Friday, August 11, 2006

Milton Fabian Sanchez was killed on Wednesday evening in his house in Yumbo municipality in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, when gunmen entered the home and shot him dead.

Sanchez, 30, worked for a local radio and television station. Police could not immediately provide a motive for his killing.

Jose Leon, chief of the local police said that the investigation is following three leads: “incidents relating to his journalism, the second those relating to his family, and finally what he was doing at the time of the murder,”.

Some press organizations have ranked Colombia among the most dangerous for journalists to work in.

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Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Glen Stollery is a New Zealand website developer who created the site ScienTOMogy.info in mid 2005. The site, which is a parody of Tom Cruise and his involvement with the Church of Scientology, became the centre of controversy when it was served with a number of cease and desist orders initiated by the Church. On March 19, 2006, Glen issued a media release stating that his web hosting provider, YouTube, had removed videos of Tom Cruise which formed part of the site. The release suggested that YouTube had taken this action under external pressure from Cruise or Viacom.

Responding to a query by Wikinews reporters, YouTube stated “We have not received a DMCA notification letter from Viacom.” The Church of Scientology was offered the opportunity to respond to the claims made by Stollery during the interview. No reply was received.

This exclusive interview deals with these issues and others relating to the website. It was conducted with Glen via email between March 21 and April 3, 2006.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Pakistani officials have said that at least 100 people were killed and over 200 injured after a car bomb exploded in a marketplace in the city of Peshawar on Wednesday. The attack was the deadliest in the country in this year.

Initially, large fires were reported to be burning around the marketplace, which was crowded with people. The flames spread easily because there were many stores in the area selling flammable fabrics. Police said the blast was heard throughout most of the city, and the explosion reportedly left a hole in the ground up to ten feet wide.

The Associated Press reported that many of the victims are women.

“There was a huge blast. There was smoke and dust everywhere. I saw people dying and screaming on the road,” said an eyewitness, Mohammad Siddique, to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Several buildings collapsed as a result of the detonation, and rescue workers searched through the rubble looking for survivors beneath the debris.

Muzamil Hussain, a member of local medical staff, described his experiences to the Associated Press: “There were a lot of wounded people. We tried to help them but there were no ambulances so we took the victims on rickshaws and other vehicles. There were no police. The police and government didn’t help us, the police even opened fire on us.”

“Bodies are scattered and badly burned because of the fire caused by the explosion. The explosion took place in a very crowded market,” Mohammed Naeem, a spokesman for a local ambulance service, said.

Some people expressed anger that the bombings managed to be carried out in broad daylight in a crowded area. “What kind of security alert is this? It was an explosives-packed car. Look at the mosque, it ceases to exist anymore. For God’s sake, do something,” said a local middle-aged shopkeeper, as quoted by the CNN news agency.

A state of emergency at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where many of the wounded people were hospitalised, was called soon after the explosion. Hospital officials appealed to the public and to other medical centres for blood donations.

The bomb attack happened just hours after Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, flew to the nation to discuss peace with Pakistan’s military commanders and political figures. Clinton will be in Islamabad for three days.

Clinton condemned the attack. “These attacks on innocent people are cowardly. They are not courageous. If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process,” she said.

The bombing also comes just days after Pakistani military forces captured the town of Kotkai, the hometown of Taliban Chief Hakimullah Mehsud, and one of his top officers, Qari Hussain.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Australian football‘s controlling body, Football Federation Australia, will launch an investigation into reported crowd violence at an A-League match between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC on November 10.

The match at Telstra Dome in Melbourne, Australia, which attracted more than 30,000 spectators, ended in a 0-0 draw. According to reports from the Fairfax Media publications, fans threw seats at their rivals at the conclusion of the match.

It has also been reported that a number of Melbourne supporters “invaded the pitch and set fire to items on the field”, also after the match.

Police were reportedly forced to react with capsicum spray to de-esculate the situation. Although Sydney fans had been relocated into an area separate from the home supporters, reports suggest they were provoked and retaliated by using the seating as projectiles.

Rob Abernethy, who was appointed head of A-League operations by the FFA, said that the governing body had requested reports from the Telstra Dome, the Melbourne Victory Football Club, as well as the police and security companies employed at the event.

Abernethy also condemned the alleged behaviour, questioning whether the people involved should be considered ‘supporters’. “It is disappointing that a minority of so-called supporters may have behaved in an inappropriate manner”, he said.