Sunday, December 17, 2006

Melbourne Victory has won the 2006-07 A-League football (soccer) premiership after defeating New Zealand Knights 4-0 at Olympic Park, Melbourne.

The win takes Melbourne to 41 points, 13 ahead of Sydney FC in second place, with only four games remaining in the regular season. This makes it mathematically impossible for the Victory to be caught.

The regular season consists of 21 home-and-away rounds, with each team playing each other team three times. Each match sees the winning team awarded three competition points, or in the case of a draw, the teams receive one point each. The club at the top of the ladder – with the most points – is crowned A-League premiers, whilst the winner of the Grand Final is crownded champions.

Melbourne Victory have also led the competition in crowd numbers during the 2006-07 season, with an average attendance of 26,512 at the end of Round 17 – 10,698 more than the next-highest, Queensland Roar. The Victory’s attendance of 50,333 at Telstra Dome when they played Sydney FC on December 10, 2006 set a new national record for a domestic football (soccer) match in Australia.

Victory’s premiership also gives them a spot in the AFC Champions League, the premier club tournament for Asian Football Confederation countries. Football Federation Australia become a member of the AFC in January 2006, after moving from the Oceania Football Confederation on January 1, 2006.

Melbourne have been the runaway leaders of the 2006-07 competition, a huge improvement on the seventh-placed finish that they achieved during the 2005-06 season. Their striking combination of Danny Allsopp, “Socceroo” Archive Thompson and Brazilian Fred has yielded more goals than any other this campaign.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

U.S. Prohibition Party presidential candidate Jim Hedges of Thompson Township, Pennsylvania took some time to answer a few questions about the Prohibition Party and his 2012 presidential campaign.

The Prohibition Party is the third oldest existing political party in the United States, having been established in 1869. It reached its height of popularity during the late 19th century. The party heavily supported the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which banned the sale of alcohol, and resulted in the US period known as Prohibition (1919–33). It was repealed in 1933. The party has declined since this period, but has continued to nominate candidates for the presidential election.

In 2003, the party split into two factions. Preacher Gene Amondson and perennial candidate Earl Dodge were nominated for the presidency by their respective factions. After Dodge’s death in 2007, the party reunified and named Amondson as its sole presidential nominee for 2008. During the election, Amondson was interviewed by Wikinews. He died in 2009, leaving an opening in the party for 2012.

Jim Hedges is a longtime Prohibition activist, who holds the distinction of the first individual of the 21st century (and the first since 1959) to be elected to a political office under the Prohibition Party banner. In 2001, he was elected as the Thompson Township tax assessor, and was re-elected to the post in 2005. He served until his term expired in 2010. Hedges declared his intent to run for the Prohibition Party presidential nomination on February 18, 2010. This marks his first run for the presidency.

Friday, November 3, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is St. Paul’s West (Ward 21). One candidate responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include John Adams, Tony Corpuz, Joe Mihevc (incumbent), and John Sewell.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Monday, March 19, 2007

A 34 year old obstetrician from Forestville on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has escaped after he was robbed, car-jacked and locked in the boot (trunk) of his BMW, which was set alight. Police say the doctor was locked in the boot while his car was set alight, but was allowed to escape before flames engulfed the vehicle.

The Doctor was believed to have been heading to The Mater Hospital in North Sydney when he was waiting at the intersection of West and Falcon Streets in Chatswood around 3:15AM AEDT when a small red sedan with two men claiming to be police officers signalled him to stop. After crossing the intersection, the doctor stopped his car at the side of the road.

The doctor was then approached by the two men and when he asked to see identification, one man grabbed the keys from his car’s ignition before they both pulled the doctor out of his vehicle, hit him in the stomach with a hammer and stole his mobile phone and wallet. The robbers also demanded his key and credit cards along with their access codes before locking him in the boot.

Police allege that the men drove to several locations to withdraw cash and buy things before driving to Carisbook Street in Linley Point at around 4 a.m. local time where they set the car alight with the doctor still in the boot.

Crime Manager of the Harbourside Local Area Command, Detective Inspector Houlahan said that the doctor then “heard a click in the boot area and he heard someone call out: ‘Get out of the car'”

“When he pushed the boot up he found his car engulfed in flames.”

Det. Insp. Houlahan said the doctor told police he did not unlock the boot himself, and it appeared the man’s captors unlocked it before fleeing.

Det Insp Houlahan said that the doctor appeared to be “very distraught” and tired after the ordeal, and wanted to get home and see his wife and two young daughters.

He could only provide police with a vague description of his captors, but said the men were both Caucasian males aged in their 20s, and that one of them was about six feet tall (183cm) with short blond hair and medium build said Det. Insp. Houlahan.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Alan Mercer is running for the Ontario Libertarian Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough—Rouge River 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, April 17, 2021

On Thursday, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled a five-year rent freeze introduced earlier in February last year illegal due to lack of the Berlin Senate’s jurisdiction. This decision allowed rent to be increased as the Court ruling invalidated the previously introduced law which had capped the rent for about 90% of renters in the country. Protesters gathered in the capital city of Berlin with demonstrations against the ruling and against the possible increases in rent. Some demanded dispossessions of large real estate companies.

Protesters gathered in Berlin’s Neukölln and Kreuzberg districts, and reportedly thousands of people participated. The crowd reportedly walked from Hermannplatz towards Kottbusser Tor and then to Oranienplatz. Police closed several streets for the day. Organizers said 25 thousand people reportedly joined the protest, The Berlin Spectator reported.

Protesters marched with posters such as “You can have our hatred, You do not get our rent. (Housing is not a commodity.)” ^{((de))German language: ?unseren hass den konnt ihr haben, unsere miete bekomm ihr nicht (wohnenist keine ware)} and “The rich should pay! (Social struggles connects [us].)” ^{((de))German language: ?die reichen sollen zahlen (soziale kämpfe verbinden)}. Some protesters brought lids of boiling of frying pans and made noise. The German word for lid is same as the one for rent cap. They reportedly chanted slogan “If you take a cover from us, we’ll come back with thousands.”.

The Social Democratic Greens and Left parties’ coalition previously introduced the rent cap through the country’s Senate in February last year, citing raising rent prices in the country. Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union alliance and the Free Democratic party had filed the appeal leading to the present ruling.

The overturned ruling by Berlin State Government had previously fixed the rent from February 2020 to February 2025 on its June 2019 level. A senator who was in charge of urban development, Sebastian Scheel, commented about his disappointment, and said either the federal government or any of the states now had an opportunity to create laws to control the rent.