Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Coinciding with Easter Sunday, Glasgow Cannabis Social Club’s annual 420 event was held on Glasgow Green, under sunny blue skies, and overlooking the river Clyde. Despite the city’s council attempting to revoke permission for the gathering at the last minute, police were happy for it to go-ahead with approximately a dozen officers attending in high-visibility vests.

The Daily Record reported five arrests were made for minor offences, likely smoking and possession of small quantities of cannabis. Taking a less-sensational — and more accurate — line of reporting, the Monday edition of Glasgow’s Evening News stated five were referred to the Procurator Fiscal who is responsible for deciding if charges should be brought.

Official figures provided by the police were that 150 attended. With people coming and going, Wikinews reporters estimated upwards of 200 attended, compared to nearly 700 who had signed up for the event on Facebook. Hemp goods were advertised and on sale at the event, and some attendees were seen drinking cannabis-themed energy drinks.

“I was searched and charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act (which is a lot of bollocks)” one attendee noted online, adding “not fair to happen on a brilliant day like it was, other than that I had a great day!” A second said they were openly smoking and ignored by police, who “were only really focusing on people who looked particularly young”.

Cannabis seeds were openly and legally sold at the event and a hydroponics supplier brought a motortrike towing an advertising trailer. Actually growing cannabis is, however, illegal in the UK.

With the event openly advocating the legalisation of cannabis, speakers put their arguments for this to a receptive crowd. Retired police officer James Duffy, of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, spoke of the failed United States alcohol prohibition policy; stressing such policies needlessly bring people into contact with criminal elements. Highlighting other countries where legalisation has been implemented, he pointed out such led to lower crime, and lower drug use overall.

One speaker, who produced a bottle of cannabis oil he had received through the post, asserted this cured his prostate cancer. Others highlighted the current use of Sativex by the National Health Service, with a cost in-excess of £150 for a single bottle of GW Pharmaceuticals patented spray — as-compared to the oil shown to the crowd, with a manufacturing cost of approximately £10.

Similar ‘420’ pro-cannabis events were held globally.

Monday, September 20, 2010

An event attended by thousands of people, called “Handkerchiefs in the air” (Spanish: Pañuelos al Aire), took place on Monday morning at Pichilemu, in Daniel Ortúzar Avenue. The event was organized by Loreto Puebla, former Governor of {{w|Cardenal Caro Province||, coordinated with Mayor of Pichilemu Roberto Córdova Carreño.

Fernando Urzúa, who also works as newsreader on a local radio, conducted the event. The event was broadcasted by Radio Somos Pichilemu (We Are Pichilemu), owned by former Mayor Jorge Vargas González, who also attended the event.

The event started by giving handkerchiefs with the logo pictured at the left to all the attendants, at around 11:40 local time (15:40 UTC). Then, they proceeded to take the official photograph, which will be officially published on the website of the Municipality of Pichilemu on Tuesday.

Urzúa, and two Pichileminian folk music groups played several cuecas, Chile’s national dance, and people were invited to dance. The event ended with the Mayor Córdova giving diplomas and Chilean wine bottles to large families who were dancing, a group of elderly from Recoleta and two policemen of Pichilemu. The parish priest of Pichilemu said that “the celebrations were quite stupendous” and that “Pichilemu is an example of unity of the people.”

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Two men were taken into custody for violating the no-fly zone surrounding the U.S. national capital in Washington D.C.

The Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury and the White House were evacuated around noon Wednesday. People in the vicinity were told to head to a rail station approximately a half mile south of the White House. Reporters in the White House itself were told to move into the basement.

President Bush was not in the White House at the time. CNN and Bloomberg have reported that the President was on a bicycle ride; CTV has reported that he was at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

Wire sources report the cause of the evacuation as being a small plane that wandered into the no-fly zone. The craft was reportedly a Cessna 150, which flew into restricted space, left the area, and then returned. It was then escorted out of the zone by two F-16s that fired warning flares at it.

MSNBC reported that a ‘lure motorcade’ drove away from the White House.

Authorities gave the “all-clear” signal a few minutes after the evacuation. Other government agencies outside of the immediate area were largely unaffected.

At the time of the police-ordered evacuation, Senator Richard Shelby, R-AL, was on the Senate floor. “They said get out of here, so I ran. There’s no joking about this kind of stuff,” Shelby said.

The two men who were flying the aircraft were on their way to an air show when they slipped into Washington D.C.’s Restricted Airspace (image at right). Their plane was escorted to a Maryland airport where they were taken into custody and interviewed by authorities. Once it became clear the incident had been a mistake, the two men were released.

In Washington, D.C., a 25 km radius from the Washington Monument is restricted air space.

Saturday, November 4, 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 Scarborough East (Ward 44). One candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Donald Blair, Diana Hall, Mohammed Mirza, Ron Moeser, Kevin Richardson, Richard Rieger, Richard Ross, and Kevin Wellington.

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

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Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Google has launched an online spreadsheet site, in a private beta.

The site will allow spreadsheets to be shared between up to 10 users, which is aimed to be useful to teams and small businesses. “Many people already organise information into spreadsheets. Where they are struggling is to share it” said the product manager, Jonathan Rochelle.

Google recently bought the online word-processor Writely, launched a calendar product, as well as a desktop search tool. Many see this as them straying into Microsoft‘s markets.

Google Spreadsheets uses very advanced AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And Xml) and Client Side Scripting to mimic very effectively it’s desktop counterparts’ functions.

It is surprisingly fast, has very good formatting and advanced formula support, but best of all it has complete support for Microsoft Excel .xls files, and very good collaboration: just enter the e-mail address and you can share easily.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

On Sunday, Wikinews interviewed creator of memorial site LisaMcPherson.org, former Lisa McPherson Trust employee and long time Scientology critic Jeff Jacobsen.

LisaMcPherson.org is a memorial site created in 1997 containing information on her death and the resulting legal case against the Church of Scientology.

Lisa McPherson died in 1995 while in the care of the Church of Scientology. After a car accident, she became mentally unstable. Scientologists removed her from the hospital and placed her in the Introspection Rundown, she died 17 days later while still in care of the Church. She was used as an icon during Project Chanology, the protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. Protesters were pictured with signs that said “Remember Lisa McPherson” and “Ask Scientology Why Lisa McPherson Died”, other protesters had posters with her picture on it.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

First leg of the second qualifications round of UEFA Champions League is now over. Second leg games will be played on August 2 and August 3.

The biggest surprise of the leg is probably Artmedia Bratislava’s (also known as Artmedia Petrzalka) easy victory over Glasgow Celtic of 5 – 0. According to IFFHS’ ratings, Celtic is 43rd on the list, while Slovakians are on position 200. [1]

RSC Anderlacht secured an almost certain victory in the second round, as they won 5 – 0 at home against PFC Neftchi.

Another clear favorite is Liverpool, which beat Kaunas in an away game yesterday with a final result of 1 – 3. Kaunas will have to score at least three goals at Anfield next week to stay in game.

Anorthosis made the same result against Trabzonspor, but at home, which can still give Turks realistic hope to make it up next week.

Dudelange lost at home to Rapid Vienna with 1 – 6. Strikers were on a goaling spree in the first ten minutes of the game, leaving Rapid with a steady advantage of 1 – 3. Akagündüz scored his second goal of the game in 16′ for Rapid. Two more goals in the second half secured an easy home game for the Austrians.

Partizan Belgrade managed to beat Moldavian Sheriff at home, with 1 – 0, but the organized fans among 15,000 present at the stadium did not cheer for their team. Fans were protesting against the club management, as they banned any banners from the stadium. Most fans only chanted “Management out!” every few minutes.

Partizan’s stadium has a capacity of 32,710 seats, but last season games avaraged only about 2000 spectators in domestic matches. There is a long standing conflict between Partizan’s fans and the managament, as fans accuse the club leadership of manipulation of club’s funds and favoring certain fan groups.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

US stock markets dropped to twelve-year lows on Thursday, amidst falling confidence in the financial sector and worries over whether the US automobile manufacturer General Motors will be able to keep operating.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 4.08%, or 280.52 points, at the closing bell, reaching a level of 6595.32, a new 12-year low. The Nasdaq Composite lost 54.15 points, or 4%, to 1299.59, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 plunged by 30.27 points, or 4.25%, closing at 682.60.

Every stock in the Dow Jones, other than Wal-Mart, either lost ground or remained even, and all stocks in the S&P 500 index lost ground.

General Motors’ shares lost 15.5% after the auto firm announced that its auditors had “substantial doubt” over whether it would be able to keep operating.

Shares of financial companies were lower by nine percent, with Bank of America losing 11.7% and Citigroup falling by 9.7%.

“What’s most worrisome is that we haven’t hit the crescendo yet,” said Bill Groeneveld, the head trader for vFinance Investments. “Asset-management divisions are getting calls to just liquidate everything, and we haven’t seen the big players come back in at all.”

“This is one of the worst bear markets in the last 100 years; it started out with the credit crisis and the subprime [loans], but it is like a forest fire that has raced across the clearing and ignited other parts: Autos, auto parts, the insurance companies have been hit very hard. The credit crisis is causing an unraveling of industry after industry because the banks don’t lend,” said David Dreman, the chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management.

European markets were also lower today, with the London’s FTSE index losing 3.2% and the DAX index of Germany falling by five percent.