arrest, but are described as having links to the UK by the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty.

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, November 13, 2008.

A new study has found that people storing extra fat around their waist have a strongly increased chance of early death, even if their overall weight is average. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine today, found that for each addition 5 cm on the waist, the chance of early death is increased by between 13% and 17%.

In the study, 360,000 people from across nine countries in Europe were surveyed.

One of the study’s authors, Professor Elio Riboli of Imperial College London, commented on the findings. “We were surprised to see the waist size having such a powerful effect on people’s health and premature death,” he stated.

Sources

• “‘Love handles’ raise death risk” — BBC News Online, November 13, 2008
• Ian Sample. “Waist, not just weight, shows risk of premature death, study says” — The Guardian, November 13, 2008
• Tobias Pischon et al. “Abstract: General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Death in Europe” — New England Journal of Medicine, November 13, 2008

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has today lifted its ban on unusually shaped fruits and vegetables, in what the EU’s agriculture commissioner has called “a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot”.

The regulation has previously been criticized as an example of the EU’s bureaucracy by critics of the organisation.

The products affected by the deregulation are apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocadoes, beans, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, cultivated mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in shell, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, ribbed celery, spinach, walnuts in shell, water melons and witloof/chicory.

Sources

• “EU slices up ‘ugly fruit’ rules” — BBC News Online, November 13, 2008
• “Europe Relaxes Rules on Sale of Ugly Fruits and Vegetables” — New York Times, November 13, 2008

A vase purchased at a car boot sale for £1 has sold for £32,450, following advice from experts on the BBC‘s Antiques Roadshow television program. The vase was sold in an auction at Christie’s.

The vase was found to be a 1929 work made by the French designer Rene Lalique.

Sources

• “Car boot sale vase nets £32,450” — BBC News Online, November 13, 2008
• “£32,449 profit for car boot sale vase by Lalique” — Times Online, November 13, 2008

Recent anonymous press briefings by US State Department officials indicated that its arms control division may punish Blackwater Worldwide for improper paperwork.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has the power to fine or agree voluntary penalties with exporters of certain weapons, who do not follow correct procedures. Blackwater Worldwide, a private military company, exported automatic weapons to Iraq that became the subject of a federal investigation first disclosed in 2007.Concern was expressed by the unnamed officials that paperwork errors may make the weapons untraceable, and that some reached Iraq’s black market.

Sources

• “Blackwater Faces Millions in Fines for Weapons Shipments (radio show transcript)” — Democracy Now!, November 13, 2008
• Knight Ridder / McClatchy Newspapers. “Blackwater faces Fines over Arms Deal” — Military.com, November 13, 2008
• Dan Friedman, Congress Daily. “Blackwater could face sanctions for improper arms shipments” — Government Executive, November 7, 2008

Thursday, October 18, 2007

On Wednesday, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly voted 507-19 to authorize sending troops into northern Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels. Although the authorization is valid for one year, Turkish officials made clear that it would not necessarily result in military action. Both the United States and Iraq have recently warned Turkey against such an incursion.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said that although the motion does not indicate that a military operation is imminent, it is necessary for Turkey to be able to respond to bomb attacks which have been blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in Iraq. Turkey has been asking for help in dealing with the PKK for months, and the Turkish public has grown frustrated with America’s perceived lack of action on the issue.

Both the United States and Iraq have recently warned Turkey against an incursion into Iraq. “The Iraqi government calls on the Turkish government to pursue a diplomatic solution and not a military solution to solve the [problem] of terrorist attacks which our dear neighbor Turkey has witnessed from the PKK,” Iraq government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said earlier this week. White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe called on Turkey “to continue their discussions with us and the Iraqis and to show restraint from any potentially destabilizing actions.”

Responding to the motion, U.S. President George W. Bush urged Turkey not to carry out an attack, saying “[we are] making it clear to Turkey it is not in their interest to send more troops in… there is a better way to deal with the issue.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defended Turkey’s decision and criticized the U.S. position, saying “It is important to note that the powers that have invaded Iraq are those primarily responsible for the terror activities and attacks because they control the country.” “We certainly support and back the decisions by the Turkish government in combat against terror and terror activities,” he said.

Murat Karayilan, the leader of the armed wing of the PKK, warned Turkey of the consequences of an attack in an interview with The Times. “If the Turkish Army attacks Iraqi Kurdistan we will struggle and resist against this until the end,” he said. Karayilan nevertheless said he hoped that the crisis could be resolved peacefully but continues attacks on Turkish soldiers, killing 12 in an ambush yesterday.

U.S.-Turkish relations have been strained recently after a U.S. House of Representatives resolution passed committee, labeling the World War I era killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as “genocide”. Turkey strongly disputes these claims. Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the US House of Representatives will vote on the resolution “soon.”

President Bush criticized the resolution at a press conference on Wednesday, saying “One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire.”

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

With two by-elections coming up in Australia, many minor parties and independents will be looking to gain a seat in the House of Representatives. Stephen Murphy is one of the independents.

Mr Murphy is a computer programmer from the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.

“After growing up in South-East Melbourne I studied Science at Monash with first class Honours, worked in Europe for 10 years and have recently returned to Australia. I work in finance as a computer programmer and speak five languages,” Mr Murphy said.

Wikinews reporter Patrick Gillett held an exclusive email interview with Mr Murphy, candidate for the Division of Higgins.

((WN)) Why do you want to get into parliament?

Stephen Murphy: I am standing up for what I believe is the correct course of action on the biggest issue in Australian politics in 100 years – Kevin Rudd’s flawed emissions trading scheme (ETS).

((WN)) What would the three main policies you are taking into this by-election be?

SM: I will oppose the emissions trading scheme, ensure that all government policy is based on accurate scientific evidence and return common sense to Canberra

((WN)) How would you address these policies?

SM: By asking for a Royal Commission into climate change so that the facts (such as that global warming stopped in 2001 and the emissions trading scheme will not change the climate one bit) are openly presented to the Australian people.

((WN)) Sending asylum seekers to Indonesia: good or bad?

SM: Any government policy that does not properly consider all implications (be it emissions trading, or any other issue) is a bad one.

((WN)) Is the Australian dollar’s near parity with the US dollar a sign that the Australian economy is healthy, the US economy in chaos or both?

SM: It’s a sign of both. Many countries around the world look with envy at how well (relatively) Australia is doing, to our credit! It is of concern that the American economy is in such bad shape and that their levels of debt seem unsustainable.

((WN)) How do you rate the governments economic stimulus package?

SM: The economic stimulus package was poorly targeted and poorly carried out. When we could have been building roads, dams, railways and hospitals yet instead we were paying for tattoos, PlayStations and overseas holidays.

((WN)) Should it be wound back?

SM: The question about levels of stimulus spending is a complicated one and requires expertise in economics, however one could say in general terms that all government spending should be well targeted and spent in the most efficient way.

((WN)) Is Kevin Rudd a better Prime Minister than John Howard?’

SM: Australian voters are the best judge of that and we will know in 2019 🙂

((WN)) Is the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme an effective solution to climate change? Why?

SM: Absolutely not. The CPRS will not change the climate by any amount that we can measure – it’s just a new tax that will hurt Australians and drive businesses and jobs overseas. Since 2003 there has been mountains of new scientific data which contradicts the popular theory that human carbon dioxide emissions are causing significant global warming. Recently, many of the scientists who wrote the IPCC report (on which the ETS / CPRS is based) have been reported as manipulating scientific data to create scary global warming scenarios. The science is definitely not settled

((WN)) Is there a better solution?

SM: We can very easily refocus the momentum and goodwill that has been generated on climate change and channel this energy into other worthwhile environmental projects in Australia that will make a difference.

((WN)) Why should the electorate vote for you?

SM: I will oppose the ETS and support responsible environmental policies instead of radical environmental policies that could end up costing every Australian taxpayer $4550 per year in new taxes.

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, January 1, 2009.

File:Dual pricing.JPG

The European country of Slovakia will have the euro replace the koruna as its official currency, starting January 1, 2009. Slovakia is the sixteenth country to start using the euro. The official conversion rate is set at 30.126 koruna to one euro.

Joaquín Almunia, the European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, stated that the conversion will be “a proud moment for the euro area […] the euro has become the symbol of EU identity and is protecting us against the tremendous external shocks that we have had to cope with since the summer of 2007.”

January 1 also marks the tenth anniversary of the euro being introduced as globally exchangeable currency.

Sources

• “Slovakia poised to embrace euro” — BBC News Online, December 31, 2008
• “Slovakia Becomes 16th EU Country to Adopt Euro” — novinite.com, December 18, 2008
• DPA. “Brussels hails Slovakia’s ‘superb’ euro entry” — The Earth Times, December 29, 2008

A woman in Tennessee, United States dressed up like a nurse and tried to steal a baby from a hospital’s maternity room but police arrested her. Adriene Johnson, 24, is now in custody after trying to steal the baby. The woman entered the hospital’s maternity room dressed in scrubs and was going to take the baby’s temperature said police.

Security was alerted to Johnson when she tried to take the baby out of the hospital. The room was then locked down and the baby was handed over to the doctor. Johnson was on bond after being arrested by police on Monday. She was also charged with trying to steal a baby’s rocker from a Wal-Mart which she tried to get a refund on.

Sources

• Associated Press. “Police: Dressed as nurse, woman tries stealing kid” — Yahoo! News, December 31, 2008
• “Woman dressed as nurse tries to steal baby from maternity ward” — The Telegraph, December 31, 2008

Wikinoticias, the Spanish edition of Wikinews, has reached 4000 articles two days after the Polish edition had published its 9000th article. The news item was published today at 8:27PM (UTC) and it has information about the death of the South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Helen Suzman.

Wikinoticias is the seventh largest Wikinews edition, based on number of published stories.

Sources