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Asbestos controversy aboard Scientology ship Freewinds

Friday, May 16, 2008 Controversy has arisen over the reported presence of blue asbestos on the MV Freewinds, a cruise ship owned by the Church of Scientology. According to the Saint Martin newspaper The Daily Herald and the shipping news journal Lloyd's List, the Freewinds was sealed in April and local public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao where the ship is docked began an investigation into the presence of asbestos dust on the ship. Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft supervised work on the ship in 1987, and attested to the presence of blue asbes

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Honda Civic tops Canada’s list of most stolen cars

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 The 1999 and 2000 year model Honda Civic SiR tops the list of Canada's most stolen cars. Consumer popularity also assures the cars will be popular with thieves. Its the second year in a row the Honda SiR has topped the list. Rick Dubin Vice President of Investigations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada said "The Civics are easy targets." Dubin said that once stolen, the cars are most often sold to "chop shops" where thieves completely dismantle the vehicles. The automobile's individual parts are worth more than the entire car. The sheer num

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Bloggers sued by pro-government Malaysian newspaper

Sunday, March 4, 2007 Pioneer Malaysian bloggers Ahiruddin Attan and Jeff Ooi have been sued for defamation by a leading Malaysian newspaper, The New Straits Times. They are alleged to have defamed top executives of the English daily. The case marks the first time bloggers have been sued for libel in the country. The oldest newspaper group in Malaysia is owned by the Media Prima group, which is in turn owned by the United Malays National Organization, the leading party in the government. Malaysia has strict media laws but they function less effectively on newer forms of e

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Belgian bus company knows solution for car parking problems

Monday, May 21, 2007 Do you have a hard time finding a parking space? Take the bus or tram if you go to the city. That's the message Belgian bus company De Lijn (The Line) is sending to promote public transport as a solution for car parking problems. As a part of their media campaign, they have jokingly suggested that people use the top of the busses as parking space. Another idea they are using in their media campaign: maybe you could park your car on the bottom of a canal? The bus company is using an invented diving company called Cardive, which has divers that offer to

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Still no action in standoff in Ontario town

Monday, April 17, 2006 Seven weeks after citizens of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve repossessed land near Caledonia, Ontario, on February 28, the Ontario Provincial Police, who have authority from a court to arrest the protesters for contempt of court, have yet to act. On April 11, more than 50 police cruisers, two paddy wagons, and several vans gathered outside an abandoned school on Unity Road in Caledonia. However, reports from last night are that visible police presence is minimal, with just a few police cruisers parked down the road from the protest site

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Kentucky faith-based agency under fire for religious coercion

Saturday, May 5, 2007 A lawsuit filed by a former employee of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (now Sunrise Children's Services) and four other tax-payers, has shed light on the possibility of religious coercion by the organization. The lawsuit challenges the faith-based agency's eligibility for state funds. Specifically, interviews of children conducted by the state of Kentucky have revealed complaints from some of the children. Mainly, children who said they were Catholic, Pentecostal, Jehovah's Witnesses or atheist voiced complaints in the interviews. "They tried to

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Gastric bypass surgery performed by remote control

Sunday, August 21, 2005 A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample. If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is no

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World AIDS Day events held around the globe

Sunday, December 2, 2007 The 20th annual World AIDS Day was December 1, 2007. The theme selected by the World AIDS Campaign is "Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise" as it will be through 2010. The day was marked by thousands of events around the world. "It is now time for bold leadership at all levels in order to turn the tide of HIV," said Felicita Hikuam, Global Programmes Manager, World AIDS Campaign. An estimated 33.2 million people around the world—one in every 200—are living with HIV, and approximately 6,800 people are infected with HIV and 5,700 people die of AIDS-related

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Obama renominates Bernanke as US central banker

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 United States President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that he is nominating Ben Bernanke for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. Obama made the announcement during a brief break from his vacation at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. "The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world has ever faced. As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I'm sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team respons

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Wikinews attends 2018 Bangalore ComicCon

Thursday, November 29, 2018 On November 17 and November 18, Wikinews attended the 2018 Bangalore Comicbook Convention, in Karnataka, India. Beginning on Saturday morning, the ComicCon continued till Sunday. Organised by ComicCon India, who organised Comic Con in Hyderabad in October, this event was held at Karnataka Trade Promotion Organisation (KTPO)'s convention hall. Wikinews spoke to convention's international guests Ryan O'Sullivan, Dan Watters, and Vanesa Del Ray. UK-based freelancer comicbook writer Ryan O'Sullivan, who has worked for Image Comics and Vault Comics,