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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Former world champion boxer Anthony Mundine has beaten long-time rival Danny Green on a unanimous points decision in a non-title World Boxing Association (WBA) super middleweight bout. Mundine, an ex-rugby league star promoted the much-anticipated fight that attracted around 40,000 spectators and a national record for a pay-per-view television event.

“Who’s the man, who’s the man?” Mundine asked the crowd after the fight. Western Australia’s Danny Green (the “Machine”) was defeated after 12 rounds at the Sydney Football Stadium by “the Man” Mundine. Mundine has improved his overall record to 26 wins and three losses. His victory sets up a world title bout against Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler.

After the bout Mundine praised his opponent’s tenacity: “I just wanna’ thank Danny for a great fight… I was starting to get loose man, Danny was starting to put a lot of pressure on me, he’s got a good long jab, I had to evade that,” said Mundine. “I utilized my speed to catch him and it paid dividends. I was looking for the knockout, I caught him with a few great shots, [and] he can take a great punch. He put up a good performance. He come around, he come prepared – I was the better man tonight Dan, thank you very much. We can do it again maybe, soon.”

Green agreed that Mundine fought the better fight. “He just beat me fair and square. I have no excuses at all, I trained unbelievable, my preparation was great… Anthony was the better man tonight,” said Green.

The WBA fight consolidated six years of taunts and hyperbole to settle a long-running feud between the men and their supporters. According to media reports the battle was personal from the outset with Mundine’s mother Lyn yelling at her son from ringside to “Knock him out Choc, shut him up my baby”.

Sports media commentators reported that the pace remained hectic in the first four rounds as Mundine stood firm and used his jab as Green mixed his trademark “power punches.” As the fight wore on, Mundine appeared in greater control and in better condition. However, Mundine did end up on the canvas in the seventh round, after being pushed through the ropes by Green.

Throughout the fight, Green’s power punches “missed, missed and missed again”. In the final “ferocious” round, Mundine rocked Green with a combination to the head, taunting Green to “Come on.” Green attempted plenty of combinations, but Mundine’s speed caused problems. After 12 rounds, Judge Pinit Prayadsab from Thailand gave the fight to Mundine 118-11, South Korean Michael Lee scored it 116-113 and Australian Derek Milham had it 118-112.

Australian newspapers report that the appreciative crowd included corporate CEOs, former world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, bikie gangs, peroxide blondes and rugby league players. Referee Terry O’Connor described the event as a fight Australia can be proud of. “They both gave their all, it was a great fight.” He described the atmosphere at Aussie Stadium as “fantastic” “It was the greatest fight I have refereed, it was brilliant,” O’Connor said.

The “Man v Machine” event fight, promoted by Mundine’s Boxa International and the “Green Machine” promoters is believed to have beeen the “biggest boxing match in Australian history”, grossing an estimated $20 million. Each boxer is reported to be earning a seven-figure sum, while spectators have paid up to A$1000 for a seat at the bout. Foxtel reported record sales for their exclusive pay-per-view event, claiming that subscriptions outsold the Lennox Lewis v Mike Tyson heavyweight bout. Heavy betting ensued with one punter laying a $500,000 bet on Mundine to take the honours.

Of his upcoming bout with Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler, Mundine said: “It was a close fight last time. I think he’s the best fighter out there, but I’ve shown I can match it with him. I’m ready.”

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

North America’s largest outdoor dog festival came back to Toronto last weekend for its fifth year. It ran from the 9th of June to the 10th of June at Toronto’s historical St. Lawrence Market. A Wikinews reporter was there on Sunday to report on some of the events that happened on the last day.

The “Woofstock” dog festival attracted as many as 140,000 people with their dogs. The festival had tons of accessories, sold under tents, to buy for dogs; food, toys, designer clothes, and more. About 400 vendors and exhibitors were there to promote their products, which also gave private dog companies or groups a chance to show their new products. The local SPCA and some animal rescues were under tents answering questions from visitors. While walking, all visitors could see the CN Tower and other very tall buildings.

One of the local TV stations, Citytv, was there. They hosted a live event at the show which was broadcast on TV. People came up on the stage and asked questions regarding their dogs and the host and co-host answered them.

A man, who called himself the “Chalk Master”, drew two pictures on pavement with chalk. He did it for free but donations were welcome. One was a picture of a girl’s head beside a dog’s head, and another with a wolf.

“Hello Humans. I’ve been invited here to provide your eyeball(s), with some pretty colours. I don’t get paid as I work this weekend strictly for tips… so, if you like what you see please make a DONATION. If you don’t like it simply reach into the pocket of the person next to you and give me their money. CHALK MASTER.”

A contest called “Canada’s top dog” had its own tent with a professional photographer taking pictures of dogs behind a white screen; the winning photo is to be published on the cover of “Puppy and dog basics” magazine.

Large “Gourmet” dog bones were also served from a cart and table.

Next year’s festival is expected to be bigger and better with even more attractions.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A Scottish woman who set out before Christmas to purchase a turkey finally made it home on Monday, after being cut off by snow for a month. Kay Ure left the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage on Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of Great Britain, in December. She was heading to Inverness on a shopping trip.

However on her return journey heavy snow and ice prevented her husband, John, from travelling the last 11 miles to pick her up. She was forced to wait a month in a friend’s caravan, before the weather improved and the couple could finally be reunited.

They were separated not just for Christmas and New Year, but also for Mr Ure’s 58th birthday. With no fresh supplies, he was reduced to celebrating with a tin of baked beans. He also ran out of coal, and had to feed the couple’s six springer spaniels on emergency army rations.

“It’s the first time we’ve been separated”, said Mr Ure in December. “We’ve been snowed in here for three weeks before, so we are well used to it and it’s quite nice to get a bit of peace and quiet.”

Monday, September 8, 2008

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a rights group called the American Rights Counsel LLC has attempted to have at least 4,000 anti-Scientology videos removed from the video sharing website YouTube. Upon further investigation, Wikinews found that most videos and clips were added to YouTube by the copyright holders of the material; as DMCA requests are for the purposes of requesting removal where service providers host material that infringe on the copyright of the complainant, the merit of these requests remain questionable. It was also discovered that the alleged rights group does not exist as a physical entity. In an in-depth report, Wikinews investigated the incident and obtained exclusive information and comments from individuals, including XenuTV producer Mark Bunker.

Within the past 24 hours, according to the EFF, the Counsel “sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology.” A DMCA notice, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice means an attempt to limit the use of copyrighted material that is often infringing on the rights of an alleged copyright.

Wikinews made attempts to contact American Rights Counsel LLC for comment on the take-down notices, but was unable to obtain contact details for the alleged organisation. One post on a YouTube discussion page related to the organization states that they “do not appear to exist outside of these claims on YouTube.” Wikinews contacted YouTube several times asking them if they have a process of verifying DMCA requests from individuals or entities claiming copyright infringement, but when they responded, they directed Wikinews to their terms of service saying, “item 8 addresses the DMCA and 8 B addresses counter-notice procedures.”

YouTube’s terms of use in regards to filing DMCA requests states that only “A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed” can make such claims. It also goes on to say, “Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.”

The EFF says the videos attempting to be removed had shown clips from Anonymous protests of the Church and news footage from Australia and Germany which were critical of Scientology. Some videos were also messages from Anonymous to Scientology, and vice versa. Others were also video clips from a City Commission meeting in Clearwater, Florida. Accounts hosting the material were “suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.”

YouTube does, however, have a process for users that wish to file a counter-notice against a take-down under the DMCA. After the DMCA notices were sent, YouTube users began to revolt, by sending “DMCA counter-notices” to YouTube. The EFF states that the counter attack resulted in many of the accounts being reinstated and their videos restored.

One user claimed that he had shot and uploaded one of the videos that was taken down. “How can someone else file a claim against a video I MADE?,” said ShadowVsScientology, one of the YouTube users who had a video deleted. Since he owned the rights to the video, he alleges that the American Rights Counsel had no legal grounds to request its removal.

A video posted on YouTube by a user called ‘Church0fScientology’, who was responsible for the original ‘Message to Scientology’ in January of 2008 created after the Church had a video of a Tom Cruise interview removed from the site, states that the organization responsible for the DMCAs does not exist and is run by a man named Dr. Oliver Schaper. They state that he “fronts” the organization for Scientology. It also calls Schaper’s actions “deceptive”. Schaper also had an account on YouTube which has since been suspended. Wikinews obtained a cached version of his account page in which he states to the group Anonymous, “I respect your efforts as long your efforts remain within the limits of the law and remain fair. Although I don’t censor any postings, I would appreciate if any conversation could remain civil and insult free.” Schaper also states that he “will not censor because I strongly believe in the freedom of speech.” They accuse him of running and owning media companies that distribute gay pornography, something Schaper later admits, but only that it’s an “adult television network.” Homosexuality is not accepted within the Church of Scientology and is not tolerated. Scientology believes that homosexuality is a disease and can be cured.

A user named “Oschaper” has written articles on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia about Peephole TV and Volksmusik TV. Oliver Schaper is the founder of Peephole TV, and is also involved with Volksmusik TV. In an e-mail to Wikinews, Wikipedia user Oschaper claims that his first name is Olaf, and that he is “not related” to Oliver Schaper. “Olaf” writes: “My name is Olaf Schaper and I use the handle oschaper on Wikipedia. I’m not related to Oliver Schaper and we share only the last name … If you like to contact Oliver Schaper please see his companies website at www.acos.tv”. When asked how he managed to get an e-mail address with that last name, Olaf replied, “I got the email because my best friend works for his networks hence the creation of my postings on Wikipedia.”

Wikinews contacted Schaper for exclusive comments. Schaper replied saying that he is a “very strong advocate for the Church of Scientology, the religion of Scientology and a free speech advocate” and “I don’t need to go into details but I felt that my family and myself have been direct targets and in an attempt to control the situation, I started to track down and remove online links between me and my religion. This included postings made by HouseSpiderAnon on his videos, who publicly connected the dots and made them available to a larger audience.”

“I requested several times to have my information removed from his videos as I wanted no association with his work but he refused, even after I stated several times that he has the right to protest but that I would like to enforce my right of privacy. He refused and demanded documentation of the attacks, something I refused because it was not my attention to allow more documents to be available online in public hand,” added Schaper who also said he has been a victim of identity theft and now has the FBI involved in investigating his claim.

“Tustin PD [police department] has been on the case and now the FBI is involved as well. Social Security has been notified and we have seen about 200 attempts to use the SSN [social security number] for fake credit cards applications,” Schaper told Wikinews.

Schaper admits that he contacted YouTube to have videos which contained images of him that were being used without permission and videos “which violated [his] privacy removed.” Those requests made by Schaper were eventually accepted by YouTube but “videos that contained just a text messages directed against me or my church remained,” he added. He also admits to owning “several broadcasting companies, ACOS Broadcasting Corp. (eight mainstream television and two radio networks) & Media House Enterprises, Inc. (adult television network PEEPHOLE TV).”

“I had the power to go fully against copyrighted material because we own or licensed large amounts of content. But it was not my responsibility to enforce all copyright violations on YouTube. In addition with the attacks on our servers, websites and infrastructure, no time would have been available to take on a fight,” added Schaper.

Schaper also denies any involvement with the alleged rights group and also states he was just notified that it doesn’t even exist.

“As many other people, and even members of the Church of Scientology received information about a company that removed anti-Scientology content from YouTube, shit hit the fan and members of Anonymous went on a full attack on me. I still have to this date no information about the American Rights Counsel and I have no connection, knowledge or involvement in this company which I have been informed of does not even exists,” Schaper told Wikinews.

One critic of Scientology, television producer Mark Bunker also had his accounts deleted by YouTube, but had them quickly restored. Bunker also believes that the American Rights Counsel does not exist.

“American Rights Counsel LLC does not exist. When I got my take-down notices from YouTube I tried to file a DMCA counter-notice but in order to do that you need to get the name of the contact person to be served with the notice and the contact information of the company which the government lists on the web,” said Bunker to Wikinews who also added that their name is not registered with the United States copyright office.

“I next did a google search for American Rights Counsel LLC which brought up absolutely no results so clearly this was fraud from the beginning. I contact[ed] YouTube and they quickly restored everything to my account and others,” added Bunker.

Wikinews has also learned that a contributor on Wikipedia, claiming to be a member of Anonymous, has posted what is allegedly personal information of Schaper. The edit, made to the article Peephole TV states that he is a lawyer, employed with a firm on Ricklinger, Stadtweg in Hanover, Germany. It also stated that he is affiliated with the “Tustin Org” in California. In what seems to be a gathering of information on Schaper from other online sources, according to Enturbulation.org, the result of releasing the information has resulted in legal and physical threats from Schaper to someone, known as ‘HouseSpiderV2’ on Enturbulation, who has claimed to have released e-mail correspondence between him and Schaper.

“Don’t think I will not be able to track you down and serve you with papers. I would make the case so expensive for you that you would not be able to even fight this on your own funding as I have the money at my disposal,” allegedly states Schaper to ‘HouseSpiderV2’ in an e-mail. “You have 24 hours to remove the postings or I will start to make this a legal issue. That makes it simple,” he added.

Despite the claims that the Wikipedia contributor is Oliver Schaper, he claims to have never registered an account with Wikipedia. He also says he has never made any threats of physical harm to members of Anonymous.

“I had not the need to register an account with Wikipedia and after all this trouble will not get involved at all. There has never been any threat of violence against Housespideranon or any other member of Anonymous made by me,” Schaper told Wikinews.

Bunker, who recently spoke with Schaper, says he believes Schaper is not involved, but that he also doesn’t know who or what was responsible for filing the DMCA requests.

“I had never heard of Schaper before he was accused of this. I don’t know anything about him other than he contacted me and said he was not involved. I don’t know who was responsible. 4000 deletions in a matter of hours is a pretty major feat. It would be worth a subpoena to find out who committed this crime. I wouldn’t blame Schaper without knowing he did it,” Bunker added.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

On Monday, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia rejected a guilty plea from Travis McMichael after McMichael offered in court to plead guilty to federal hate crimes in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.

It is highly unusual for a U.S. judge to reject a plea agreement, which would waive McMichael’s right to appeal.

McMichael said he was willing to plead guilty to attacking Arbery out of racial animosity, which would make Arbery’s murder a hate crime. In the proposed plea deal, he would have spent the first 30 years of his sentence in a federal prison. After that, he would move to a Georgia state prison for the rest of his life. Per this deal, even if his state charges were overturned, McMichael would still spend many years in prison.

In court, federal prosecutors urged Judge Wood to accept the plea deal, but Arbery’s family asked her not to. The dead man’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said that the men who killed her son did not deserve to choose their living conditions: “Granting these men their preferred choice of confinement would defeat me. It gives them one last chance to spit in my face.”

Prosecutors claimed they had talked with the victim’s family about the plea deal in advance, but lawyers for Cooper-Jones disagreed.

Judge Wood explained that Cooper-Jones’ statement was part of her decision, but her main reason was that she did not want to be held to the strict 30-year sentence agreed upon by prosecutors and McMichael’s lawyers.

Wood’s decision casts doubt on whether McMichael’s father, Gregory McMichael will also plead guilty as planned. Gregory McMichael also helped kill Arbery.

In February 2020, the McMichaels and a third man, William Bryan, chased Arbery, 25, in trucks as he jogged through their suburban Georgia neighborhood. Travis McMichael then fought with Arbery on foot and shot him to death. Bryan took cell phone video of the event, which later appeared on the Internet.

In November 2021, all three men were convicted of murder in Georgia’s Glynn County Superior Court. They were sentenced to life in prison, though only Bryan was granted the possibility of parole. The state of Georgia did not at that time have its own hate crime law, and prosecutors decided to charge the men on the federal level.

Jury selection for Travis McMichael’s federal hate crimes trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 7.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Vernon Bellecourt, once the primary spokesperson for the American Indian Movement, died recently at age 75. Bellecourt, an Ojibwa who fought for Native rights, was perhaps best known for his opposition to Native names and mascots for sports teams.

First in the headlines in 1972, Bellecourt organized a cross-country caravan of the Movement, to Washington. Once there, members of the group occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices. His goal of international recognition for Aboriginal nations and their treaties found him meeting with figures like Libyan Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, and Palestine’s Yasir Arafat. In 1977 Leonard Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murder of two FBI Agents during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; Bellecourt led the campaign to free him.

Most recently, he visited Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, to discuss getting free or cheap heating oil for reservations.

His work as president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media made a much wider known mark, though. Bellecourt emphasized that he believed such names perpetuated racial stereotypes, clouding the real identities and problems facing natives.

Teams with native-related names could almost guarantee on Bellecourt showing up at major games. He twice burned an effigy of Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians baseball team mascot, and both times was arrested. When the Washington Redskins of the National Football League made the Super Bowl, Vernon was there to protest. The United States Commission on Civil Rights was critical of such names by 2001, calling them “insensitive in light of the long history of forced assimilation”. Some newspapers have stopped using the names of teams with Native origins.

None of his “big four” targets have shown any indication of changing: the Washington Redskins, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cleveland Indians or the Atlanta Braves.

Post-season use of American Indian mascots were banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 2005, suggesting the names are “hostile or abusive”. Bellecourt was pleased with the NCAA sanctions, but suggested such actions were only going “half way”.

The Florida State Seminole and the Illinois Illini were among the 18 colleges affected by the ban. Florida president T.K. Wetherell threatened legal action in response. The Florida Seminole tribes have endorsed the University’s usage of the name, but some out-of-state tribes were “not supportive”, according to the NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion.

Born WaBun-Inini, Bellecourt died from complications of pneumonia on October 13, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Today, at around 8:30 a.m. New York Time (1230 UTC) a mass shooting took place on a train between the 25th Street Station and the 36th Street Station on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

At least sixteen people were injured in the incident out of which ten had gunshot wounds and the remaining six were otherwise injured. According to a latest press briefing by the New York Police Department (NYPD) at the scene, no deaths were reported in the incident. Additional people were treated for smoke inhalation and panic attacks.

According to officials, the gunman, while on the train had ignited a smoke bomb on the northbound N train and opened fire at the commuters. When the train reached the 36th Street Station, injured commuters collapsed on the platform. Preliminary investigations suggest that an additional smoke device was detonated at the 36th Street Station. The NYPD has confirmed that currently there are no explosive devices at the scene.

The suspect, who was reportedly wearing a reflective vest and gas mask, fled the scene. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority shut down numerous lines throughout Brooklyn. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also joined the investigation.

The President of the United States, Joe Biden has been briefed about the incident. The shooting came amid a rise in the number of shootings in New York, according to NYPD data.