Monday, August 1, 2011

Syrian troops yesterday launched an offensive against protesters across the nation, resulting in around a hundred deaths in the city of Hama and several dozen more in other parts of the country.

The most severe violence took place in Hama, where government troops and tanks, which had previously remained outside of the city for around a month, moved into the city center beginning at dawn. The crackdown left around a hundred people dead in the city, though exact numbers were unclear.

According to the government, the action in Hama was taken in response to the construction of barricades by protesters, though a US embassy official in Damascus denied the claim. A statement on state news agency SANA said that protesters had “set police stations on fire, vandalised public and private properties, set roadblocks and barricades and burned tyres at the entrance of Hama” and that “Army units are removing the barricades and roadblocks set by the armed groups at the entrance of the city.”

Outside of Hama, several dozen more people died in other incidents around the country, leading to reports of a total death toll of 136 people, according to The Telegraph. In addition to civilian deaths, the government said that five military personnel had been killed.

After the events of yesterday, United States president Barack Obama said that he condemned the government’s actions, as did officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Obama also said that the US “will continue to increase our pressure on the Syrian regime, and work with others around the world to isolate the Assad government

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Having worked as an aide, advisor, and Executive Assistant to municipal and provincial politicians, Sheila White is running for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough-Rouge River riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her 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.

Friday, February 21, 2020

On Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump issued a series of seven pardons and four commutations. All of the pardons issued were “full and unconditional”. The commutations included, among others, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois; Trump is a Republican.

Rod Blagojevich was jailed for corruption after he tried to sell Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat after Obama was elected president, among other charges. He was sentenced to fourteen years in prison, serving eight before being granted clemency. According to CNN, multiple officials pressured Trump not to commute Blagojevich’s sentence, including Republican members of the House of Representatives Darin LaHood and Mike Bost.

Judith Negron was convicted of both health care fraud and conspiracy to commit the same, money laundering and conspiracy to commit the same, and multiple other crimes. Negron served eight years of a thirty-five year sentence before being granted clemency.

Crystal Munoz was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 1,000 or more kilograms of marijuana in 2008 in the Western District of Texas, and was sentenced to serve 188 months (15 years, 8 months) in prison. Her sentence was commuted after serving twelve years.

Tynice Nichole Hall was convicted of multiple drug violations, as well as related charges involving possession of a firearm, in 2006 in the Northern District of Texas. She was granted clemency after serving almost fourteen years of an eighteen-year prison sentence.

Trump granted Angela Ronae Stanton a full and unconditional pardon. Stanton was convicted of conspiracy to transport in interstate commerce a stolen motor vehicle and tampering with a vehicle identification number in 2007 in the Northern District of Georgia.

Trump granted Ariel Manuel Friedler a full and unconditional pardon. Friedler, formerly the president and chief executive officer of Virginia-based Symplicity Corporation, pled guilty to conspiring to hack into the computer systems of two competitors to improve his company’s software development and sales strategy. He was sentenced to two months in prison in the Eastern District of Virginia in 2014.

Trump granted David Hossein Safavian, formerly the General Services Administration’s chief of staff, a full and unconditional pardon. Safavian was charged with making false statements (perjury) and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation into the activities of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He was convicted in 2006. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated his conviction and ordered a new trial, where in 2008 he was again found guilty.

In 1990, Michael Robert Milken pled guilty to charges related to his time as bond department head at Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment bank. The charges included securities fraud, mail fraud, and tax fraud. Trump granted Milken a full and unconditional pardon.

Trump granted Paul Harvey Pogue a full and unconditional pardon. Pogue, the founder of Pogue Construction, was convicted of submitting a false tax return in 2010 in the Eastern District of Texas. Pogue’s cause was reportedly helped by Rick Santorum, who mentioned Pogue’s conviction to Trump.

Trump granted Bernard Bailey Kerik a full and unconditional pardon. Kerik, a former commissioner of the New York police, was convicted of making false statements (perjury) and obstructing the administration of the Internal Revenue Laws, among other crimes, in 2010 in the Southern District of New York.

Trump granted Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. a full and unconditional pardon. DeBartolo, who used to own the San Francisco 49ers football team, was convicted of misprision (concealment) of a felony in 1998 in the Middle District of Louisiana.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

The upcoming 2006 Brampton municipal election, to be held November 13, features an array of candidates looking to represent their wards in city council or the council of the Peel Region.

Wikinews contributor Nick Moreau contacted many of the candidates, including Mathew Njenga, asking them to answer common questions sent in an email. This ward’s incumbent is John A. Hutton; also challenging Hutton is Derrick Coke, Navdeep Gill, Jim Howell, Joyce Rodriguez, and Doug Whillans.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand at 12:51 PM local time on Tuesday (Monday 23:51 UTC). At least 75 people have been killed by collapsing buildings in central Christchurch, with more feared. Mayor Bob Parker said 55 bodies had been identified and there were a further 20 unidentified bodies. The spire of the iconic Anglican ChristChurch Cathedral has fallen and rubble is strewn throughout the central business district. Roads and carparks have cracked and lifted, and two buses are reported to be crushed under the bus exchange. Pools of mud have erupted due to burst water mains and liquefaction. Boulders and falling cliff faces have destroyed buildings on hillside suburbs. Fears for the safety of nearby towns Lyttelton and Akaroa are exacerbated due to communication problems.

The earthquake was centred near Christchurch, at a depth of five kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey. Unlike previous quakes in the region that caused no fatalities, Tuesday quake was shallower and closer to the central city and the damage was much worse. Condemned buildings, weakened by last year’s widespread earthquakes, were destroyed. Some aftershocks have occurred in the area after the earthquake. The largest so far was a magnitude 5.6 which occurred at 7:04 p.m. February 21 EDT (1:04:18 p.m. local time, February 22).

Mayor Bob Parker has stated that as many as 25 major buildings in the city are destroyed. Urban Search and Rescue efforts are focussed on people trapped in the remains of Canterbury Television and Pyne Gould Corporation office buildings. The historic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch has half collapsed, while the old Canterbury Provincial Chambers building, Piko Wholefoods, and a church on Durham Street have been destroyed.

The earthquake also caused an estimated 30 million tons of ice to break off of the Tasman Glacier forming icebergs in a lake near its foot. Tourists on boats at the time of the quake say waves of 3.5 meters swept the lake for at least 30 minutes following the event. The glacier sits on the country’s west coast, approximately 120 miles (200km) from Christchurch. No injuries were reported.

Many people are trapped in damaged buildings or under rubble, but emergency services have been hampered by gridlock as motorists and pedestrians evacuated the CBD. The main hospital remains operational despite one damaged ward being closed, and three triage centres have been set up to provide medical aid. Several hundred delegates attending a medical conference in the city, the great majority from Australia, have been trapped in the city; some of these are assisting with tending to the injured.

Electricity, telephone services, and traffic lights suffered widespread outages. Orion and Telecom are attempting to assess the damage, and generators have been sent down from Auckland to replace the backup generators in the city. Civil Defence is mounting a response with all available national resources, and Cabinet is holding an emergency session. Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Mayor Bob Parker said he was “thrown quite a distance”, that there were scenes of “great confusion” on the streets, and that the quake was “as violent as the one that happened on the 4th of September”. The emergency telephone code, 111 was not working for the entire region of Southland, New Zealand but is apparently stable as of approx. 4 pm NZDT. Christchurch Airport is currently closed to all but emergency flights. Speaking after the earthquake, Bob Parker said at least 200 people are believed trapped under rubble, saying that New Zealand are “going to be presented with statistics that are going to be bleak”.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

United States President George W. Bush deployed the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to a new role on United States soil last Wednesday, training for dealing with national crises. Critics claim that act of the Executive Branch violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits military participation in domestic matters.

In 2007, the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act was introduced; it overturned the Posse Comitatus Act by allowing the Commander in Chief to suppress ‘insurrection’ and ‘restore order’. When it was repealed in 2008, Bush stated that he did not respect the later repeal.

The combat team, renamed CCMRF (C-hemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive C-onsequence M-anagement R-esponse F-orces), has been assigned for year-long duty and training at Fort Stewart to prepare them for “civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios” such as security or natural disasters. After a year, a new unit will take its place.

CCMRF will be under the control of the Northern Command (NORTHCOM), and now has the same legal authority as a unit deployed to Iraq under the direct control of the Executive Branch. The unit will have use of engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, and a Navy weather team, as well as members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. A spokeswoman for NORTHCOM added that both wheeled and tank vehicles would be available for the CCMRF.

In July the unit was assigned a new commander, Col. Roger Cloutier. “If we go in,” he said proudly of the deployment, “we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil”. CCMRF will be training in both traffic and riot control equipment, and will be the first to use the Army’s new nonlethal package, which is intended for war-zone and not domestic use.

NORTHCOM’s September 30th statement includes a quote attributed to “future operations division chief” Colonel Michael Boatner saying, “This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control, but will be used to support lead agencies involved in saving lives, relieving suffering and meeting the needs of communities affected by weapons of mass destruction attacks, accidents or even natural disasters.”

The action has raised concerns for some citizens like journalist Naomi Wolf, an author critical of the Bush administration, who referred to the deployment as a ‘coup’ in a well-circulated viral video and issued Americans a call to action.

NORTHCOM is a joint command established post-9/11 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities. When Hurricane Katrina damaged Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas, but were not assigned to NORTHCOM, but instead individual commands under provisional authorities.

Military officials have not yet responded to a request for comment.