Sunday, September 30, 2007

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton starting from pole wins the FIA Formula-1 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway, Oyama, Japan. It was the first race on this circuit since 1977, when James Hunt won the race for McLaren–Ford.

A rainy and foggy weekend at Fuji appeared to be very hard for all drivers as the race ran longer then expected and the drivers have to concentrate more due to severe weather conditions. The race started behind the safety car which stayed on a track for an unusually long time, about 40 minutes.

Both Ferrari drivers, who managed to get the second row on the starting grid in the Saturday qualifying session were out of the game on the first laps due to their tyre selection mistake – drivers were forced to change to extreme wet tyres after a few driving errors. When the pace car finally turned off the lights giving the drivers a clear road Hamilton quickly got away from his teammate, Fernando Alonso, who had more fuel on board and thus had a heavier car. Alonso would be eliminated after 41 laps in a driving accident.

Heikki Kovalainen driving for Renault finally leads to a first podium finish for the team in this season, the Finn managed to get second place. On the final laps of the race he masterly defended his position from Kimi Räikkönen, who returned to the battle for podium after the Ferrari start failure.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber both nearly finished on the podium, but a collision between their Toro Rosso and Red Bull sponsored vehicles took them out of the race.

Renault-engined cars did well in the race with David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella finishing in 4th and 5th places.

Robert Kubica got a drive through the pit-lane penalty after some dangerous driving and a collision with Hamilton, causing the Polish driver to be rolled back to 7th place. Felipe Massa took 6th place for Ferrari in his hard battle with Kubica in the sprint to the finish line.

Vitantonio Liuzzi rounded out the top eight for Toro Rosso.

Adrian Sutil did his best for Spyker, finishing ahead of both Hondas. It was confirmed that Spyker will change owners next season becoming the first Indian national Formula One team in history.

In the Drivers’ Championship Hamilton, with 107 points, has increased his lead over teammate Alonso to 12 points. Kimi narrowed the gap to the McLaren drivers, now only five points behind Alonso.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Several organizations have increased their Farsi services in the wake of the events surrounding the recent presidential election. Google has added Farsi-to-English translation as one of its translation options to its Google Translate service. Similarly, Facebook has launched a Farsi version of its web site. The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for its Farsi news channel, BBC Persian Television.

Google’s translation services currently only provide translation from Farsi to English. Franz-Josef Och stated that this was to enable people in Iran to communicate directly via the Internet with the outside world, saying “Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.”. The company states that it is working to provide translation between Farsi and the other 40 languages that it provides on its Translate service.

Facebook’s Farsi version of its web site, which is still marked as a beta-test version, was launched rapidly, with, the company states, the assistance of more than 400 Farsi speakers who submitted translations of the contents of the site.

Both companies state that their reasons for expanding their services are to promote communication, and are not politically motivated.

The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for broadcasting its Farsi news channel. This is, it states, in response to signal jamming of its broadcasts by the Iranian government. (The Iranian government accuses BBC Persian Television, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, of being a propaganda service for the British Government.) It states that its broadcasts on the Hot Bird 6 satellite had been aggressively jammed, and that therefore it was now also broadcasting from the Eutelsat W2M satellite, and planned to start broadcasting from Nilesat as well in the near future.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The following is the third 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: two individuals previously interviewed by Wikinews announce their candidacies for the Reform Party presidential nomination; a former Republican Congressman comments on the Republican National Convention; and Wikinews interviews an historic Democratic National Convention speaker.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

On Friday, Eva Mozes Kor, a 81-year-old Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, publicly forgave and embraced 93-year-old former SS guard Oskar Gröning, who is currently on trial in Germany as an accessory to 300,000 murders of Jews at Auschwitz.

Kor, who was among many Jews medically experimented on at Auschwitz, has thanked Mr Gröning for answering to the crimes he aided during his time as an Auschwitz guard.

Kor is amongst a number of Auschwitz survivors attending the trial who have joined the prosecutors as co-plaintiffs in the case against Mr Gröning. While Kor has forgiven Mr Gröning, she still holds him liable for his involvement during the Holocaust, as she did last week when she testified against him. Other survivors have recently spoken out about the trial; survivor Eva Pusztai-Fahidi said on Tuesday the trial itself against a former SS guard matters more than the end punishment.

During the first day of Mr Gröning’s trial, he denied any direct role in the killings, though he did admit to having witnessed them. Mr Gröning said he shared “moral guilt” for the crimes, regardless of whether his actions make him criminally guilty.

The prosecutors have argued that serving as a concentration camp guard is legally accessory to the act of murder. Mr Gröning is reportedly one of three remaining former SS guards that have been identified for trial. If found guilty, the former SS Guard could reportedly face up to fifteen years in prison.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

On the eve of the third anniversary of the June 17 raid on the central office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and homes of dozens of Iranian political refugees and dissidents, Paris Court of Appeals in separate rulings revoked all restrictions on Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance’s President-elect, and all those arrested on June 17, 2003. The rulings came while the investigative magistrates were insisting on continuing the restrictions.

For the past three years, Mrs. Rajavi and 16 members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance had been under judicial restrictions including the denial of the right to travel, entry to the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Auvers-sur-Oise, and the right to have contact with each other.

Mrs. Rajavi welcomed the verdict and said, “The case was conceived at the request of the fascist theocracy ruling Iran and was solely based on lies churned out by this regime. With the latest ruling, the time has come for this dossier to be brought to an end and all proceedings halted.”, “The shameful June 17, 2003 raid was a futile attempt to destroy Iran’s democratic opposition and aid the Iranian regime. If resistance against religious despotism for freedom is considered a crime, then I and all members and supporters of the Resistance proudly accept this crime. We are determined to establish democracy in Iran. Nothing can save the clerical regime from its inevitable fall and nothing can stop the Iranian nation from attaining freedom and democracy,” she added.

Following the court ruling, dozens of Iranian and French sympathizers of the Resistance went to Mrs. Rajavi’s residence in Auvers-sur-Oise, to congratulate her. Mayors of Auvers-sur-Oise and Cergy, in the northern Paris province of Val d’Oise also joined the celebrations.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

As of 10:00 p.m EST November 8, 2006, the Democratic Party is projected to have gained control of both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in the 2006 United States general elections. MSNBC projects that the Democrats now control 234 seats in the House of Representatives, 16 more seats than the 218 needed to control the House of Representatives as all 435 seats were up for election. In the Senate, where the balance of power is closer, one-third of all seats were up for grab. As of 10:00 p.m. EST, AP and Reuters were projecting that the Democrats had picked up all six seats they needed to retake the Senate, including the seats of incumbents Rick Santorum (Penn.), Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), Jim Talent (Missouri), Mike DeWine (Ohio), John Tester (Montana), and Jim Webb (VA). The Tester victory by less than 3,000 votes was projected at approximately 2 p.m. EST after the State of Montana announced the results of overnight recounts. Democrat Jim Webb has prevailed in that race by slightly more than 7,000 votes, though his opponent has not conceded and a recount may still occur.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Pakistani security officials have said that at least eight Taliban fighters were killed following a suspected US missile drone strike in the country on Wednesday.

The drones struck the North Waziristan region of Pakistan, the fourth missile attack in the area since the beginning of the week, after the US decided to step up its offensive against insurgents in the region.

“One missile hit the compound while the other hit a vehicle parked outside. We have confirmed reports of six dead,” said an unnamed security official.

Intelligence officials reported that two missiles, fired from a US airplane, struck a compound and a vehicle, in a village about twenty kilometres east of North Waziristan’s main city of Miranshah.

Three Pakistanis, three Arabs, an Uzbek and a Chechen were among the people killed by the blasts, the national intelligence agency said.

The US military has not confirmed the attacks, but it and the CIA are the only organisations in the region to use the drones.