fuzhong.org

Monday, October 1, 2012

The Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) yesterday apologised over an article it reproduced Friday, originally written by US satirical news website The Onion on Monday September 24. The parodic article reported “a Gallup poll” suggesting “the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans” would vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, instead of US President Barack Obama. The Onion article also said “77 percent of rural Caucasian voters” would prefer to drink beer with Ahmadinejad or attend a baseball game with him as opposed to Obama.

The FNA’s English service Editor-in-chief said the article had been “extracted” from The Onion and that FNA gives “our formal apologies for that mistake”, as well as pointing out the article was “taken down from our outlook in less two hours”.

However, the editor-in-chief also said “we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen”. He stressed that this belief does not constitute justification for the error.

In The Onion’s article, fictional West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski says about Ahmadinejad: “I like him better”. ‘Swiderski’ is also quoted by the Chicago, Illinois website as saying the Iranian President “takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.”

In Iran, homosexuality is a criminal offence which can carry a penalty of incarceration or capital punishment. Just over five years ago, when he participated in a debate at Columbia University in New York, New York, Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country”.

The FNA’s error made international headlines, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and Australia. Will Tracy, editor of The Onion, said their website “freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran’s Finest News Source on their superb reportage”, a humourous reference to The Onion’s slogan, ‘America’s Finest News Source’.

On the original web page on The Onion’s website, the satirical news organisation added a reference to “our Iranian subsidiary organization”, providing a link to a screenshot of the FNA’s page.

On the article page, in which The Onion was not attributed as a source, the FNA copied The Onion’s article verbatim and in its entirety, save for part of a sentence saying Ahmadinejad was “a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed”.

This is not the first time The Onion has caused the mistaken belief of their material being factual. In a November 2007 interview with Wikinews, The Onion’s Editorial Manager Chet Clem recounted an incident in which the Beijing Evening News reproduced a story from The Onion created in 2002, copied entirely verbatim, headlined “Congress threatens to leave DC unless new capitol is built”. When the error was highlighted to the Chinese newspaper, Clem said “their response was not to print a correction, but just to say that some newspapers in America make money by printing lies.” In a separate incident, Christians forwarded a story on the Internet from The Onion saying children were converting to Satanism as a result of reading the Harry Potter book series.

The FNA statement released yesterday went on to say “[a]ctive and well-known media occasionally make mistakes, and no media is an exception to this rule”, before going to provide a list of errors made by such publications as The New York Times and Beijing Evening News, as well as television broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, and CNN.

The bottom of the FNA’s statement introduces a list of notable BBC errors reported by The Daily Telegraph on December 6, 2010. While the FNA referenced The Daily Telegraph and the order of the mistakes was changed from the original article, the wording was reproduced verbatim, excluding one omitted sentence under the subheading ‘Nicky Campbell and hunting mark II’ which reads: “Campbell, who is also the presenter of the BBC’s flagship programme for Holy Week, apologised profusely for the mistake.”

According to BBC News Online, the FNA is associated with the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, an Iranian military branch.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Yesterday, the Milwaukee County district attorney charged Cory J. Feerick, a 33-year-old from Brookfield, Wisconsin, with five misdemeanor counts of stealing US$35,000 worth of flush valves from fast food restaurants and university toilets and urinals. If convicted, Feerick could spend to 9 to 45 months in jail, and pay between US$10,000 and US$50,000 in fines.

Initially arrested in late January following a local news television story on the thefts, he stands accused of stealing parts worth between US$300 and US$600 each from locations that included Milwaukee Area Technical College, Waukesha County Technical College, ITT Technical Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, the Pick ‘n Save on Capitol Drive in Brookfield, and the Arby’s also located on Capitol Drive in Brookfield.

Feerick was dubbed the “Backpack Bathroom Bandit” by the media because video showed him committing the thefts while wearing a backpack. The thefts reportedly took place in September and October of last year, with several area police departments involved in investigating them.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Diamond Brownridge, a 5-year old girl from Chicago, Illinois, has died after a visit to the dentist. Children’s Memorial Hospital officials say that the girl was rushed to the hospital when she never woke up after being sedated for a dental procedure. She had been in a coma, on life support, since being admitted to the hospital early in the weekend.

“She passed very peacefully and beautifully,” said the hospital in a statement that the family issued.

Ommettress Travis, the mother of the girl, was asked not to remain inside the room while dentists were operating on the girl to repair two cavities and to have at least two caps replaced. Travis says after thirty minutes she was asked to come back in and found Brownridge not breathing, in the dentist chair.

Hicham Riba, a specialist and professional in anesthesia, who was also licensed, was the dentist in charge of the procedure.

“My family and I are so sad. May God bless Diamond and her family. Every time you have a tragedy like this, you pray more. I don’t think I will ever go back to a normal life after an experience like this,” Riba said in a statement on Wednesday, September 28.

According to the family, the girl had been given at least a triple dose of medicine that sedated her. Those drugs include: nitrous oxide gas, a single dose of an “oral agent” and an IV.

A judge has ordered that all equipment and materials used during the operation be protected and examined. The girl’s medical records have also been ordered to be examined.

There is no word on whether or not any charges will be filed against Riba or any of the dentist’s staff.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Britain has raised the idea of using private security firms as part of efforts to bolster military support for Libyan rebels. Defence officials speaking to The Guardian have floated the idea as Western powers examine ways to turn the tide of the rebels’ stuttering campaign against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

The sources also urged Arab countries to fund training for the rebels, whose inferior weaponry and organisation is widely agreed to have allowed pro-Gaddafi forces to check the insurgency’s recent gains.

The call to deploy private security contractors comes as the Afghan government has announced plans to phase out such operators over the next 12 months. The image of such firms has been severely tarnished by repeated revelations of abuse by the U.S. firm Blackwater Worldwide, subsequently renamed Xe Services. Blackwater executives and employees have faced civil lawsuits, criminal charges and Congressional investigations related to accusations of bribery and murder in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The collapse of numerous investigations related to several alleged incidents has raised questions about the legal accountability of firms operating in war zones on behalf of Western governments.

The suggested training of rebels and deployment of contractors appears to confirm Western powers’ determination to end Gaddafi’s grip on power.

Yesterday’s report in The Guardian interprets the move as the start of a new phase in the three-week-old NATO-led intervention in Libya, and a tacit admission by Western nations that the rebels are struggling to make ground despite NATO air support.

Britain’s focus on Arab participation in funding and training the rebels reflects a will on Western powers’ part to foster Arab ownership of the intervention, perceived as being crucial to building the legitimacy of the West’s support to Libyan rebels.

According to The Guardian, Western military strategy is now turning to cementing the rebels’ territorial gains before the negotiation of a ceasefire with the Gaddafi regime.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A grassroots movement known as Restore the Fourth, dedicated to the protection of the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution, are to hold protests countrywide on July 4. The planned protests come in the wake of information about NSA surveillance leaked last month, notably the PRISM surveillance program and the collection of Verizon phone records. Wikinews interviewed Jett, a national organizer from this recently created movement.

((Wikinews)) First of all, could you explain what Restore the Fourth is all about?

Jett: At its core, RestoreTheFourth is about protecting citizens’ constitutional rights. Specifically, we’re dedicated to bringing awareness and action to the expanding overreach and elimination of the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution.

((WN)) What is your role at Restore the Fourth?

Jett: My job at RestoreTheFourth could be summarized as ‘project coordinator’. Every person who wants to help can help in a tremendous way. I simply make sure that their skills get used in a way that would be most beneficial to the movement: web development, public relations, etc. I also field questions from the press and promote knowledge of our cause.

((WN)) What are your plans for direct action, outreach, etc.?

Jett: Our press release includes a list of ‘demands’ for what we want to see in order to restore our privacy rights, including reform of the PATRIOT Act and increased accountability for public officials. In the very short term, these protests and demonstrations bring awareness to the issue, something that’s really important in enacting reform. In the long term, however, we expect to create a legal organization dedicated to restoring these rights inherent to every American. By partnering with various other organizations that share our moral values, we can further these goals.

On July 4, we will have over 100 protests in all 50 states, showing that the citizens of America are truly serious about protecting their rights.

((WN)) By what means do you hope to achieve such change?

Jett: This movement started only a few weeks ago, and since then we’ve experienced exponential growth and progress. Since the movement is still very young, plans diverge in the long term on what we hope to achieve. Personally, I’d like to see a combination of legislative and litigative action (something like what the ACLU does), and others want to see further plans of action. With organizations such as the BORDC, stopwatching.us and the EFF behind us, I feel that we can achieve all of this and much more.

((WN)) Is the movement US-only or will it extend to other jurisdictions as well? Do you think it would be fair for the US to spy on non-citizens?

Jett: I believe that rights are inherent to all humans, not only United States citizens. In the long term I’d certainly like to see people of all nations protected from the slow elimination of privacy that we’re all experiencing.

((WN)) What do you think about Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing?

Jett: I think that too much attention is being given to his personality instead of what he fought for. He’s being treated as a ‘martyr’ of sorts. It seems to distract from what he truly believed in — transparency for the government and inherent privacy for all Americans.

((WN)) What do you think about his future, given the legal grey zone in which he currently is?

Jett: Hard to say. He may be captured by any number of agencies, or he may live a free man. Whatever happens, he has the eyes of millions of people on him, all of whom will yell very loudly if anything occurs.

((WN)) Thank you very much for your time.

Jett: Thanks for the opportunity.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

United States president-elect Barack Obama has chosen Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a medical correspondent from the American television station CNN, to be the next United States Surgeon General. Gupta, also a neurosurgeon, was reported to be chosen because of his background in broadcasting and skills in communication. He is currently the host of House Call, a program on CNN, a columnist for Time Magazine, a contributor to CBS News, and also a part time worker at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He will likely leave all of these positions to serve as US Surgeon General.

Dr. Joseph Heyman of the American Medical Association supported Gupta, stating “If chosen, Dr. Gupta’s communication skills and medical knowledge could be a boon to the new administration’s health system reform efforts.” Conversely, Doctors Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice stated that the next Surgeon General would need to “…demonstrate skills that are too often missing in medical news on TV: skepticism about the science and a careful analysis of both the benefits and harms of medical care.”

According to reports by sources close to the discussions, Gupta met with Barack Obama on November 25 in Chicago to discuss the position. He later met with several advisors to the president-elect, including Thomas A. Daschle of the US Department of Health and Human Services. He was reported to tell Obama that he wanted the Surgeon General position. Gupta declined to comment about the situation yesterday, but did state that he plans to accept Obama’s choice.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service has announced that it has sufficient evidence that a former FSB (formerly KGB) officer should be charged with the murder last year of Alexander Litvinenko.

Andrei Lugovoi is charged with the murder of Mr Litvinenko, by the administration of the highly radioactive Polonium-210 in a hotel in Mayfair, London, on 1st November 2006. Mr Litvinenko, 43, died of radiation sickness in University College Hospital on 23rd November. The case received considerable publicity at the time, with pictures of Litvinenko in hospital and showing the effects of the radiation poisoning.

Litvinenko was himself a former Russian FSB agent and was a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had tried to publish a book in Russia describing Putin’s rise to power as having been organised by the KGB. He was forced to flee from Russia and had lived for some time in London, being granted British citizenship in October 2006.

He continued his dissent throughout the remainder of his life, culminating in a posthumous statement published on 24th November 2006 alleging that Putin was responsible for his death.

Litvinenko’s murder led to a lengthy investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service and additional specialist police forces following a trail of sites which had been contaminated with radiation, leading eventually to Moscow. A file of evidence was sent in January 2007 to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration as to whether any criminal charges might be brought.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, in announcing the decision to prosecute, said: “Prosecutors from CPS Counter Terrorism Division have carefully considered the material contained in that police file. They have also asked the police to carry out further inquiries, which are now complete. And, finally, they have consulted with me.”

“I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrey Lugovoy with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning. I have further concluded that a prosecution of this case would clearly be in the public interest.”

“In those circumstances, I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrey Lugovoy from Russia to the United Kingdom, so that he may be charged with murder – and be brought swiftly before a court in London to be prosecuted for this extraordinarily grave crime.”

The announcement followed the summoning of the Russian Ambassador to London to the Foreign Office to be told by Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett that she expected that the Russian authorities would co-operate fully with Britain to arrange the extradition of Mr Lugovoi to stand trial in London. However there are indications from Moscow that the extradition of Lugovoi, who denies any involvement in the murder, is unlikely to happen. Marina Gridneva, spokeswoman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said that “under Russian law, a citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be handed over to a foreign country”.

There is no bilateral extradition treaty between Russia and the UK. Legislation passed by Russia to deal with individual requests from countries in Europe rules out the extradition of its citizens, even to the extent that when in 1966 it became a signatory to the European convention on extradition, it granted itself an exemption from such a course.

However it has been reported that such a ban on extradition would not necessarily prevent Lugovoi being tried in Russia using evidence from the UK.