Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hundreds of legal, highly-skilled workers in the United States sent hundreds of flowers to the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Emilio Gonzalez as part of a symbolic and peaceful protest over what they said was a “flip-flop” by the State Department and the USCIS on eliminating Green card processing delays.

Dr. Gonzalez announced on the USCIS website late last night that the flowers will be forwarded to the injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

In response, Immigration Voice, a non-profit organization representing skilled, legal immigrants, said that they welcome the fact that Dr. Gonzalez acknowledged the symbolic gesture of our protest and are overjoyed that these flowers will brighten the day of the injured service brethren.

Immigration Voice also said that it is their sacrifice for American freedom that has made this country great and such a desirable destination for multitude of people from around the world and that they wanted to say “Thank you and god bless you” to the servicemen.

Monday, September 27, 2021

Since June 2019, the people of South Gippsland Shire, located at the southernmost tip of Australia, have been without a local council, after a state government inquiry found “high levels of tension” within the council. Administrators were appointed by the Victorian state government in July 2019, who have governed the shire since then. However, South Gippsland’s council is scheduled to be restored with an election to be held via post from October 5–22, 2021.

Wikinews interviewed one of the candidates standing in this election, David Liebelt, an independent candidate running in the Coastal-Promontory Ward. The Coastal-Promontory ward covers towns such as Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Yanakie, Foster, Port Welshpool, and Toora, and elects three councillors to the South Gippsland Shire Council.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Venezuela’s government has opened a granite processing plant in the state of Bolívar, with the intention of providing about 25% of the granite required nationwide.

Ricardo Menéndez, vice president of the Productive Economic Area, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has yearned for the creation of this project to empower Venezuelan construction. Granito Bolívar is reportedly the most modern Venezuelan granite plant, not consuming community water or electricity, and is also the largest, with a daily capacity to supply enough material for use in construction of about 820 houses.

Menéndez said, “These granite blocks are the natural resources of our country, are the wealth we have as a country and often [some] simply decided to remove this richness from our country and take them to other countries” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Esos bloques de granito son la riquezas naturales de nuestro país, son las riquezas que tenemos como patria y que muchas veces sencillamente esas riquezas decidieron sacarlas de nuestro territorio nacional y llevarlas a otros países}.

According to Menéndez, with the help of a state plan, Venezuela intends to exploit its 40,000 million cubic meters or more of granite reserves, generating a set of factories. “[T]he central theme is that these plants, all these factories, are for the construction of socialism; that means using our potential, develop the value chain within the country and of course that yields benefits from the point of view of the production system’s organization…. [Granito] Bolívar is not only the vision that historically we had of exposing richness, but the industries, basic industries we have, that level of our workers in the basic industries and in addition the development of the potential we have in the state” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?el tema central es que estas plantas todas estas fábricas son para la construcción del socialismo, eso significa utilizar nuestras potencialidades, dessarrollar la cadena de valor dentro del país y por supuesto que eso genere beneficios desde el punto de vista de la organización del sistema productivo … Bolívar no solamente es la visión que históricamente se tuvo de exponer las riquezas, sino que son las empresas, las empresas básicas que tenemos, ese nivel de nuestros trabajadores de la empresas básicas y adicionalmente el desarrollo del potencial que tenemos en el estado}.

For the construction of the plant, supplied by 23 quarries, the government of Bolívar provided about 30 million bolívares (US$4.7 million) and the national government €2.3 million (US$3 million). Bolívar reportedly has reserves of about 40,000 million tons of red, black, pink and white granite, sufficient for domestic demand for 200 years.

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Two students and a school employee have been injured following a shooting at Rigby Middle School in Idaho, United States, on Thursday, with a sixth grader in custody.

According to Jefferson County sheriff Steve Anderson, the sixth grader — who attends the middle school and lives in Idaho Falls — pulled out a handgun from her backpack, firing the gun both in and outside the school, with a teacher managing to disarm the student. Police were called to the school at about 9:15AM local time, and the suspect was taken in the custody of the local sheriff’s office.

The trauma medical director at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Dr. Michael Lemon, has stated the three injured people had non-life threatening injuries to the extremities. The school employee has been treated and released from medical care. A warrant has been issued against an Idaho Falls residence in relation to the shooting.

School was cancelled in the district for Friday. The local school superintendent, Chad Martin, told “this is the worst nightmare a school district could ever face”, and “our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims and their families and all those involved”. A student at the school — 12-year-old Yandel Rodriguez — told the Associated Press “me and my classmate were just in class with our teacher — we were doing work — and then all of a sudden, here was a loud noise and then there were two more loud noises. Then there was screaming”.

Friday, June 27, 2008

A Casa-212 aircraft owned by the Indonesian air force disappeared while on a flight from the capital Jakarta to Bogor in West Java Friday morning.

The plane was carrying 12 Indonesian military personnel and 6 civilians including a British, Singaporean and Indian national.

The plane was tasked to test a new digital camera designed to conduct aerial mapping and topography.

The aircraft was last sighted on radar in the Salak moutain region on the main island of Java, 90 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the Indonesian capital.

The Indonesian military has deployed a search and rescue team in the area.

Authorities fear that the aircraft crashed in a densely forested area making any rescue difficult.

Air Force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said the region was covered in thick fog and in a rough terrain.

Three planes and forty people were deployed into the region to look for the downed plane.

Indonesia has been plagued with several plane accidents resulting in a ban on the entry of Indonesian airlines into European airports. This is the second incident in Indonesian aviation involving a Casa-212. In January of 2008, a similar plane model owned by a private company also crashed.

The Casa-212 is a design by Spanish avionics company Construcciones Aeronáuticas, a turbo-prop plane designed for a short take-off and landing.

The Spanish company licensed an Indonesian avionics firm to assemble and manufacture this aircraft.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Brian Jackson is running for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Oxford riding. 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.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Two men were arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged bomb plot targeting the New York City Subway. Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay are being held by FBI agents pending charges, and are expected to appear before a Brooklyn judge Friday. The arrests seem to be in connection with the investigation of Najibullah Zazi, who was also arrested in September on charges of trying to attack the subway system. When Zazi was arrested in September, investigators said they knew the identities of at least three of his associates, but they did not release information about them.

The New York Times reports the two men and Zazi, who are all in their 20s, attended the same high school in the New York City area. Prosecutors have accused Zazi of conspiring to use homemade bombs against unspecified targets in the United States. Law enforcement officials have said the plot may have involved New York City’s mass transit system.

They allege Zazi spent more than a year plotting the attack with co-conspirators and that he received bomb-making instructions in Pakistan in 2008. The U.S. government also says he bought components to build improvised explosive devices and traveled to New York City on September 10, 2009, to move forward with his plans. Zazi’s father was also arrested in September and charged with lying to federal officials.