Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

On Sunday, in Spanish LaLiga’s El Clásico clash, FC Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3–2, with Lionel Messi scoring two goals at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Messi scored his 500th goal in the Catalonian colours, in the ending moments of the game, becoming the top scorer of the El Clásico in the league with sixteen goals surpassing Alfredo Di Stéfano’s fourteen.

Messi was left on the ground, bleeding after Marcelo’s elbow hit his face in a clash. The Argentine was taken off-pitch, and later continued the game with a tissue paper in his mouth to stop bleeding. Just before the thirty minute mark, Los Blancos captain Sergio Ramos hit the woodwork from Marcelo’s freekick, but the deflection was converted into a 1–0 lead by Casemiro. Five minutes later, Messi levelled for Barcelona dribbling against two Madrid defenders from Rakiti?’s assist.

Messi had not scored in the last six Clásicos. In the 39th minute, Welsh forward Gareth Bale, who became the third Briton to reach 100 appearances landmark in La Liga, was substituted following an injury. Marco Asensio replaced the Briton. Bale was out for the last two matches due to injury. David Beckham and Gary Lineker, former forwards of Madrid and Barcelona respectively, previously made over 100 appearances in La Liga. At half time, Madrid had six attempts on target, as compared to Barça’s one.

Madrid striker Karim Benzema missed a chance to score in the 52nd minute when Barcelona’s shot-stopper Marc-André ter Stegen played a goal kick to Benzema. A minute later, ter Stegen stopped Benzema’s six yard header from finding the nets. Ronaldo missed a chance to put Madrid in front in the 67th minute from Asensio’s assist. Minutes later, Casemiro was subbed off for Mateo Kova?i?. Barcelona brought on André Gomes for Paco Alcácer. Casemiro was booked early in the match for bringing down Messi. He later fouled the Argentine in the 45th minute, but got away without receiving a second yellow.

Minutes later Toni Kroos lost mark of Rakiti? as the Croatian faked a shot and scored a 20-yard goal from his left foot, putting the Blaugrana in the lead. In the 77th minute, Ramos was shown a straight red card for bringing down Messi. Barça defender Gerard Piqué missed a chance to make it 3–1 from Gomes’ pass. James Rodríguez was brought on for Benzema, and four minutes later, the Colombian scored from Marcelo’s assist.

With only two minutes added for the injury time, Sergi Roberto’s run from Barcelona’s half was later converted to the match winning goal by Messi from Jordi Alba’s assist scoring his 23rd goal in El Clásico. ter Stegen made twelve saves in the entire match, the most in the league since 2003–2004. Messi was booked for removing his jersey celebrating his 500th goal for Barcelona. He leads the race for the Spanish Golden Boot — Pichichi Trophy — which he last won in 2013.

After the match, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane said, “We can not be happy. We made a lot [of chances] during the whole game. We had many goalscoring chances, but couldn’t bring the game under control. When you don’t kill the game off, this can happen, and it did. We are disappointed with the result, when you get back to 2-2 with 10 men you have to think a little more and defend together.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?No podemos estar contentos. Hicimos mucho, durante todo el partido. Tuvimos muchas ocasiones de gol, para llevar el partido a nuestro lado. Cuando tú no matas el partido puede pasar esto y pasó. Estamos decepcionados con el resultado. Cuando logras el 2-2 con diez hay que tener un poco más de cabeza y estar juntos para defender}

The Court of Arbitration for Sports turned down Barcelona’s appeal to play Neymar for El Clásico, who received a three-match ban after sarcastically applauding an official after a red card against Málaga CF in a previous La Liga match. Luis Enrique said, “I am prepared to play the match with Neymar or without him. You will have to wait for the game to see if I risk putting him.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Estoy preparado para jugar el partido con Neymar o sin él. Tendréis que esperar al partido para ver si me arriesgo a ponerlo.}

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell announced Tuesday morning that a deal had been struck between state and local officials and the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise. The Penguins organization will formally announce the deal tonight, prior to the Penguins game against the Buffalo Sabres at the Mellon Arena. The deal will ensure that the Penguins will remain in the city with a 30 year lease on a new arena to be built in downtown Pittsburgh. The framework of the deal was constructed in an emergency meeting last Thursday in Philadelphia, when both government and franchise officials indicated that progress had been made, with the details laid out over the weekend. With the new deal, the Penguins organization would be expected to pay $3.8 million per year, as well as $7.5 million per year from both Don Barden, owner of Majestic Star Casino, and the state economic development fund. The Penguins organization has also been given the option of building a parking garage on property of the Pittsburgh Sports Authority between Centre and Fifth avenues, by contributing $500,000 per year.

The new arena is expected to cost approximately $290 million, and should be completed and ready to host hockey games by 2009. The Penguins will sign a temporary lease to keep the team at Mellon Arena until the new building is finished.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 crashed 1,750km (1,100 miles) north-west of Rio de Janeiro killing all people onboard, on Friday September 29. National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has confirmed that the crashed Brazilian airplane did crash into a smaller aircraft. Rescue workers and air force personnel are searching the wreckage for bodies

Monday, September 23, 2013

Over the past week, diplomatic actions have averted — or, at least delayed — military strikes on Syria by the United States. Wikinews sought input from a range of international experts on the situation; and, the tensions caused by Russia’s support for the al-Assad regime despite its apparent use of chemical weapons.

File:Ghouta chemical attack map.svg

Tensions in the country increased dramatically, late August when it was reported between 100 and 1,300 people were killed in an alleged chemical attack. Many of those killed appeared to be children, with some of the pictures and video coming out of the country showing — according to witnesses — those who died from apparent suffocation; some foaming at the mouth, others having convulsions.

Amongst Syria’s few remaining allies, Iran, China, and Russia continue to oppose calls for military intervention. In an effort to provide a better-understanding of the reasoning behind their ongoing support, the following people were posed a range of questions.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

There are few organizations in the United States that elicit a stronger emotional response than the American Civil Liberties Union, whose stated goal is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States”. Those people include gays, Nazis, women seeking abortion, gun owners, SPAM mailers and drug users. People who are often not popular with various segments of the public. The ACLU’s philosophy is not that it agrees or disagrees with any of these people and the choices that they make, but that they have personal liberties that must not be trampled upon.

In Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with the President of the ACLU, Nadine Strossen, he wanted to cover some basic ground on the ACLU’s beliefs. Perhaps the area where they are most misunderstood or have their beliefs most misrepresented is their feelings about religion in the public sphere. The ACLU categorically does not want to see religion disappear from schools or in the public forum; but they do not want to see government advocacy of any particular religion. Thus, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s placement of a ten ton monument to the Ten Commandments outside the courthouse is strenuously opposed; but “Lone Ranger of the Manger” Rita Warren’s placement of nativity scenes in public parks is vigorously defended. In the interview, Strossen talks about how certain politicians and televangelists purposefully misstate the law and the ACLU’s work in order to raise funds for their campaigns.

David Shankbone’s discussion with Strossen touches upon many of the ACLU’s hot button issues: religion, Second Amendment rights, drug liberalization, “partial-birth abortion” and whether or not George W. Bush should be impeached. It may surprise the reader that many ideas people have about the most visible of America’s civil libertarian organizations are not factually correct and that the ACLU often works closely with many of the organizations people think despise its existence.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Internet group Anonymous today held further protests critical of the Church of Scientology.

The global protests started in Australia where several hundred protesters gathered at different locations for peaceful protests.

In a global speech, the Internet protest movement said Scientology “betrayed the trust of its members, [had] taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives.” The protesters welcomed the public interest their protests have led to, and claimed they witnessed “an unprecedented flood of Scientologists [joining] us across the world to testify about these abuses.” The group said it would continue with monthly actions.

In a press statement from its European headquarters, Scientology accused the anonymous protesters of “hate speech and hate crimes”, alleging that security measures were necessary because of death threats and bomb threats. This also makes the Church want to “identify members” of the group it brands as “cyber-terrorists”.

Wikinews had correspondents in a number of protest locations to report on the events.

Anonymous states that the next protest is scheduled to take place on April 18, which happens to be the birthday of Suri, the daughter of Tom and Katie Cruise.