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Sunday, May 18, 2008

A man who hijacked a domestic flight over Afghanistan has been found to be working for British Airways.

34-year-old Nazamuddin Mohammidy was one of nine men who forced the Ariana Airlines airliner to divert to the United Kingdom’s Stansted Airport in 2000. A standoff followed for the next 70 hours with the men, who had guns and hand grenades, threatening to kill all 160 on board unless asylum was granted to them. The men ultimately gave themselves up to police and SAS.

Mohammidy was jailed for 30 months but he and the other eight had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal, claiming the Taliban was subjecting them to “medieval and brutal tyranny” forcing them to flee. They went on to win a High Court case to prevent their deportation.

It has since emerged that British Airways have employed Mohammidy to clean their offices, including a training center one mile from Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport. It came to light when police officers stopped him near Terminal 5 believing he may be an unlicensed taxi driver, but he was able to suppply a worker’s pass. He is now facing unrelated charges concerning an alleged assault on his landlord.

The Conservatives have used this as an opportunity to attack the current Labour government. Shadow home secretary David Davis said “It would be an outrageous and potentially devastating breach of security if a former hijacker had access to British Airways property near the airport and a pass allowing him access to secure areas. Days after it was revealed that foreign airside workers at our airports do not have to pass proper security checks it is clear the Government do not have a grip on airport security.”

British Airways say he did not have a pass to allow him onto the tarmac at Heathrow and did not work inside the airport, but he could get into some secure company areas.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A team of archaeologists excavating an Ancient Egyptian tomb have discovered golden jewelry in a recently-discovered lower chamber at the Valley of the Kings burial site in Luxor, Egypt.

Two golden rings and five golden earrings were found in the tomb of Djehuty, an 18th-dynasty official of Queen Hatshepsut, and were probably the property of Djehuty or his family.

The discovery was announced by Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s current Minister of Culture.

Djehuty was overseer of the treasury and overseer of works for the Queen. Hatshepsut reigned approximately 1479–1458 BCE. Djehuty was responsible for managing the huge amounts of precious goods brought in from Egypt’s military expedition to Punt in the Horn of Africa and the vast building projects of Hatshepsut which have made the female pharaoh one of the most-remembered of any from ancient Egypt.

Djehuty died after Hatshepsut did, sometime during the reign of Thutmosis III. Both Hatshepsut’s and Thutmosis’s names are recorded on the tomb. In a fashion typical of ancient Egyptian rivalries, Hatshepsut’s name was partly obscured on the monument over the tomb sometime after the queen’s death.

The team, led by José Manuel Galán of the National Research Center (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), in Madrid, Spain, had been excavating the tomb, designated TT11 and located in the necropolis of Dra’ Abu el-Naga’, since 2002. While much of Djehuty’s funerary equipment was lost to fire in antiquity, the lower chamber of his tomb was concealed at the end of a three-meter shaft and discovered at the end of 2008.

A superficial description of the tomb itself was recorded almost two hundred years ago by 19th-century French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion, rubble blocking the entrance hindered excavation until the 21st century. In that time, emphasis in Egyptology has changed from the cataloging of treasures to the investigation of ancient culture, life and religion.

Since excavation began, Djehuty’s tomb has yielded a number of surprises. It was discovered that the tomb was re-used repeatedly up to and during the Greco-Roman period. There is an unusual face-on depiction of pharaoh Thutmosis III hunting ducks, and the mummy of a young, bejewelled, as-yet unidentified woman.

In 2007, 44 preserved bunches of flowers thought to be from Djehuty’s funeral were found in the site. In their 8th season of excavation, which ended on February 22, 2009, the team also found considerable evidence that below Djehuty’s tomb is a network of burial sites from the 11th dynasty, four thousand years old.

The lower chamber also displays passages from the Egyptian funerary text the Book of the Dead on its walls and a colorful mural of the goddess Nut, an embodiment of the heavens, on the ceiling. The names of Djehuty and his parents were also intact in the second chamber; the names were defaced in the previously-known first chamber of the tomb, which had also been looted.

According to a press release from Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Djehuty’s tomb is only the fifth known decorated burial chamber of the 18th dynasty. An additional unusual feature of the tomb is that its upper chamber is decorated in relief, rather than simply paint. When the excavation is completed, Dr Galán’s team plans to open the site to the public as the carved stoneworks will not be destroyed by tourists’ activities as paint would.

The identification of Djehuty is a complicated one, as a number of officials of the 18th dynasty bore the name, including a general and several governors. The name itself is an alternate transliteration of the name of the Egyptian god usually written in English as Thoth.

Monday, March 30, 2009

First becoming famous in her native Ukraine in the 1990s, long-haired self-described “Amazon” Ruslana gained international recognition for winning the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Wild Dances,” inspired by the musical traditions of the Hutsul people of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains.

In the five years since, Ruslana has decided to use her name and public status to represent a number of worthy causes, including human trafficking, renewable energy, and even the basic concept of democratic process, becoming a public face of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and later serving in Parliament.

Currently, she is on an international publicity tour to promote her album Wild Energy, a project borne out of a science fiction novel that has come to symbolize her hopes for a newer, better, freer way of life for everyone in the world. She took time to respond to questions Wikinews’s Mike Halterman posed to her about her career in music and her other endeavors.

This is the fifth in a series of interviews with past Eurovision contestants, which will be published sporadically in the lead-up to mid-May’s next contest in Moscow.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Cynthia McKinney, one of the candidates for the Green Party nomination for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

McKinney is a former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 and held her seat for ten years until being defeated by Denise Majette in 2002. She was the first ever African American woman from her state to be elected to Congress.

We asked her why she made the recent switch to the Green Party. She replied, “Due to the importance of environmental issues, Green issues are the issues of today. The Ten Key Values of the Green Party stress us getting along with each other in harmony with the planet that gives us life.”

When asked about how she would handle Iraq she replied, “I would instruct the Joint Chiefs to draw up a plan for the orderly withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country. I would dismantle our military bases in the area, and I would also demand that U.S. and other international corporations relinquish any claims to Iraqi oil or other resources and withdraw as well.”

McKinney is running for president because, basically, she thinks that “it’s time that the people win”.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, yesterday announced the 2009 budget. The budget is an annual audit of the nation’s finances, and decides what should be done with taxpayers’ money.

The chancellor fell under scorn for his GDP growth forecasts, which are considered to be too optimistic in predicting that Britain will bounce back from its weakest economic performance since the end of the second world war. Darling forecast GDP growth of 3.5% in 2011, even after he was made to downgrade his predictions. He expects a record expansion of 1.25% next year, but chief UK economist Howard Archer disagrees, calling Darling’s predictions “mildly optimistic in the near term and much more optimistic in the long term.”

His plans for savers and pensioners, however, were commended by many, though was also criticised by a large portion of the populace. In the budget, Darling increased the amount that savers can put into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) from £7,200 to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. These increased limits will be available only to people aged over 50 from 6 October this year, and will not be available to everyone until 6 April next year. A number of financial experts described the move as being “too little, too late”, and Rumina Hassam, of price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: “The government’s decision to increase the cash ISA limit by £1,500 to £5,100 for the over 50’s is a just another kick in the teeth for the majority of savers as they will have to wait even longer to benefit. There is no doubt that savers have been sacrificed as a result of the plummeting base rate, bringing savings rates to an all time low.”

Saturday, April 1, 2006 At least 57 people are now known to have died when a boat designed similar to a traditional dhow capsized one mile of the coast of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. Seventeen were Indian and a further 13 of the dead are British; people of another six nationalities are also known to have died. The passengers were mostly foreigners from the Nass-Murray and Roberts construction company, and were enjoying an evening dinner cruise in celebration of their completion of part of the Bahrain World Trade Centre towers. Most who died were dining on the lower deck, and were trapped below.

Over 130 people were onboard the boat at the time, although some say the boat was only licensed to carry 120. Others say the limit was 150. Eyewitnesses say the boat was overloaded. The boat capsized in calm seas soon after it left, trapping many below. Helicopters from the US Navy searched for 13 missing persons until Friday morning, when the search was called off. The dhow had been modified to have an extra, higher deck making the vessel less stable. The exact cause is unknown – suggestions from eyewitnesses include the boat suddenly turning left, being hit by a wave, and many of the passengers moving to one side of the boat together. The Bahrain Interior Ministry is to investigate the accident and establish if the boat was seaworthy.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sheffield United have been relegated from the English Npower Football League Championship, after a 2-2 home draw to Yorkshire rivals Barnsley at Bramall Lane on Saturday, their 45th game of the season. Though United’s fate had been all but sealed in recent weeks, they could mathematically taken the relegation battle to the final day if the match had been won – and the results of rivals Doncaster Rovers and Crystal Palace had gone their way.

Despite pre-season hopes of a play-off place, ‘The Blades’ have been stuck in a fight for Championship survival for the majority of the season, which has been the result of three managerial changes in the period of just 8 months. Currently lead by former Port Vale F.C. boss (and a childhood United fan), Micky Adams, results have continued to be generally poor in 2011 – despite the departure of Gary Speed (who took over from Kevin Blackwell in August 2010, but left after just 4 months to coach Wales national football team).

The South Yorkshire football club controversially began a legal dispute with London-based West Ham United F.C. in 2007 following The Football Association’s (FA) decision not to deduct Sheffield’s relegation rivals points for ineligibly fielding Carlos Tévez (which subsequently lead to Sheffield United’s relegation from the top flight of English football). Since then, numerous attempts to return to the Barclays Premier League have been unsuccessful, including a play-off final hosted at Wembley in 2009.

Speaking after today’s game, a downhearted Micky Adams remarked: “I’m obviously devastated. There’s a lot of disappointed players in the changing rooms today and I think they have every right to be disappointed. The team’s a genuine hard-working group but they’ve just not been good enough. We have to share responsibility and I’ll take mine”.

Adams admitted he “can’t say” whether he will still be in charge next season, though was adamant that he “wants to be the manager who brings them [United] back”.

United will play in the Npower League 1 for the 2011/12 football season. As this was not Sheffield’s last game of the campaign, the club could still move down to 23rd place, but cannot achieve a place outside the relegation zone.

Perhaps ironically, this event comes almost a year after cross-city rivals Sheffield Wednesday were relegated from the same division, meaning that next season will host the first Steel City Derby in the third tier of English football since 1980.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The carillion war memorial in Bathurst in Central Western NSW was vandalised just hours before a dawn ANZAC day service. Police allege that five teenage girls aged 15 and 16 were involved.

‘Diggers‘ who had been looking forward to the dawn service said they were bought to tears after they learned that statements saying “ANZAC murderers” and “Aussies don’t fight” were painted on the war memorial.

Police say they were called to the memorial after reports that a group of vandals had covered the shrine with offensive graffiti. Sergent Andrew Holand from Bathurst police said “Police arrived a short time later and observed that they had painted approximately one metre high, [beige coloured] slogans all the way around the exteriors of the war memorial using words such as “ANZAC murderers” and “Aussies don’t fight” along with peace symbols”.

“They’ve then taken the remnants of the four-litre paint cans and splashed these on the doors and external steps of the war memorial,” he said.

When police located the group of five teenagers some were still covered in paint. All were taken to Bathurst Police Station where the 16 year-old girl was charged with maliciously damaging a shrine or war memorial and malicious damage to police property. It is alleged after she was arrested she damaged a police cell.

The four other girls involved, all aged 15 will be cautioned under the state’s Youth Offenders Act.

Jim McFerran from the Bathurst Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) said he was humbled by efforts to clean up the graffiti. He said an effort involving RSL members, local army personnel, council workers, volunteer firefighters and a group of young men on their way home after a night out.

“We had about a dozen young fellas that were going home from the pub, they sort of stopped and said: ‘What’s going on here?’,” said Mr McFerran.

“When they got told, they sort of walked over, bloody downed their things, grabbed … pads and rags and starting getting in there with the rest of us.”

NSW Premier Morris Iemma condemned the vandalism, saying “They need a history lesson and a good kick up the backside as well.”