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    HIV-positive man receives 35 years for spitting on Dallas police officer

    Sunday, May 18, 2008 An HIV-positive man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday, one day after being convicted of harassment of a public servant for spitting into the eye and open mouth of a Dallas, Texas police officer in May 2006. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that no one has ever contracted HIV from saliva, and a gay-rights and AIDS advocacy group called the sentence excessive. A Dallas County jury concluded that Willie Campbell’s act of spitting on policeman Dan Waller in 2006 constituted the use of his saliva as a deadly weapon. The incident occurred while Campbell, 42, was resisting arrest while…

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    Wikinews Shorts: July 9, 2007

    A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, July 9, 2007. On July 9, 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced the release of an 80GB hard drive version of its PlayStation 3 video game console, priced at US$599. Sony also announced a price drop to US$499 for its current 60GB model. Jack Tretton, Sony Entertainment America chief executive, said, “Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum.” Sources “Sony cuts Playstation price in US” — BBC News Online, July 9, 2007 Scea. “Sony Computer Entertainment America Introduces New 80GB PLAYSTATION(R)3” — prnewswire, July 9, 2007 Nigerian gunmen have released three-year-old Margaret Hill, after holding her captive for four days. The…

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    Jindal signs Intelligent Design law

    Saturday, June 28, 2008 Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal signed a controversial bill hailed by intelligent design supporters, such as the Discovery Institute, and Louisiana Family Forum, a creationist group. Critics of the bill, including several major science organizations, say it allows for the teaching of “creationism” in public schools. The law, Louisiana Science Education Act, allows teachers to use “supplemental materials” when discussing evolution, but it does not state what the materials would be. Citing the 1987 Supreme Court ruling in Edwards v. Aguillard, “Louisiana has a long and unfortunate history of trying to substitute dogma for science in classrooms,” said Reverend Barry W. Lynn, an executive director for…

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    Barack Obama presents rescue plan after GM declaration of bankruptcy

    Monday, June 1, 2009 In a televised speech from the White House at 16:00 UTC today, President of the United States Barack Obama presented a reorganization plan following the 12:00 UTC announcement by General Motors that it had filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 protection from its creditors, the largest bankruptcy of a U.S. manufacturing company. Describing the problem with the company as one that had been “decades in the making,” Obama explained the rationale behind his proposed reorganization plan for General Motors. He stated that his intent was not to “perpetuat[e] the bad business decisions of the past,” and that loaning General Motors money, when debt was its problem,…

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    US Senator Ted Stevens convicted on 7 counts

    Monday, October 27, 2008 United States Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted Monday on seven counts of failing to report gifts. Stevens, a senior United States Senator from Alaska and the longest serving Republican in the Senate, had been accused of not reporting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from the VECO Corporation including free house remodeling. The jury in the District of Columbia found Stevens guilty on all seven counts. Bill Allen, VECO’s CEO, is a longtime friend of Stevens and much of the case involved the specific interaction between Stevens and Allen. Allen had been previously convicted and had agreed to testify against Stevens and…

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    Mortgage advisers attempt to collect rent from neighbors after FBI raid in Union City, California

    Friday, May 6, 2005 Three months after the FBI raided the offices of the Dorean Group in Union City, California, neighboring companies in the same office park have received letters claiming that rent for the office park should now be paid to the Dorean Group. The owner of the office park, Hanover Properties, insists that they have not sold the park and called the Dorean Group’s claim fraudulent. The first letter from the Dorean Group, dated May 2nd, 2005, purported to “inform [the tenants] of the change in ownership of the property [the tenants] now occupy,” and asked that “payment of rents be sent” to the principals of the Dorean…

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    St. Anthony Foundation provides hope

    Friday, September 23, 2005 On the corner of Golden Gate Ave. and Jones St. in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, right next to the Civic Center you can see a throng of low-income and homeless people lining up outside of St. Anthony’s Dining Room hall which opens up it’s doors everyday at 11:30 a.m. Volunteers dressed in St. Anthony Foundation shirts help keep the lines moving as hundreds of homeless and low income people shuffle their way towards the dining hall underneath the watchful eyes of a small statue of St. Francis of Assisi. “There’s a lot of people who go hungry out here and it ain’t right.” says Jimmy Scott,…

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    2010 Chile earthquakes: Government confirms 452 dead

    Saturday, March 20, 2010 Chilean Government confirmed 452 deaths caused by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the central and south zones of Chile on February 27 and the Pichilemu earthquake on March 11. The official death toll was released yesterday by the Interior Undersecretary Rodrigo Ubilla. Ubilla explained that “after a rigorous work in which participated Carabineros, the Investigation Police, the Medical Legal Service, and the Civil Registry, and was later checked by the Interior Undersecretary, we made a unique list of dead people and of denunciations of presumed dead.” In spite of this, Ubilla said that there are just 359 identified dead people, with death certificates and cause…

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    KKE: Interview with the Greek Communist Party

    Thursday, May 13, 2010 Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview. The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and…

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    Andrea Muizelaar on fashion, anorexia, and life after ‘Top Model’

    Monday, November 26, 2007 In the 18 months since Andrea Muizelaar was crowned winner of the reality TV series Canada’s Next Top Model, her life has been a complete whirlwind. From working in a dollar store in her hometown of Whitby, Ontario, to modeling haute couture in Toronto, she had reached her dream of becoming a true Top Model. But at what cost? Unknown to casual television viewers, Muizelaar had been enveloped in the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which inevitably became too much for her to bear. She gave up modeling and moved back to Whitby, where she sought treatment for her disorder, re-entered college, and now works at a…