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Friday, November 17, 2006

Virginia, United States — A ballot referendum to amend the Virginia Bill of Rights that denies to same-sex and unmarried couples any legal status that approximates that granted to married couples was approved by state voters during the U.S. midterm election by a 57% to 43% margin.

The Virginia result, along with voters from seven other U.S. states who decided on similar constitutional amendments, brings the total to 27 states that now constitutionally ban the recognition of same-sex unions at the state level. Arizona voters failed to pass a similar ballot initiative this election cycle, making it the first and only U.S. state to reject a constitutional ban.

Both the governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, and Senator-elect, Jim Webb, publically opposed the amendment before the vote. Governor Kaine said the broad language against the recognition of the “legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals” within the referendum might have negative consequences on the state’s business climate. Further, that “it would invite protracted court challenges in areas including contracts, custody cases and end-of-life decisions.”

The Attorney General of Virginia, Robert F. McDonell argued that the rights of unmarried individuals are still protected, because such legal protections flow from common law, not solely from marriage.

However, the Bill of Rights is the basis and foundation of government. Thus, as discussed by Raymond A. Warren, any portion of common law that is determined by the seven-member Virginia Supreme Court to be in conflict with the amendment would no longer provide any such protection within Virginia.

The amendment establishes a section that explicitly prevents the government from recognizing the legal status of any relationships outside of heterosexual marriage. Though paragraph one of the amendment specifically bans same-sex marriage, paragraph two prevents the government from recognizing the legal status of any relationship of unmarried individuals that would in anyway approximate marriage.

That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.

This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

A $2,500 reward has been issued by the Humane Society of the United States for information on an “implied terroristic threat”, according to Sergeant Jim Gray of the St. Paul Police Department.

According to Crystal Brown, 17 year old owner of the dog, a gift-wrapped box with a note saying “Congratulations Crystal. This side up. Batteries included.”, was left on her doorstep along with the severed head of her dog, Chevy, and a Valentine’s Day candy.

The dog, an Australian shepherd mix called Chevy, went missing in February and Crystal, his owner, spent weeks searching for him, posting fliers, going door to door, and visiting the local animal shelter.

Dale Bartlett, Deputy Manager for the Humane Society said that “This case was extremely heinous. I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it just took my breath away.”

“This was so cruel,” Crystal said. “We’re dealing with one sick, twisted person.”

• AP. Girl finds missing dog’s head in box on doorstep <broken link> [archived version] — CNN, March 15, 2007
• AP. “Girl horrified to find her dog’s head in box” — The Sydney Morning Herald,

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Syrian forces have raided the city of Homs, and has killed at least one civilian and injured twenty from machine gunfire and armor activity in heavily populated areas. This raid is reportedly the heaviest since troops were deployed to the city two months ago in an effort to crush dissent against the country’s President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled the country for 41 years, from ongoing protests.

In Hama, which is 50 km north of Homs, Security forces made arrests, and gunshots were reported by activists in the area. No causalities were reported.

Demonstrations against the president have spread since ordered tanks into towns and cities where large numbers of protesters appeared. The campaign has been violent, and has claimed the lives of at least 1,400 people since the uprisings began in March, according to human rights groups.

The raids on activists comes at a time after the vice-president of the country, Farouq al-Shara opened “national dialogue” in a attempt to allow discussion on reforms, such as allowing other parties then the ruling Baath Party. Mostly Assad supporters attended, and opposition groups have boycotted the conference, citing that actions of the security arm of the government and Assad’s loyalists continues to operate with impunity.

Wikinews and other independent media outlets have been unable to confirm the reports, as Syria has banned international journalists from entering the country.

Monday, February 20, 2006

The New Zealand government has announced that it will be reviewing funding for medical and dentistry students at Otago and Auckland Universities to certify the institutions’ standards and help staff retention.

The dean of Auckland University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Professor Iain Martin says the review “can’t come soon enough”.

The Medical Students Association welcomes the review. It says that it has been worried about student debt for years “High debt encourages too many graduates overseas, or into high paying areas of practice at the expense of areas like general practice”

Friday, October 23, 2009

A suicide bomber attacked the Chaklala airbase in the Punjab province of northern Pakistan this morning, killing at least four civilians and two air force personnel at a security checkpoint.

The blast took place in Kamra, approximately 50 km (30 mi) away from Islamabad, near Rawalpindi and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). The attacker had apparently hoped to enter the airbase, but detonated his explosives while at the checkpoint when officers suggested they wanted to search his clothing.

With some outlets reporting as many as eight deaths, between nine and thirteen people were believed wounded, although their identities haven’t been disclosed, said Fakhar Sultan, District Police chief.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the suicide attack, and repeated that his government would not waver from its goal to “root out terrorism”.

This was the second time that Kamra was targeted, the first being in December 2007. International groups have suggested that Pakistan may keep its nuclear-armed aircraft at the base.

Friday, February 3, 2012

The following is the third in a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2012 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after a brief mention of some of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail, the challengers to President Barack Obama react to the results of the New Hampshire Democratic Party primary, two new political parties choose their first presidential nominees, and an economist who announced his intentions to seek the nomination of Americans Elect answers a few questions for Wikinews.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

United States and United Kingdom spokespeople have added to criticism from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Israel’s decision to authorise a further 900 homes in east Jerusalem will “undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution”.

A spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon stated, “The Secretary-General deplores the Government of Israel’s decision today to expand Gilo settlement, built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.”

The US rebuked Israel for their decision. “We are dismayed at the Jerusalem planning committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem,” said White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs. “At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed,” he said, referring to the attempts by the US to lead the peace process. “Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations.”

US Department of State spokesperson Ian Kelly added, “We object to this, and we object to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes.”

The British consulate in Jerusalem issued a statement on behalf of Foreign Secretary David Miliband that read, “The Foreign Secretary has been very clear that a credible deal involves Jerusalem as a shared capital. Expanding settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem makes that deal much harder. So this decision is wrong and we oppose it.”

According to Israel Army Radio, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a request from the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Monday to halt building in the area on the grounds that that Gilo was “an integral part of Jerusalem”. “Prime Minister Netanyahu […] is willing to adopt the policy of the greatest possible restraint concerning growth in the West Bank, but this applies to the West Bank,” said the Prime Minister’s spokesperson Mark Regev. “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and will remain as such.”

Following the suspension of peace talks last year, the Palestinian National Authority has demanded a halt to all construction of settlements before it will return to negotiations. President Mahmud Abbas said that the breakdown in talks left him with no choice but to seek international recognition of a Palestinian state unilaterally, despite requests from the United States and the European Union to resume peace talks. “We feel we are in a very difficult situation,” he said in Cairo after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. “What is the solution for us? To remain suspended like this, not in peace? That is why I took this step.”

This comes as another blow to United States President Barack Obama, whose attempts at brokering a deal to halt settlement expansion are meeting with little success. With the credibility of the US leader diminishing, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has recently started meeting with a number of Middle East leaders in the past week, attempting to reconcile with Syria and meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.