Monday, October 1, 2007

Charles de Kerckhove is running as an independent in the Ontario provincial election, in the riding of St. Paul’s. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005File:Plastic bag stock sized.jpg

They are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. A report issued on Feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that Kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country’s environmental problems stemming from the bags’ popularity.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Adam Kokesh, an Iraq War veteran, activist, radio show host, and currently a candidate for the US Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, spoke with Wikinews to discuss his background, political positions, and campaign for President of the United States.

Kokesh, who hails from Arizona, has been active in the anti-war movement since returning home from combat in Iraq. After an initial honorary discharge from active duty with the US Marine Corp in 2006, Kokesh was given a general discharge from the Marine Forces Reserve in 2007 after images of him wearing his uniform while participating in a protest with the Iraq Veterans Against the War were published in The Washington Post. Kokesh has also been involved in demonstrations in support of free speech, gun rights, and marijuana decriminalization. Some of these activities have resulted in his arrest. Kokesh previously hosted a show on RT and currently hosts a show on internet radio.

Politically, Kokesh supported the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns of Ron Paul. He was a featured speaker at Paul’s Rally for the Republic in 2008. Kokesh ran for US Congress as a Republican in 2010 in New Mexico and for US Senate in Arizona in 2018. He announced his 2020 candidacy in 2013 during a jailhouse interview. He has based his campaign on the pledge to begin “dissolving the federal government in a peaceful, orderly manner” and to resign as president and take the title of “Custodian of the Federal Government.”

Other contenders for the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nomination include former Libertarian Party Vice Chairman Arvin Vohra, businessman John McAfee, and New Hampshire state representative Max Abramson. Congressman Justin Amash and former Rhode Island governor and US Senator Lincoln Chafee are both reportedly considering runs. Former New York gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe and former Massachusetts governor William Weld were both previously considered potential candidates but Sharpe suggested he would not run and Weld has decided to run in the 2020 Republican Party presidential primaries, challenging President Donald Trump.

With accredited Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn, Kokesh details his background and activism, his thoughts on the Libertarian Party, the Presidency of Donald Trump, and the goals for his campaign and presidency.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As gas prices have risen in the United States, the regional transport authority for southeastern Pennsylvania, SEPTA, has seen a sharp increase in ridership, which has caused overcrowding on the trains.

“As fuel prices have continued to rise, SEPTA ridership has steadily increased and is the highest in 18 years,” said SEPTA General Manager Joseph Casey. Monthly ridership was 22 percent higher last month than a year ago.

“They have crushed loads on their rail lines, already where people are standing, and there’s not enough seats,” said Rich Bickel, the director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

“At peak times some railcars are standing room only and commuter parking lots are nearly full. All Regional Rail lines are running near full capacity and the train station parking lots are at about 90 percent capacity or more,” SEPTA spokesperson Felipe Suarez said.

While SEPTA awaits new Silverliner V trains from Hyundai Rotem, which begin arriving in 2009, it had hoped to lease eight rail cars from New Jersey Transit, at an agreed-upon rate of US$10,000 per month. However, due to problems with insurance and liability indemnification, the deal fell through, according to Casey.

SEPTA has entered a new agreement to purchase the eight rail cars from NJ Transit. The transit authority will pay US$670,000 for the cars and assorted supplies plus one additional inoperative car which will be used for spare parts. The rail cars will be operated using a SEPTA provided locomotive as they are not self-propelled.

The cars are being disposed of by NJ Transit because it has switched from single-floor cars to double-decker cars.

SEPTA is expecting to raise US$3.1 million by selling rail that has been out of service since 1981 at auction.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Wikinews has learned that a new entity calling itself The Regime used keylogging to gain an administrator password to 711chan.org, a site popular with the open vigilante group “Anonymous” that has recently been attacking Scientology online.

At 9:57 p.m. (eastern time) the site 711chan.org, was replaced, allegedly by The Regime by the title Church of Scientology along with a statement on the home page stating “This website has been deleted due to copyright claims from the Church of Scientology.” A search performed using Google, on 711chan has returned the number one result of the apparent hack. All that remains of 711chan.org is an apparent message to the members of the site to “run” and “hide.”

“711chan is full of fucking fail for siding with Gaia. I’m out of here, faggots. Enjoy your Gaia,” said the message, which currently is only available in a cached version.

At 1:45 a.m. on January 27, the site was replaced with “And now a message from our sponsors. YOU SUCK711chan will be back online shortly. I love you guys for helping me out. <3 plasma,” acknowledging the possibility 711chan was back in control of their site. The site’s name has been changed to “Church of 711.”

The Regime’s first attack went along with a message posted to 711chan’s website (quoted below) saying that “This site has not been blessed by The Regime and is deemed lame”, believing Anonymous to be self-proclaimed hackers (although this title was primarily used by the media). It also refers to Anonymous’ attempt to bring down the Church of Scientology (named ‘Operation Chanology‘), saying that “chanology is lame, scientology is lame”. It thereafter declared that the message board where Anonymous had been discussing Operation Chanology had been removed. Minutes later, 711chan stopped responding to queries.

The legitimate administrators of 711chan regained control after only three minutes, but it took nearly six hours to restore the site with recent additions missing. However, The Regime took the site down again twelve hours later, claiming to have removed the backups and stating, “all your db are belong to us” (an allusion to the phrase “all your base are belong to us“).

A new video posted to YouTube by someone who claimed to be The Regime shows a logo and uses a computer animated voice to threaten 711chan.org and their affiliates. The Regime, however, denies making the video saying “we are in no way responsible for making, nor are we tied to that video in any way.”

The video declares, “Dear ‘Anonymous’. We are The Regime. Your attacks on Scientology have not gone unnoticed.” The video’s text description states that “Your attacks on Scientology have not gone unnoticed, we have the money, resources and tools to put an end to your SP behaviour and so called hacking activities. You have soiled the good name of LRH and now it is you that have *our* attention.”

The acronyms in the text description are Scientology jargon “suppressive person” (a person who criticizes Scientology) and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Both terms were also used recently in a leaked internal Church of Scientology video featuring Tom Cruise promoting his beliefs. The video goes on to state that “Anonymous” has been declared “Fair Game” (another Scientology term).

The title of The Regime video, “Re: Message to Scientology”, is a reference to the video “Message to Scientology”, which was posted by “Anonymous” to YouTube on Monday. The original “Message to Scientology” video has been viewed over 1,000,000 times since it was posted.

“We have your IP addresses, your documents and secret plans. We own your 711chan, your IRC, and we are taking care of your raid forums. Call off your attacks on our religion immediately, or 4chan YTMND, something awful and your other bases will be brought to ruin. Do not underestimate us. You are out of your league. You have been warned,” added the video.

In an exclusive interview with Wikinews, the group is only called The Regime. When asked what their mission was, they stated “we have none.”

Wikinews also asked who or what was in charge of their group and they replied, “At one point, this would have been a complicated question as there were many tiers and positions of authority, however now leadership is confined to a single council.” They are also not affiliated with any other group and act alone with “no contacts with groups or individuals outside of itself.” They also refused to describe their group as a whole. They also stated to “define affiliated” when Wikinews asked if they were part of the Church of Scientology.

Their motivations are still not clear. When asked what motivates their group to do what they do, they replied, “What motivates any human to do anything? Money, Power, Respect? Choose one,” but also state that they will continue their attacks “if necessary.”

Wikinews also asked if The Regime was in any way affiliated with the Church of Scientology, including working for or against their beliefs or being a ‘branch of The Church’ The Regime simply replied, “We are not Scientologists, this is all we have to say on the subject.”

Sources within the “Anonymous” group have played down the actions of The Regime who – when announced on the IRC channel the group utilizes for communications – were said to be “… a bunch of gloryhunters ridin [sic] on our tails”. Another user of the IRC channel, calling himself “Anonz”, was quoted as telling other members of the group “… It’s funny how they call us scriptbunnies yet use scripts themselves.” The general consensus was that “Anonymous is not impressed.”

Sunday, March 15, 2009

200,000 litres of oil leaked into waters off the coast of Brisbane from the Pacific Adventurer when their fuel tanks were damaged in rough seas on Wednesday. The figure is about ten times higher than the original estimate of twenty thousand litres of oil. The devastating diesel oil spill has spread along 60 kilometres (37 miles) of the Queensland coast. In addition, 31 containers with 620 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser flew overboard during the violent storm.

Questions are being asked why the Hong Kong cargo ship was out in seas with nine meter waves caused by Cyclone Hamish, a Category 5 tropical cyclone, as well as why the fertiliser containers were not properly secured. One of the overboard containers ruptured the hull of the Pacific Adventurer, causing between 30 to 100 tonnes of oil to spew from the severely damaged ship.

If the ammonium nitrate mixes with the heavy oil, an explosion could occur. None of the containers have been recovered. Some of these may float, but it is believed that they may have sunk which then may cause algal blooms.

Disaster zones have been declared at Bribie and Moreton Islands, and along the Sunshine coast.

The vessel’s owner, Swire Shipping, reported that a second leak began on Friday, when the ship began listing after docking at Hamilton for repairs. “As full soundings of the vessel’s tanks were being taken at the port to determine how much oil had leaked from the vessel, a small quantity of fuel oil escaped from the Pacific Adventurer,” it stated. The ship was brought upright, and a recovery vessel was used to suck up the oil from the water. The leak produced a 500m-long oil slick down the Brisbane River. Booms were placed around this oil spill so that a skimmer could clean up the second spill.

Swire Shipping could face clean up costs of AU$100,000 a day as well as fines up to AU$1.5million (US$977,000; £703,000) if found guilty of environmental breaches or negligence.

Sunshine Coast beaches are slowly starting to be reopened. The beach of Mooloolaba was still closed following reports of burning sensations from swimmers. 12 beaches remain closed; however, 13 have been reopened.

Over 300 state government and council workers are using buckets, rakes and spades in the clean up effort. Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbott says the majority will be gone by Sunday afternoon. The full environmental impact on wildlife is not yet known. One turtle and seven pelicans have been found covered in oil.

There are concerns that the drinking water of Moreton Island is at risk, as the island uses water from the underground water table near the oil spill site.

“Every bucketload of contaminated sand has to be removed from the island by barge, and each bucketload from a front-end loader weighs about one tonne. It’s just an impossible task,” said Mr Trevor Hassard of the Tangalooma Dolphin Education Centre.

The commercial fishing industry has suffered from the incident. Trawlers won’t resume operations until Sunday evening, and any catches will be tested for human consumption.

Monday, July 6, 2009

The 34 British medical students who had been quarantined due to A(H1N1) flu virus in the Kenyan lakeside town of Kisumu were transported to the capital city of Nairobi amid tight police security on Sunday.

The students, who have completed their courses of Tamiflu, are expected to fly back to the United Kingdom Sunday, ending their one week ordeal in Kenya East Africa.

The government’s swift response to contain the disease has been impressive.

The World Health Organisation, which collects data on all laboratory confirmed cases of the flu put the number of visiting students who became infected at 12. The infection spread from their fellow medical student who was originally infected in Nottingham from his girlfriend there. Public Health and Sanitation Minister Beth Mugo reported that it was Kenya’s first case of A(H1N1). Test results of the primary school children who had come into contact with the students during their visit are awaited.

In a further twist, eight more people are suspected to have the H1N1 virus in the north eastern town of Garissa. The eight are reported to have arrived in Kenya from the UK. If confirmed they will bring the total number of swine flu cases reported in Kenya to 20.