compass-rose.org

Friday, July 14, 2006

The fighting continues as Israel launches a fresh wave of attacks on Lebanese targets Friday, striking Beirut’s International airport, the road from Lebanon to Damascus and a power plant. Since Wednesday, Hezbollah have fired over 300 rockets into towns in northern Israel, killing four civilians and wounding dozens. Hezbollah rockets reached as far south as the port city of Haifa.

Lebanon said on Friday that Israel had launched “a widespread barbaric aggression” with the intention of hurting Lebanon. The country urged the United Nations community to stop the military offensive. “The targets chosen are connected either directly or indirectly with terrorism,” Israeli Air Force General Ido Nehushtan, said.

The Israeli attacks included the southern suburb of Beirut where Israel says Hezbollah has a stronghold. Most roads and bridges leading to the southern suburb of Beirut have been shelled, isolating the suburb from the rest of the country. The attacks came after Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the evening of July 13, warning residents in the mainly Shiite south suburb of impending attacks to Hezbollah property.

Israel says Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, is also a target. “Nasrallah has issued his own sentence.” said Ronnie Bar-On, the Israeli interior minister. The home and headquarters of Hezbollah’s spiritual leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was hit by Israeli missiles, but Nasrallah and his nearest were unhurt in the attack. Nasrallah said in a televised address after the attack that Hezbollah is ready for an “open war” with Israel.

This comes after Ehud Olmert said Lebanon had committed an “act of war” when Hezbollah attacked Israel.

“You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war”, Nasrallah said in the broadcast. “You have chosen an all-out war with a nation which … has the capability, the experience and the courage.” He continued saying that Lebanon would either surrender or “have faith in Allah and victory”.

The Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora described the conflict as a “controlled war” and called it an opportunity to address the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Five civilians were killed and at least 50 have been wounded in Lebanon on Friday after Israeli attacks. According to Lebanon, 63 people have been killed and 167 wounded in the country since the raids commenced on Wednesday.

The Israeli military and Israel’s ambassador to the UN said that the rockets fired into Haifa on Thursday by Hezbollah were manufactured in Iran. Lebanese PM Siniora said that it was puzzling for Hezbollah to perform the attacks unsupported.

States worldwide have called for the release of the prisoners and for Israel to exercise restraint, while Lebanon has urged the UN Security Council, which held an emergency meeting on Friday, to pass a ceasefire resolution.

Lebanon’s UN envoy, Nouhad Mahmoud, claimed that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon “will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it. The Security Council meets today in the shadow of a widespread barbaric aggression waged by Israel to this very moment against my nation,” he said. “What Israel is undertaking is an act of aggression and devastation aimed at bringing Lebanon to its knees and subverting it by any means.”

Israel’s chief of staff, Dan Halutz, said Friday that all three soldiers were alive and in a “reasonable” state of health.

From: Sue Gardner <edited>Amgine wrote:I figure this will be easiest if we remain on a single e-mail thread then.

Sure, that’s fine. So I will keep it all here.

I’ve been collecting documentation regarding the Wikimedia Foundation’s recent fundraising efforts for a news article on Wikinews (No doubt, Sue, Erik has informed you I left the project, as well as curtailed my volunteer involvement with WMF, upon his election to the Board of Trustees. For your benefit, Erik, I am tentatively doing some minor editing and rc-patrol on en.wn) I believe I have a reasonably complete picture of preliminary results.

Great: let me know if you have any questions or need anything confirmed. You can also, obviously, feel free to speak with Erik. Please be aware also that the “Contributions summary” page isn’t necessarily the full picture: it doesn’t include all donations sources. So if you want to use totals for your story, you should confirm them with me or Erik to ensure they’re complete.

But I do have a number of questions based on what I’ve learned.

1. A $250k donation, earmarked for hardware. I would appreciate knowing who made the donation, when, and (if possible) why. I’d love to know if the WMF has determined how this donation will be used.

The 250K is coming from a recently-established private foundation that has educational goals similar to ours: they admire what we’re doing and want to support us, so they phoned the office and offered to make a contribution. (I’m not sure if it matters for your story, but the 250K is actually unrelated to the online fundraiser, and is not included in the fundraiser totals. Also, it may be worth noting that we have not received the money yet. This is totally fine: these things always take a while.)

After that call, I consulted with the tech team, and we decided to use the money to buy core database servers in our Florida cluster. We had intended to buy the servers anyway: this donation will simply cover most/all of the cost. I am happy to tell you the basic story, but I don’t want to publicly give the name of the organization that’s offering us the money: I don’t have their permission to do that. They might be fine with it: who knows. I just am not comfortable making that decision for them.

2. A $500k donation. I would appreciate knowing who made the donation, when, and (if possible) why. I’d also like to know if there were any restrictions placed on this donation, like the previous one was dedicated to hardware purchases.You may already know that our default position is to give donors anonymity unless they specifically say it’s okay to use their names. Lots of donors, particularly those who are giving large amounts, prefer to remain anonymous, and I think it’s only fair to respect that. In this instance, I don’t have permission to give the donor’s name: sorry.

I do not know specifically why this donor made the contribution: clearly they wanted to support our work, but I don’t know anything more specific than that. And no, there were no restrictions put on the donation.

3. A presentation was made to Sun Microsystems by yourselves, plus Roger McNamee in December. This presentation was at least partially created on November 20th and 21st, and has a large amount of information in it regarding recent past, present, and near-term financial, technical, and traffic. I have at least several questions regarding this presentation, including:3.a When did the meeting with Sun Microsystems take place, and with whom did you meet?3.b Assuming the donations proposals are eventually worked out and all parties are able to reach agreement, will the WMF move to a proprietary server network?3.c One of the technical advances discussed in the proposal is collaborative video. Researching this I discovered a mediawiki site within Kaltura which seemed to be very closely related. Is this connection correct?

In general, I don’t want to have a conversation with the media (even friendly media!) about meetings we have with other organizations, until and unless there is something worth talking about. We have lots of provisional conversations with lots of different organizations and people, which don’t necessarily imply anything about future plans or possibilities. So as a general practice, I would never comment on a specific meeting or presentation.

Beyond that, as I’m sure you know, the Wikimedia Foundation is committed to running on an infrastructure powered by open source and open standards. We have no plans to change that.

Amgine, let me know if there’s any more information I can give you. I’m going to be away from the computer for a couple of hours; back later tonight and obviously tomorrow as well.

Thanks for your interest, and best regards.Sue

I should very much like to know answers to these and other questions, and will be in irc://freenode.net/Wikinews-en for some hours yet this evening if that would speed the process.

Best regards,

Amgine

On 7-Jan-08, at 4:11 PM, Sue Gardner wrote:

Hi Amgine,

I’d be happy to talk with Wikinews about the fundraiser – although it would be great if you could wait a few days; we are collating all the donations right now, and don’t yet have final totals. I’m CCing Erik so he can jump in & say when we will.

Do you want to do it by e-mail? If so, I can start answering questions now, and fill in the blanks when I get the last bits of info.

Let me know what you think – thanks,Sue

Original Message ——–

Subject: Re: [Ticket#2008010610008625] Interview with Sue GardnerDate: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 00:21:24 +0000From: Wikimedia press team <press@wikimedia.org>Organization: WikimediaTo: Sue Gardner <edited>

forwarded from OTRS by Angela

Forwarded message from Amgine <amgine@saewyc.net> —

From: Amgine <edited>To: press@wikimedia.orgSubject: Interview with Sue GardnerDate: 2008-01-06 23:55:49

Hi!This is Amgine at en.Wikinews. I’m working on a story involving the Wikimedia Foundation, especially covering the recently ended Fundraiser drive. I’m looking for the opportunity to interview Sue Gardner, hopefully in the early part of this week. I can be reached most easily by cell phone, <edited>, or home phone <edited>, or IRC (check irc://freenode.net/Wikinews-en). I will happily call anywhere for the chance to conduct the interview, or any other venue which would be most convenient.Best regards,Amgine

End forwarded message —

Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: [Ticket#2008010610008625] Interview with Sue Gardner] Date: January 7, 2008 7:53:44 PM PST To: Amgine <edited> Cc: Erik <edited>

A compilation of brief news reports for Sunday, February 19, 2012.

Four youngsters have died after an overnight fire in Rochester, New York. Firefighters believe the bodies belong to teenagers at the oldest. Four people were rescued from the multilevel wooden building.

The fire department was called to a small fire amongst rubbish near the home. After putting it out, they began a routine check on the area and discovered a second fire at the back of the building “that appeared to have occurred while we were here,” said the local fire chief. Firefighters entered the building but the fire spread with unusual speed. An investigation is underway.

Sources

• “Fire breaks out in upstate NY home; 4 people die” — The Associated Press, February 18, 2012
• “Overnight Fire Kills Four Children, Injures Five Others” — YNN Rochester, February 18, 2012

A Canadian man who beat a native to death has had his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter on appeal. Bradley Frances Gray attacked brothers-in-law George Many Shots and Percy Panther Bone in 2008, killing the former. He claimed the men were fighting each other but witness testimony disputed that.

A panel of three justices ruled the trial judge failed to adequately inform the jury of the possibility of a manslaughter verdict, although one noted the attack was severe enough a murder verdict may have been appropriate. Many Shots’s family called the result racist and expressed intent to move away from the area. Gray will be resentenced later, and faces a possible life sentence.

Sources

• Katie May. “Family of victim shocked conviction overturned” — Lethbridge Herald, February 17, 2012
• Daryl Slade. “Lethbridge man’s murder conviction reduced to manslaughter” — Calgary Herald, February 16, 2012

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Washington, D.C. – House Democrats called for an investigation into possible voting fraud and irregularities during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, according to a Dec. 23 letter from House Representative David Wu (D-OR).

Thousands of Ohio citizens have reported experiencing problems casting their votes due to long lines at polling places, malfunctioning voting machines, inexplicable numbers of votes cast, and disenfranchisement in urban areas.

“The integrity of our democracy is at stake. We need to give the American people confidence that each and every vote will be properly counted and that the democratic electoral process is respected,” Wu said. “I also understand concerns about the conflict of interest of having an official in charge of running elections in a key state also heading a presidential campaign. I agree that Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell’s dual role calls into question any election decision he made that favored Republicans.”

Other Congressmen including John Conyers (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Robert Wexler (D-FL) voiced similar concerns, and requested an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), citing specific cases in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and California.

In December, Conyers, the Ranking Democrat on the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued a series of letters about voting irregularities to the media, campaign officials, and manufacturers of voting equipment. These letters seek to collect and preserve information regarding the conduct of the election.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office previously reported on voting irregularities in eariler presidential elections.

A September 14, 2004 GAO report on the 2000 presidential elections detailed changes the DOJ implemented to try to ensure voter access to polls, and the importance of monitoring election-day activities. The report warned that allegations in the 2000 election lacked sufficient specifics to enable the DOJ to perform and adequate investigation and recommended that more precise information be collected regarding voting for the 2004 presidential election.

Friday, April 2, 2010

The oldest European, Florrie Baldwin, turned 114 on Wednesday. Baldwin, who was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England on March 31, 1896, has been recognised as the oldest person in Europe since 2009.

Baldwin, who lives in the Radcliffe Gardens Nursing Home, Leeds, is also known to be the fourth-oldest living person in the world, behind Eugenie Blanchard from Saint Barthélemy (Caribbean), France , Neva Morris from the United States and Kama Chinen from Japan.

On reaching the milestone, she was sent a congratulatory telegram from Queen Elizabeth II, the British monarch.

David Worsnop, Baldwin’s 64-year-old grandson, stated: “When I’m chatting to people I don’t know well and I tell them I’ve got to go and see my grandmother they often give me a funny look. When my mother told the girl in the post office she wanted a Mothers’ Day card, the assistant looked at her as if she was crazy. But my grandmother is amazing, every year we say this will most likely be the last year we will do this. We have been saying that for 14 years but she keeps battling on.”

Baldwin puts the reasons for her longevity down to hard work and clean living. Worsnop adds determination to this: “I think that’s her secret. She’s very strong-willed. I think that’s the main thing, her strength of character.”