Monday, October 9, 2006

France is to ban smoking in all public places in February 2007, the French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin has announced. However cafés, nightclubs and restaurants will not be required to comply until January 2008.

An offence would result in a fine of 75 euros for the person(s) responsible and 150 euros for the premises where the offence occurred.

When announcing the new law in a television interview, he stated his reason as being the “public health”:

“We started on the basis of a simple observation – two figures: 60,000 deaths a year in our country linked directly to tobacco consumption and 5,000 deaths linked to passive smoking. It is an unacceptable reality in our country in terms of public health”

Public places will include stations, museums, government offices and shops, but not streets or private places such as houses or hotel rooms. He also stated that the country would pay for one-third of the costs of anti-smoking treatments:

“That would represent the first month of treatment,” he said.“There are also other solutions, for example the creation of closed, ventilated spaces, where (food and drink) service is not authorised in order to protect employees,” he added.File:Dominique villepin.jpg

A BBC survey made in France, a country notorious for its use of tobacco suggests that 70% of the people support the ban.

The European Union’s most enthusiastic smokers are found in Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal, according to findings published in May this year. When the law activates, France will join Ireland and Italy, which have passed similar measures. Italy, for example, has very strict measures, such as a minimum fine of 150 euros for smoking in public places with additional charges leveled if the offender was near a pregnant woman or a child under 13. Repeat offenders could be fined more than 275 euros, and imprisoned if they continued. In Switzerland, the canton of Ticino is the only canton in the nation to have banned smoking in restaurants. In the The Netherlands, smoking is banned in NS railway stations.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Today, the English version of Wikipedia is taking part in a 24-hour ‘blackout’ to protest two proposed U.S. anti-piracy laws, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act. The protest mirrors similar actions from other websites including Reddit and Boing Boing. The White House stated on Saturday that they “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet”.

In the midst of the Wikipedia blackout, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation Sue Gardner answered some questions posed by Wikinews’ Tom Morris about the effectiveness of, and background to, the blackout.

((Tom Morris)) Do you think the blackout is going to actually be effective?

((Sue Gardner)) Yes. In my opinion, the blackout has two main goals—to raise awareness about the dangers of SOPA and PIPA, and to encourage readers to contact their elected representatives and give their views. The first has already been accomplished: there are already more than 4,000 stories in Google News about the blackout, and it was a trending topic on Twitter almost immediately. So we know we’ve been effective in raising awareness. What remains to be seen how many people will contact their elected officials.

((TM)) What do you say to people who have decided to leave the editing community as a result of the blackout?

((Gardner)) I hope nobody stops editing Wikipedia because of the blackout. I watched the community decision-making process unfold on the English Wikipedia, and I thought it was a good one. People first started talking about SOPA more than a month ago. Jimmy started the straw poll in mid-December. Over 1,800 English Wikipedians from many different countries participated in the discussion over the last three days. As the admins who closed it noted, this is by far the largest-ever number of participants in a community discussion on English Wikipedia, and the overwhelming majority of them supported action. So I would hope that anybody who opposes the blackout would also agree that the decision-making process was a good one, and would therefore be okay to accept it, however reluctantly.

((TM)) How much technical planning went into the blackout before the community consensus was decided on Monday night?

((Gardner)) Last Thursday Geoff Brigham [Ed: Wikimedia’s legal counsel] asked engineering to do an internal assessment of the technical implementation requirements, because the community discussions at that point were suggesting there would likely be some kind of action. Engineering did an initial assessment based on e.g. the Italian blackout, implications for search engines, etc., and then a lot of work happened over the weekend. The bulk of initial development and testing happened on a sprint on Martin Luther King Day, a public holiday in the United States, and the final launch development and testing sprint happened on Tuesday.

((TM)) Does the fact that this is affecting only English Wikipedia and not the sister projects and other language projects concern the Foundation?

((Gardner)) No. My understanding is that the English Wikipedia is the only project and language-version enacting a blackout, but that several other projects and language versions are putting up supportive banners, with the Italian Wkipedians doing a clickthrough informational interstitial. The German Wikipedia decided to put up banners even before consensus was reached on the English Wikipedia, and the Arabic Wikipedia, Italian Wikipedia and Commons later made the same decision. (There may be others, that I don’t know about.) I think that’s fine: each project and each language has different circumstances that argue for different types of action, or for no action. There is no one right answer that fits everybody.

((TM)) Some have said that the lack of participation by opponents of SOPA in the commercial sector (sites of the size of Twitter, Facebook, Google etc.) is going to hamper the effectiveness of the blackout – is this a concern?

((Gardner)) No. I don’t think anybody ever expected the big commercial sites to black out: most aren’t in a position to participate in something like this even if they wanted to. For example, they might have shareholders to answer to, participation might cost them significant revenue, or it could break contractual agreements (such as a commitment to maintain a certain level of uptime, or some other service delivery). Most sites are constrained by various commercial considerations: that makes Wikipedia’s participation particularly powerful and important.

((TM)) Given both the Italian shutdown and the SOPA blackout, is the Foundation going to come up with a policy or set of conditions which limit when these kind of things happen? There are plenty in the community who support the SOPA actions but are concerned that this will set a bad precedent.

((Gardner)) Yeah, I empathize with those people and to a certain extent I share that concern. The Wikimedia movement does not have a lot of experience with advocacy, and probably mistakes will get made. At this time the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t have any plans to develop policy governing protests or advocacy work. But, I think it probably does make sense for the Foundation to create venues for these discussions so people can share thinking and expertise. So for example, we may create a mailing list dedicated to advocacy/lobbying. And there is some good thinking starting to happen [on the project-wide protests page on Meta].

Saturday, March 1, 2008

While nearly all coverage of the 2008 Presidential election has focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates, the race for the White House also includes independents and third party candidates. These parties represent a variety of views that may not be acknowledged by the major party platforms.

Wikinews has impartially reached out to these candidates, throughout the campaign. We now interview independent Presidential candidate Frank Moore, a performance artist.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This past Sunday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill known as “Rocky’s Law” that requires Illinois high schools, through the local school district, to buy catastrophic injury insurance up to US$3 million or medical costs for up to five years, whichever one comes first, that covers student athletes. The insurance must cover student athletes while they are competing.

The legislation was named after Rasul “Rocky” Clark. In 2000, the Eisenhower High School football player became paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a tackle during a game. His school based health insurance covered the costs of his medical treatment. A legislator sponsoring the bill noted that the need for this type of insurance is rare. Clark’s mother attended the legislation signing. Her son died last year.

Before parents can claim money from school insurance, they first must pay out US$50,000. Schools have until January 1, 2014 to comply with the law. Schools cannot charge students more than US$5 to defray the cost of insurance. If a school district already requires student to be covered through private health insurance, they are exempted from this law.

Monday, October 29, 2007

A hunter from Pennsylvania says that he managed to snap photographs supposedly of the legendary Bigfoot, but this one is said to be a juvenile.

Rick Jacobs says that he snapped the pictures in September of 2007 when he set up an automatic camera in a tree in the Allegheny National Forest in northwest Pennsylvania for hunting deer. Bait was used to attract animals which consisted of a “aromatic deer attractant” and various mineral in the form of a block that the deer would lick. Jacobs says that he will not reveal the exact location of where the image was taken because he believes hunters and tourists will flood the area in an attempt to get a glimpse of it.

The Bigfoot Field Research Organization says that the photo is of a Bigfoot, but they state that this one appears to be very young. On their website they list the discovery as an “Unclassified primate?”

In all, three images were captured. The first image is of bear cubs, and in the second and third images are what appears to be a “juvenile sasquatch.” Some say that it is likely a bear. There are several minutes, at least 30-35, from the time the bears left to when the unidentified animal arrived. The animal appears to have two arms and two legs, but appears to walk hunched over, with its knuckles dragging on the ground.

“We are seeking comparative images of a skinny, mangy bear, bent over and smelling the ground, as you see in this image. The people we have spoken with so far who have spent a great deal of time with both primates and bears (mainly zoologists) say this figure looks much more like a primate smelling the ground than like a skinny bear smelling the ground,” said a statement posted on the organization’s website.

The organization states that the images are being examined by experts in Canada and the United States and that more information will be available in a few days.

Despite the organization’s claim, the Pennsylvania Game Commission says that they have seen this before and it appears to be a bear with a possible skin disease.

April 24, 2005

Advisers to British Prime Minister Tony Blair are suggesting that constructing new nuclear power stations would be the best way to meet the country’s targets on reducing emissions of gases responsible for global warming.

The government has a near-term target of cutting emissions below 1997 levels by 20%, and a more ambitious target of a 60% cut by 2050.Critics of nuclear power say that it will not be able to help meet the 2010 target due to the length of time needed to plan, construct and commission such power plants. However backers say nuclear power will help meet the 60% cut by 2050 target.

Sir David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to the government, is a supporter of nuclear power believing that it is the best way to tackle global warming.

The chairman of British Nuclear Fuels, a company that operates several British nuclear reactors, said that he expects Tony Blair to make an announcement of new power stations within weeks of the May 5 general election if he is re-elected.

Another primary supporter of nuclear power is the ex-BBC Director General Lord Birt, who has been advising 10 Downing Street on various issues by providing ‘blue-sky’ thinking without payment, as part of the Strategy Unit. He is said to be preparing a report that will say nuclear energy provides an opportunity to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil supplies (although very little oil is burnt for electricity production in the UK).

While it is believed that senior Cabinet members would not oppose a plan for new nuclear power stations if Tony Blair proposed it, the Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt both oppose nuclear power.

New reactors would probably be sited next to existing reactors to limit public opposition.

Nuclear power currently provides 22% of the UK’s electricity needs. The UK has 31 operating reactors at 14 power plants, but by 2015 all but three stations will have been shut down. The last nuclear reactor to open was Sizewell B on the North Sea coast in 1995. The 1,188MW station was a large reason why the UK met its carbon dioxide emissions reduction target in the 1990s. British nuclear power stations have created 2,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste. There are currently no plans for the long-term storage of the waste.

By comparison, just over 3% of Britain’s electricity comes from renewable energy. France met 78% of its electricity needs in 2002 using nuclear power.

Friday, February 2, 2018

On Wednesday, English football club Arsenal FC announced signing Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from German club Borussia Dortmund (BVB) on “a long-term contract” which runs until 2021. The deal is worth about £56 million, making Aubameyang the costliest player in the history of the club.

The 28-year-old striker joined Borussia in 2013 from French club Saint-Etienne, and since then, scored 141 goals in 213 matches for BVB. In German Bundesliga, he scored 98 goals, scoring one goal in 116 minutes on average. During his tenure at the Signal Iduna Park, the Gabonese captain won the 2017 DFB-Pokal (German Cup).

Aubameyang scored 31 goals in Bundesliga last season. Aubameyang was named 2016 Bundesliga player of the year. A year earlier, in 2015, he won African Footballer of the Year award. He has 56 international caps with Gabon and has netted 23 goals.

Via their official website, Arsenal announced Aubameyang is to wear jersey number 14, previously worn by Theo Walcott until last month when he moved to Everton FC. The Gabonese, who has already scored 21 goals in 24 games this season, reunites with Armenian midfielder Henrick Mkhitaryan. They were teammates at Dortmund until 2016, when Mkhitaryan moved to Manchester United. Mkhitaryan’s transfer to the London club came in exchange of Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez moving from Arsenal to their rivals Manchester in a swap deal.

Dortmund had signed Belgian footballer Michy Batshuayi from Chelsea on loan before Aubameyang’s deal was agreed upon. With Aubameyang’s arrival, French forward Olivier Giroud moved to Arsenal’s cross-town rivals Chelsea. In summer, Arsenal had signed Alexandre Lacazette for a then-club record fee of around £46.5 million.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

In a Rolling Stone magazine interview on Wednesday, United States President Barack Obama responded to recent backlash over his alleged policy shift on medical marijuana.

In January 2004, then-Illinois Senator Obama said, “The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws.” Since he took office as president, over 170 raids have been conducted on medical marijuana facilities across the U.S.

In the U.S. certain states have voted to allow for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, although it is still illegal to possess and consume under federal law. This has led to the recent raids and seizures on dispensaries by authorities with the federal government.

“What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana,” President Obama said. “I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it’s against federal law. I can’t nullify congressional law.”

On April 2, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided Oaksterdam University in Oakland, California. Oaksterdam provides courses in which students can learn about the horticulture and business aspects of the medical marijuana industry, but does not distribute marijuana. Authorities confiscated marijuana plants, records, computers and seized bank accounts held by that department of the university.

“In many respects [the raids in California] are not a surprise considering that these dispensaries and cultivation centers are in violation of federal law, and always have been.” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Along with the advocates at NORML, multiple lawmakers have written letters to President Obama criticizing his alleged shift on policy. The lawmakers have also called for the federal government to allow states to regulate themselves.

While medical marijuana is legal in California, as well as sixteen other states including Washington D.C., the Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as an illegal substance. California state law requires dispensaries to run as non-profit, and those who do make a profit are subject to getting raided by federal and local authorities. “If you grow a small amount at home or buy some off the street then he doesn’t care, that’s what they’ve said,” St. Pierre said.