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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A London man charged on Sunday with drugging and murdering four men made his first court appearance yesterday. Stephen Port, 40, was remanded to appear before a higher court tomorrow.

Port faces four counts of murder and four counts of “administering a poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm”. He is alleged to have administered overdoses of recreational drug GHB. He allegedly murdered the men at his home before dumping the bodies, after finding victims online using gay dating services.

Three of the deaths were last year. Anthony Patrick Walgate, 23, was found dead on June 19, 2014 in Cooke Street. Port lives in Cooke Street. The other three alleged victims were found in the vicinity of St Margaret’s Church on North Street. Gabriel Kovari, 22, was discovered dead on August 28. Daniel Whitworth, 21, was found dead the following month on September 20. Fourth alleged victim Jack Taylor, 25, was found a year later on September 14.

Whitworth and Kovari were known to each other, according to testimony at inquest. The Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission concerning what police called “potential vulnerabilities in [our response] to the four deaths.” Police did not initially link the deaths.

Special needs teacher Port, who was guarded by three officers in the dock, spoke in court to confirm his identity. He did not indicate if he will deny the offences. He was arrested following a police appeal to trace a man seen with Taylor shortly before his death.

Police at the time released security footage of Taylor’s movements, with an officer telling the press “the man captured on CCTV may well be the last person to talk to Jack.” The four deaths were finally linked and passed to the Metropolitan Police’s serious crime investigators on Wednesday last week.

The Magistrates’ Court ordered Taylor to appear at the Old Bailey, a famed London courthouse, tomorrow. He spent the hearing holding one arm, and repeatedly looking at the floor, whilst clad in a grey tracksuit given to him by the authorities holding him.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela has set a new time zone for his country. The new time zone, which is UTC-4:30, is half an hour earlier than the old time. This time zone is unique and does not match any of those used by Venzuela’s neighbors.

This morning, Venezuelans began the work week for the first time under the new time zone, which Chávez announced for the first time in a decree on November 27. According to Chávez, the new time zone would allow school children to wake up with the sun and it would prevent many poor citizens from having to commute before dawn.

“These children have to get up at five in the morning… they arrive at school dead tired,” said Chávez. “And why? Because of our time.” He added, “This affects even the biological functioning of the body. It’s scientifically proven.”

Hector Navarro, the Minister of Science and Technology, agreed that health and productivity would improve as a result. “The human brain is conditioned by the light of the sun,” he said.

“The only thing this will do is inject yet more chaos into our lives,” said John Marulanda, a young executive, to The Daily Telegraph. “This president believes in change for change’s sake.”

The president of Venezuela’s airline association and the head of Copa Airlines in Venezuela, Roberto Pulido, told Bloomberg: “The time change is going to affect many flights, and lots of airlines still haven’t changed their timetables. This is an additional cost, because we’ve had to update all of our reservation systems.”

“I don’t really understand the point, but nothing with this president surprises me,” said Dr. Rafael Sucre to Bloomberg as he exited a subway during his morning commute. “It’s a political whim,” thought Yanitza Lopez, who works as an accountant for a cosmetics company in Caracas. “It’s not going to make any difference for any kids.”

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards, who qualified on the pole position, won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Kobalt Tools 500 held on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, United States. This became his first Sprint Cup win of the season. Throughout the course of the race there were five cautions and fourteen lead changes among five different drivers.

With 47 laps remaining in the 312 lap race, Denny Hamlin was first, but Edwards passed him one lap later. Edwards maintained the lead to win the race, while Hamlin made a pit stop because of a possible shortage of fuel. Ryan Newman took second, ahead of Logano in third. Greg Biffle managed the fourth position, after starting fourth on the grid. Jimmie Johnson, from the Hendrick Motorsports team, clinched the fifth position, after leading none of the laps during the race. Kevin Harvick followed Johnson in sixth, while Matt Kenseth could only manage seventh.

Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten finishers in the race. Hamlin, the current Drivers’ championship leader, led 190 laps and finished twelfth. Following the race, Hamlin commented, “It’s pretty disappointing. We were in a good position there heading into next week. We just have to outrace them next week. We had a good car today and it didn’t work out strategy wise. We did what we had to do today we just didn’t have it at the end. It’s frustrating. We had a car that could win and that is something we’ve never had here. We’ll just go there next week and try to win the race. I don’t know if we were trying to be smart or conservative there are really short.” “I was sitting pretty,” Hamlin continued. “I have to leave Phoenix in Phoenix. I can’t control it. I did everything I could do today and it didn’t work out. It could have been a lot worse. We could have lost the points lead and we didn’t. We’ve had the best car in this Chase and might not win it. The full-court press will be on next week.”

Going into the final race of the season, Hamlin remained the Drivers’ championship leader with 6462 points, fifteen points ahead of Johnson in second, and 46 ahead of Harvick in third. This is the closest that the championship has been since the Chase format was introduced. The Manufacturers’ ?hampionship standings are led by Chevrolet with 255, 42 points ahead of Toyota and 88 ahead of Ford. Johnson commented, “We had to work whatever magic we could at the end and now we have a points race heading to Miami. I know what my mindset is. I hope the pressure of being on Denny’s heels wears on him this week. One race winner take all, it’s going to be a hell of a show.”

Friday, February 17, 2006

MPs at the British Parliament have voted by large majority of 200 to bring in legislation banning smoking in all pubs, clubs and workplaces in a landmark free vote. The ban is expected to come into force from summer 2007.

The originally proposed fine of £200 was raised to £2500 for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas in the late stages of the parliamentary process. Other fines include a fixed penalty notice of £50 for lighting up in banned areas and spot fines of £200 for failing to display no smoking signs in banned areas.

Smoking may also be banned in “substantially enclosed” venues such as railway stations and football stadiums; this may also include cars carrying passengers but no decision has been taken on this as yet. Ministers will finalise precise regulations after a three month consultation.

The vote was politically fraught, as the Labour Party in government had proposed a ‘compromise’ bill, in line with their election manifesto, which would allow pubs not serving food to be exempt from the ban. With many Labour MPs threatening to rebel against this compromise however, in favour of a full ban, Labour granted its members a free vote. MPs then voted for the full ban by a margin of 453 votes to 125,­ a majority of 328.

MPs then debated a last-minute amendment to exempt private members clubs, which was also rejected, by 384 votes to 184,­ a majority of 200. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, voted for a complete ban along with his health secretary, Patricia Hewitt.

The ban will bring England in line with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, which will all be introducing a full smoking ban for pubs and clubs. The bill also gives ministers powers to increase the age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 to 18 which ministers will begin the consultation process upon shortly.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The name Robert Cailliau may not ring a bell to the general public, but his invention is the reason why you are reading this: Dr. Cailliau together with his colleague Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, making the internet accessible so it could grow from an academic tool to a mass communication medium. Last January Dr. Cailliau retired from CERN, the European particle physics lab where the WWW emerged.

Wikinews offered the engineer a virtual beer from his native country Belgium, and conducted an e-mail interview with him (which started about three weeks ago) about the history and the future of the web and his life and work.

Wikinews: At the start of this interview, we would like to offer you a fresh pint on a terrace, but since this is an e-mail interview, we will limit ourselves to a virtual beer, which you can enjoy here.

Robert Cailliau: Yes, I myself once (at the 2nd international WWW Conference, Chicago) said that there is no such thing as a virtual beer: people will still want to sit together. Anyway, here we go.

Monday, February 18, 2008

There were 8 games played in the National Hockey League on February 17, 2008, including the top two teams in the West, the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars, going head to head.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

With two federal by-elections coming up in Australia, many minor parties and independents will be looking to gain a seat in the House of Representatives. Goronwy Price is a candidate representing the Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy party.

Mr Price is an environmentalist, adventurer and businessman from the Sydney suburb of Cremorne.

“In 1975 I founded the adventure travel company World Expeditions and built it to be the world’s largest adventure organisation. I am currently Managing Director of Learningportal.com a successful software company I founded in 1997. We export software around the world.,” Mr Price said.

Wikinews reporter Patrick Gillett held an exclusive email interview with Mr Price, candidate for the Division of Bradfield.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards, who qualified on the pole position, won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Kobalt Tools 500 held on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, United States. This became his first Sprint Cup win of the season. Throughout the course of the race there were five cautions and fourteen lead changes among five different drivers.

With 47 laps remaining in the 312 lap race, Denny Hamlin was first, but Edwards passed him one lap later. Edwards maintained the lead to win the race, while Hamlin made a pit stop because of a possible shortage of fuel. Ryan Newman took second, ahead of Logano in third. Greg Biffle managed the fourth position, after starting fourth on the grid. Jimmie Johnson, from the Hendrick Motorsports team, clinched the fifth position, after leading none of the laps during the race. Kevin Harvick followed Johnson in sixth, while Matt Kenseth could only manage seventh.

Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten finishers in the race. Hamlin, the current Drivers’ championship leader, led 190 laps and finished twelfth. Following the race, Hamlin commented, “It’s pretty disappointing. We were in a good position there heading into next week. We just have to outrace them next week. We had a good car today and it didn’t work out strategy wise. We did what we had to do today we just didn’t have it at the end. It’s frustrating. We had a car that could win and that is something we’ve never had here. We’ll just go there next week and try to win the race. I don’t know if we were trying to be smart or conservative there are really short.” “I was sitting pretty,” Hamlin continued. “I have to leave Phoenix in Phoenix. I can’t control it. I did everything I could do today and it didn’t work out. It could have been a lot worse. We could have lost the points lead and we didn’t. We’ve had the best car in this Chase and might not win it. The full-court press will be on next week.”

Going into the final race of the season, Hamlin remained the Drivers’ championship leader with 6462 points, fifteen points ahead of Johnson in second, and 46 ahead of Harvick in third. This is the closest that the championship has been since the Chase format was introduced. The Manufacturers’ ?hampionship standings are led by Chevrolet with 255, 42 points ahead of Toyota and 88 ahead of Ford. Johnson commented, “We had to work whatever magic we could at the end and now we have a points race heading to Miami. I know what my mindset is. I hope the pressure of being on Denny’s heels wears on him this week. One race winner take all, it’s going to be a hell of a show.”