Israel to webcast al-Aqsa mosque excavations

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Israel’s administration press-service has said that webcams are being installed at the holy site of the Al Aqsa Mosque–Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem, to enable people to watch excavations at the site over the Internet.

Users will be able to watch live the archaeological process and the following construction works from February 15.

Excavations at the site were halted on Sunday after protests by Muslims, who feared that the digging and the construction of a new pedestrian bridge in the area can have a negative impact on the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Qubbat as-Sakhra.

Last week Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas declared the construction and blockade as “hostile measures” against Muslims. Israeli authorities say that these worries are groundless. They also accuse “irresponsible elements” of manipulating Muslim sentiment in order to gain political mileage.

The Internet broadcast is to be set at the official website of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the department responsible for archaeological research within the country. Currently the site includes a three-minute video that explains in English the essence of the project in interpretation of the main archaeologist of Israel – Dr. Gideon Avni, the director of the Excavations and Surveys Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

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Friday, March 2, 2007

The following article contains photographs of women’s exposed breasts. Viewer discretion is advised.

Today the “boobs on bikes” parade was held in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The boobs on bikes parade happens in various centres around New Zealand and is designed to kick off, and promote the Erotica Expo.

This parade caught less national media attention before the parade than the Auckland one last year as, unlike Auckland, there was no protest done by the city councillors.

The Christchurch City Council released a press statement stating that they had “not approved or received an application to hold the proposed “Boobs on Bikes” parade on Friday, 2 March, from Erotica event organisers.”

The press release stated that the council must be consulted for any procession that will interfere with traffic, or may require crowd management. Erotica Festival organiser Steve Crowe has brushed this off, saying that it is a promotion, not a parade, and all rules of the road will be observed.

City council and organizers of the event say they have received numerous complaints about the parade, however it isn’t in the city’s jurisdiction to act, as female toplessness is not illegal.

Council transport and streets manager Michael Aitken told NZPA that the “standard of dress of participants is not a matter that the council can control.”

Police inspector Gary Knowles commented that it was a “moral not a criminal issue. We have taken legal advice and unless there is a breach of the peace, we cannot intervene.”

Wikinews reporter Gabriel Pollard was at the parade to catch the action.

• The parade approaches.

• At the head of the parade, organiser Steve Crow (next to the woman) is riding along on a trike.

• The rest of the parade comes along. On the left is a porn actor showing off his torso, with a female motorcycle driver.

• Spectators, women as well as men, are using photo cameras, camera phones and camcorders to capture the parade.

Friday, May 12, 2006

American newspaper USA Today reported on Thursday that the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) collected millions of call logs from telecommunications companies in 2001. The report comes almost four months after a previous NSA controversy involving the monitoring of international calls placed within the United States.

Members of Congress called for answers from the government about the report detailing the agency’s collection of records from telecommunications companies of American phone calls.

The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said that he was very shocked about the NSA revelation. “It is our government, it’s not one party’s government. It’s America’s government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to Americans what they are doing,” said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

AT&T, Verizon Communications, and BellSouth, three major telecommunications companies in the United States, began releasing logs of millions of phone calls to the NSA shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to the USA Today report.

Earlier this year, the New York Times released a report stating that the NSA had been monitoring certain phone calls placed between the United States and other countries. Nominated CIA director Michael Hayden commented on the NSA program on January 23, 2006, stating: “The purpose of all this is not to collect reams of intelligence, but to detect and prevent attacks.” Hayden was the head of the NSA during the programs’ durations.

President George W. Bush assured Americans that their privacy is being “fiercely protected.” “We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,” commented Bush after leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Biloxi.

According to the report, the information released by the telecommunications companies does not detail the content of the calls. The identities of those that placed and received the calls were recorded.

The Supreme Court of the United States has previously ruled that logs of numbers dialed are not considered ‘private’ because they are being communicated to the telephone company.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard supported the launch of a new book “How to Get Expelled from School: A Guide to Climate Change for Pupils, Pundits and Parents”, authored by geology professor Ian Plimer. The book includes 101 questions for students to use to challenge their climate science teachers.

The book follows Professor Plimer’s 2009 “Heaven and Earth”. Professor Plimer said the previous book received feedback from parents concerned about education. This prompted him to address the next book to children. He said, “After Heaven and Earth came out I had many parents write to me and say, ‘Look, what do we do, our kids are being fed activism. I want my children to have the basics of scientists, I don’t want to be fed activism'”.

Mr Howard advocated emissions trading in 2007. He says he considered it feasible if the rest of the world acted too, otherwise to introduce carbon trading plans would risk Australian industries. “I proposed an emissions trading scheme and some people say, ‘Well why on earth did you do that?’ [It was] predicated on the rest of the world moving in the same direction and also predicated on a structure that would preserve the international competitiveness of those industries that gave our country a competitive trade advantage, it could do no harm”, he explained. “[It’s] hard to understand how we would do anything to put” Australia’s competitive advantage due to natural resources “at risk. The reality is we are doing that at the moment. The carbon tax is not being replicated in other countries.”

Professor Ian Enting, complex system scientist at the University of Melbourne, said the book includes scientific errors and insufficient references. Margaret Watts, president of the Science Teachers’ Association of New South Wales, said the educational bias claim is mistaken. “What science teachers do”, she said, “is put all of the facts, pro and con, against any topic, whatever it is, and show the children how to work through the evidence”.

Professor Plimer said of the 101 questions in his book, “They’re questions that kids should be asking of teachers, because if the teacher can answer it means they might know something about the subject. If they can’t, or start to promote ideology, it shows that our schools have been captured. Parents are telling me that schools have been captured by a lot of activists and kids are being fed stuff that is not relevant to the real world.”

Monday, April 6, 2009

Over 1,600 volunteers registered to help build approximately 65,000 of the 500,000 sandbags to create dikes 20.5 feet (6.2 meters) high to protect the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba in the war against the Red River of the North flood.

700 volunteers answered at the rural municipality of St. Andrews alone. Once sandbags are filled for West St. Paul, St. Andrews, and Selkirk, then frozen culverts must be cleared.

The height of the river is expected to be Thursday, and predictions are that it will be less than Flood of the Century of 1997. There is no precipitation in the forecast, and snow in the province should be melted by the end of the week.

“The fear right now is we have to get that ice out of the river. The Amphibex [Excavators] are still working and breaking the ice apart, and everyday we buy with the warm weather and the current, it is thinning the ice down a bit, so when it does start to move, the better chance it’ll move right out into the lake,” said Paul Guyder, the emergency coordinator for the RMs of St. Andrews and St. Clements.

“I feel that we’ve done everything humanly possible to get ready,” said Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba, “But … there are fallibilities with human behaviour. We can take every preventative measure as human beings possible and we can still get Mother Nature proving again she is superior.”

Communities with ring diking will partially or fully close their dikes at the beginning of the week. Provincial officials are considering opening the Red River Floodway gates around mid-week before ice is fully melted.

Ice jams could cause flooding within the city, however opening the gates could spare neighbourhood flooding when the river rises to the estimated 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) height. The province does have back up plans for dealing with ice jams within the city if they do occur. The unpredictability of ice jams and the ensuing water level rise may cause neighbourhood flooding. The city is raising dikes where the river has jammed with ice in the past such as on tight curves and past bridges. Likewise there are excavators and backhoes positioned at these points.

Vulnerable neighbourhoods on the river banks have been reinforced with sandbag dikes at vulnerable areas from the massive volunteer effort over the weekend. Guyader feels no more extra volunteers are needed, however volunteers are still being asked to leave their names and number in case of unpredicted need. Existing personnel will assess roads, and help with clean up.

Approximately 400 of the 800 people who evacuated the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation have returned to their homes.

Former Premier, Dufferin Roblin, brought forward the floodway as a protection for Winnipeg residents and economy following the 1950 Red River Flood. The Red River floodway, “Duff’s Ditch” was finally finished in 1968, and its floodway gates have been opened 20 times saving Winnipeg from an estimated CA$10 billion in damages. The floodway expansion began in 2005 at a price of $665 million.

Polish and Chinese experts have come to survey the Red River Floodway, and Dennis Walaker, mayor of Fargo, North Dakota recognises the need for Red River flood defences down river. “Every town that you drive by from the Canadian line up to Winnipeg is either elevated or ring-diked,” said Walaker.

Friday, September 23, 2016

The following is the fourth edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2016 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: the vice presidential nominee of the Reform Party is revealed; those attacked in a high profile campaign speech respond; and Wikinews interviews an economist seeking the presidency a second time.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Between 143 and 152 people have now been hospitalized in the wake of Monday’s train derailment near Lviv, Ukraine, and subsequent phosporous cloud. According to the Ukrainian Healthcare Ministry’s spokesperson, Igor Gerych, 43 of the injured are children, 13 are firemen and three are medical personnel. None are considered to be in mortal danger, yet some cases remain at medium risk level.

Nearly 400 people are involved with the clean-up operations. Among them are military specialists for chemical warfare. The Ukrainian Army alert state was raised to “high readiness” state on Tuesday, when the scale of the accident became clear. 27 medical brigades, 13 consultants and seven specialists are inspecting the surrounding inhabited areas.

Two of the fifteen phosphor containers that were involved in the accident have been raised and put on new transports; nine of them need more work to treat leaking and damaged areas. All containers are to be transported to a more secure location by Saturday.

The situation on the ground appears to be confusing. Political TV channel, Kanal 5, reports that the village closest to the accident, Ozhidovo, is still requesting volunteers to send medicines and water, as they do not have any. Journalists of three TV channels (Inter, Novyj Kanal, ICTV) needed medical care themselves after being in the village.

TV channel, UT-1 reports this evening that the Ukranian President, Viktor Yushchenko, has called an urgent meeting of the National Security Council.

The accident appears to be likely to become a topic of contention in the long-standing rivalry between the President and the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yesterday, the President publicly criticized the government’s work.

Politicization of the disaster is likely to be the main reason behind the extreme differences among the versions of the Ukrainian media. Some declared the accident “ended” a few hours after it occurred, while others are still making alarming reports.

On July 18, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission reportedly offered EU assistance to the Ukrainian government. The same sources say that Ukraine has not officially requested the help. Without a formal request, EU assistance cannot begin.

On the same date, NATO Spokesman in Brussels, Mr. James Appathurai, is reported by Podrobnosti to have declared that the Alliance is following the situation, and that NATO has not received any request for help from the Ukraine, either.