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Monday, October 1, 2007

Brian Jackson is running for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Oxford 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.

Thursday, January 5, 2006

According to the South African government’s Department of Transport, the number of fatalities on the country’s roads during December 2005 was 1,215. This is compared with 1,234 the previous year, where the total number of deaths in traffic accidents was 10,530.

Department of Transport spokeswoman, Collen Msibi, stated that 512 of the fatalities were pedestrians, 414 passengers, and 289 drivers. 2005 saw the number of vehicles on South Africa’s roads rise by nearly half a million to just under eight million with 779,000 new drivers adding to the dangers on the country’s roads.

“To deal with this high level of unsafety, traffic authorities will increase the number of patrol vehicles on the road, law enforcement officers and unmarked vehicles to do more spot checks and roadblocks,” Msibi said.

“Our analysis has revealed that most accidents are preceded by offences such as ignoring road signs, driving drunk, speeding, vehicles cutting in front of others, driving defective vehicles and fatigue.”

The road toll in South Africa is similar to that of South Korea, Mexico, Japan and Thailand. However, except for South Korea these countries have significantly larger populations.

The worst country in the world for deaths in road traffic accidents, is currently accepted to be China. Figures released for 2002 reveal that 250,007 people were killed in that year.

The South African government has acknowledged the problem since 2001. At that time they launched their “Arrive Alive” campaign, targeting vehicle condition, driver fitness, speeding and drunk driving.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

A woman, who was taking the road test to become a licensed school bus driver, crashed a bus into a utility pole in White Plains, New York, today. The wreck occurred on South Kensico Road between the intersections with Minevera Place and Oakley Avenue.

The Journal News reported that the accident occurred at 11:30 a.m. EDT (UTC-4) and that neither the student driver nor the examiner from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was injured.

According to The Journal News the road was closed in both directions. Police and workers from the utility company, Con Edison, were on the scene inspecting the damage. The utility pole had snapped at the bottom and it was leaning on the bus.

Wikinews went to the crash site and found that Con Edison crews were still working to replace the pole. Nearly five hours after the crash, a new pole had been installed and the old one was being held parallel up against it. Workers were transferring the wires onto the new pole.

Kensico Road had been reopened, but only in one lane. Workers let traffic pass alternating between one direction and then the other. Ironically, the green sign that is affixed to the pole reads “DMV test site starts here.”

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Toronto pop culture convention Fan Expo Canada has wrapped for another year. It ran from Thursday to Sunday. Major panels included Tim Curry and the cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Beauty and the Beast voices Robby Benson and Paige O’Hara, actors Kathleen Turner, Richard Dreyfuss, Anthony Daniels, Felicia Day, and child leads from Stranger Things. Canadian television channel Space hosted a Star Trek: Discovery panel with seven lead cast members. On the heels of sister event Toronto Comic Con’s Degrassi reunion event, the lineup included a twentieth anniversary panel with the stars of another Canadian high school television series, Student Bodies.

Heading into its fourth and final season, attendees got a chance to see the season opener of Star Wars: Rebels on Saturday, followed by a panel. The event has had a continuing relationship with the series, screening other episodes previously. The second season premiere of the sci-fi series Travelers was accompanied by a panel including Eric McCormack. Canadian true-crime drama Bad Blood had its world premiere. Other debuts included broadcaster City with the Canadian premiere of Ghosted, with Craig Robinson in attendance, Teletoon with the Canadian premiere of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, and YTV with the new animated series Mysticons.

Anime fans could watch episodes of their favourite shows, including AKB0048, Otaku No Video, Hana Yamata, My Hero Academia, Fairy Tail, and Penguindrum.

The book Star Wars Made Easy, targeted to non-fans to get up to speed on the fictional universe’s various facts and figures, was ironically launched by DK Canada for a room of fans of the franchise. Author Christian Blauvelt answered questions from the audience on topics like his opinion on Midiclorians — he understands fan contention, but suggested that science and religion can co-exist, like in the real world — quizzed the audience on trivia, and signed copies of his book.

Some panels were quite ahead of the curve: one on Star Wars costume and prop building discussed building Porgs figures, despite the film The Last Jedi not being released to theatres yet.

York Regional Police were at the event with United and Unity, two brightly lit characters of their own creation. The force received funding in 2014 from the Provincial Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy to create a short film featuring the character United, receiving positive recognition locally. “Our United superhero program is part of our on-going efforts to connect with our community and show police in a different light,” YRP Constable Andy Pattenden told Wikinews. He explains that the officers who developed the project have a background in film-making, and “serve as an opportunity for us to start a conversation with youth and connect with them at a non-traditional level.”

Star Wars character Jabba the Hutt, a puppet in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, was re-created by the 501st Legion as an animatronic. The 501st is a fan group that dresses like the series villains for charitable events, particularly those raising funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The new addition to their annual display commanded long lineups throughout the day, from con-goers looking to donate in exchange for a photo-op with the massive, slug-like alien.

• Jabba the Hutt animatronic. Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Ahsoka, operating the camera at the 501st’s booth. Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Jawas and Tusken Raiders at a Vikings TV show photo op. Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Comic Corps of Canada fundraising. Image: Nicholas Moreau.

As with most major conventions, cosplayers were numerous, ranging from simple outfits that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if worn from day-to-day, to elaborately-created costumes and giant props. Outfits recognized by Wikinews’ reporter ranged from classic characters like the 1960s version of Batgirl and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character created by Walt Disney in 1927, before Mickey, to 2010s characters from creative works like Undertale, Disney Descendants, League of Legends, and Adventure Time. Few characters are too obscure, if they appeal to a fan: the female avatar of “hivemind” character Unity, from a single episode of Rick and Morty, was spotted. One woman “biting” another woman’s arm would be cause for concern most places, but at a pop culture convention, it simply means that “Lilo” is re-enacting a scene with “Mertle”, as seen in the film Lilo and Stitch.

• Batgirl Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Unity and Rick Sanchez, Rick and Morty Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Jinx, League of Legends Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• ravetale_au as Undertale character Asriel Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Undertale characters Asriel and Sans Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Stiltwalker as W. D. Gaster from Undertale Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Karli Sal as Lilo and Erin Elliott as Mertle Image: Nicholas Moreau.

• Oswald (Angie Pants Cosplay) and Mickey (Katherinator Cosplay) Image: Nicholas Moreau.

Wikinews talked with Cheryl, the co-host of the weekly video series “Our Didnee Side”, who was dressed as Gadget Hackwrench, a mouse from the 1990s television series Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Speaking for both of the hosts, she said their passion for Disney has “exploded” since starting the YouTube channel, and that they are both “creators. We can’t seem to go a day without making something. We love doing Disney cosplay because it is like a beacon for other people in the fandom to come find us in a sea of other characters.” Conventions like Fan Expo Canada become “a great opportunity to meet like-minded Disney fans, and to possibly escape for the weekend from our ‘boring human’ lives.”File:FXC17 Stay Puft.jpg

Adrianna Prosser, host of Toronto geek culture community website Geektropolis, spent part of the convention Fan Expo Canada 2017 as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. She told Wikinews that “geeking in Toronto is always such a joy, what with amazing cosplay and passionate fandoms coming together at Fan Expo!” She explained that the site tries to keep the feeling of the event going all year, featuring local creators and “geeky” fans, in an effort to bring the community closer together.

Party game Cards Against Humanity — intriguingly available under a non-commercial Creative Commons license — offered a “Free Apologies from An American” booth, where a representative offered regrets to the largely Canadian visitors. The booth’s curtains came into use at least once on Friday, closing when a Trump cosplayer reached the front of the line.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Hundreds of developers of freely licensed and open source software from all over Europe met in Brussels, Belgium this weekend for FOSDEM 2008. The 8th edition attracted considerably more visitors than previous editions, mainly from Belgium and its neighbouring countries the Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, but also from other European countries and even from the United States.

During the conference weekend, presentations touched on programming languages, build systems, gaming (such as Battle for Wesnoth, Crystal Space, Globulation 2), packaging, virtualisation and web applications. The conference also has rooms (called DevRooms) were developers who usually work together via the internet can meet in real life and share thoughts on their projects; CentOS, Fedora, CrossDesktop, Drupal, GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, OpenSUSE and X.org had the biggest rooms this year. The corridors were filled with stands from organisations such as the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Free Knowledge Foundation, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenOffice.org, etc.

Since FOSDEM brings many European open software developers to Brussels, it also provides an important networking opportunity. FOSDEM traditionally kicks off Belgium-style on Friday with a beer event, but during the entire weekend several groups hold parties all over town. Wikinews reporters attended a barbecue hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Friday for an interview with EFF and Open Rights Group representatives about the upcoming E.U. proposal to extend copyright for performers to 95 years. Wikinews also interviewed Drupal founder and Acquia CTO Dries Buytaert about Drupal and how Acquia will relate to the Drupal developer community.

• Main lecture theatre on Sunday.

• Lecture on Conary.

• Young hackers

• Hackers room

• Free Knowledge Foundation stand.

• DevRoom (Drupal)

• One of the talks in the Drupal DevRoom ?was about the Dutch municipality Vught and its journey towards a home page with Drupal.?

• DevRoom

• DevRoom (Drupal)

• DevRoom

• DevRoom (Mozilla)

• Key signing party.?

?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Actress Mia Farrow and Carole White have testified in former-Liberian president Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Farrow and White’s testimonies contradict supermodel Naomi Campbell’s testimony from last week.

White said Campbell was “mildly flirtatious” with Taylor at a dinner in South Africa in 1997. Taylor, she alleged, told Campbell he would send her diamonds. White continued to say Campbell communicated with Taylor and awaited the diamond. Campbell was “very excited” about the diamonds according to White.

“[Taylor’s men] came in and they sat down in the lounge and we sat opposite them… they then took out a quite scruffy paper and they handed it to Miss Campbell and said ‘these are the diamonds.'”

Farrow claimed Campbell told her Taylor received diamonds in the middle of the night. She testified, “[Campbell] said that in the night she had been awakened, some men were knocking at the door, and they had been sent by Charles Taylor, and they had given her a huge diamond.”

Last week in Campbell’s testimony, she did not know who sent her diamonds, but testified her then-agent White told her who probably sent the diamonds. White and Farrow testified Campbell said the diamonds were from Taylor. She claims she gave the diamonds to Jeremy Ractliffe who gave them to police.

Police spokesperson Musa Zondi confirms Ractliffe had uncut diamonds. “Yes, they are real diamonds. We cannot tell whether they are ‘blood diamonds’ or not. That will be part of the investigation,” Zondi said.

Taylor faces eleven counts for violating international law including, murder, rape, sexual slavery, enlistment of children under the age of fifteen, pillaging, enslavement, and “outrages upon personal dignity.”

Taylor allegedly traded “blood diamonds” for weapons and supplying the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone with weapons during the civil war from 1991 to 2002. This war conscripted child soldiers, an international crime. The prosecutors for the Special Court say Taylor trained the rebels and had them rape, murder, mutilate, and decapitate the civilians of Sierra Leone. Over 100,000 people died in the Sierra Leonean civil war. Taylor plead not guilty to all charges.

Linking the blood diamonds, used to support the RUF, to Taylor is a high priority for the prosecution.

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 Don Valley West (Ward 26). Four candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Muhammad Alam, Bahar Aminvaziri, Orhan Aybars, Michele Carroll-Smith, Mohamed Dhanani, Abdul Ingar, Geoff Kettel, Debbie Lechter, Natalie Maniates, John Masterson, John Parker, David Thomas, Csaba Vegh, and Fred Williams.

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