Monday, November 6, 2006 There were a record amount of fire calls during Guy Fawkes night, the festivities had emergency services stretched to the limit, a spokesman for the NZ Fire service said that it was “like driving through a war zone.” Despite this, no major structure fires were reported. Preliminary numbers show that the…
Retired U.S. vets sue Donald Rumsfeld for excessive service cutbacks
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 One thousand residents of the Defense Department-managed Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. filed a class-action lawsuit on May 24, asserting that the cut-backs in medical and dental services imposed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are illegal. The operating budget for the home was reduced from $63 million in…
Pfizer and Microsoft team up against Viagra spam
Sunday, February 13, 2005 New York –”Buy cheap Viagra through us – no prescription required!” Anyone with an active email account will recognize lines like this one. According to some reports, unsolicited advertisements (spam) for Viagra and similar drugs account for one in four spam messages. BACKGROUND Spamming remains one of the biggest problems facing…
Ukranian railway accident generates huge phosphor cloud
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 An alarm for heavy chemical pollution has been issued in the Lviv region, Ukraine, where yesterday evening a railway disaster led to a fire involving 15 containers of liquid yellow phosphorus. Extinguishing the fire proved extremely difficult because water cannot be used: in contact with phosphorus, water creates poisonous gas. It…
Bangladesh security tightened following Pilkhana massacre and Bashundhara City fire
Friday, March 20, 2009 Following the Pilkhana massacre which occurred February 25 and 26 leaving 74 dead and the inferno at the Bashundhara City shopping mall complex March 13 leaving seven dead, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said security measures are being tightened countrywide across Bangladesh. Fire drills will be enacted at all key-point installations (KPI)….
Woman killed in house fire in South Yorkshire, England
Monday, January 25, 2010 An elderly woman has died in a house fire in South Yorkshire, England. The woman, who is currently remaining unidentified, was blind and 93-years-old when her bungalow in Sheffield caught fire as a result of an accident in her kitchen yesterday afternoon. An internal investigation into the fire has suggested that…
Explosion at earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant
Saturday, March 12, 2011 File:Fukushima-1.JPG An explosion has been reported at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after its cooling system was damaged by a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit off the North-East coast of Japan on Friday. The explosion occurred at around 3:00pm local time (6:00am UTC). According to the plant’s operator,…
Five South Korean workers kidnapped from Nigerian natural gas facility
Thursday, June 8, 2006 Five South Korean workers have been kidnapped from a natural gas facility operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company in the Nigerian Delta. A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings and says that one kidnapper and at least six…
Paintings worth millions of Swiss francs stolen in Zürich
Monday, February 11, 2008 On Sunday evening, around 16:30 local time, three armed men wearing ski masks stole four paintings: Claude Monet‘s “Poppy field at Vetheuil,” Edgar Degas‘ “Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter,” Vincent van Gogh‘s “Blooming Chestnut Branches” and Paul Cezanne‘s “Boy in the Red Waistcoat” from Foundation E.G. Bührle museum in Zürich, Switzerland….
Canada’s Scarborough-Agincourt (Ward 40) city council candidates speak
This exclusive interview features first-hand journalism by a Wikinews reporter. See the collaboration page for more details. Friday, November 3, 2006 On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Scarborough-Agincourt (Ward 40). One candidate responded to Wikinews’ requests for an…