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Friday, May 16, 2008 Controversy has arisen over the reported presence of blue asbestos on the MV Freewinds, a cruise ship owned by the Church of Scientology. According to the Saint Martin newspaper The Daily Herald and the shipping news journal Lloyd’s List, the Freewinds was sealed in April and local public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao where the ship is docked began an investigation into the presence of asbestos dust on the ship. Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft supervised work on the ship in 1987, and attested…

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 A report published last week in the Toronto Star by Professor Michael Geist of Canada’s University of Ottawa claims a copyright case under the Class Proceedings Act of 1992 may see the country’s largest players in the music industry facing upwards of C$6 billion in penalties. The case is being led by the family and estate of the late jazz musician Chet Baker; moving to take legal action against four major labels in the country, and their parent companies. The dispute centres around unpaid royalties and…

Saturday, September 17, 2005 The Spanish word “tortuga” means “turtle.” But in the wake of the New Orleans disaster, the USS Tortuga is helping other animals. For nearly two weeks now, sailors from Tortuga’s repair division have devoted much of their time during this disaster relief operation to ensure the health and comfort of displaced pets. September 4th, just after the ship moored to a pier at Naval Support Activity (NSA) New Orleans, HT1(SW) Mark Hanley and DC1(SW) Antony Graves gathered materials from the repair shop on board to construct…

Monday, April 16, 2012 Wikinews Audio Briefs Dateline Sunday, April 15, 2012 Listen to this brief Problems? See our media guide.

Monday, October 19, 2009 A report accidentally published on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens, as reported by Wikileaks earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p file sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under its current mandate. INDECT produced the accidentally published report as part of their “Extraction…

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Swiss banking giant UBS today reported better than expected first-quarter results – but warned investors that full year results could be hit by weaker investment banking revenues. First-quarter net profit stood at 2.625bn Swiss francs (US$2.19bn; €1.7bn) up 15% from last year’s 2.28bn Swiss francs. Assets under management grew to 2.36 trillion Swiss francs (US$1.97 trillion; €1.53 trillion); an increase of 21.2bn Swiss francs on last year. Despite the solid performance, CFO Clive Standish told the media “Clearly we have seen a slowing of the markets…

Friday, October 18, 2013 A massive fire is feared to have killed residents and destroyed more than one hundred homes in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. The blaze is one of the worst New South Wales have seen in more than a decade, said Premier Barry O’Farrell. Emergency services attempted to evaluate the extent of the devastation on Thursday night, and determined that up to 30 homes in the area of Springwood had been lost. Mr O’Farrell says it will be a miracle if lives were…

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 Australia’s cricketer Brett Lee is out of the first Ashes test match – which starts on July 8 in Cardiff – with a torn muscle in his left side. He is also doubtful to play the second Test at Lord’s, which begins on July 16. It will be at least two weeks before he can start training in the nets again. “I am very very disappointed and gutted that I will not be there for the first Test match but I will find a way to…

Monday, December 1, 2008 After windy and stormy conditions in Florida prevented its planned landing at Kennedy Space Center, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decided to redirect the space shuttle Endeavour to California. It touched down successfully at Edwards Air Force Base at 1:25 p.m. local time, or 21:25, November 30, 2008 (UTC). NASA normally prefers to land space shuttles at its home base, Kennedy Space Center. In this case, NASA will have to transfer Endeavour atop a jumbo jet from California to Florida at an estimated cost…