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Thursday, September 28, 2017

On Tuesday, Salman bin Abdulaziz, the king of Saudi Arabia, signed a royal decree to permit Saudi women to obtain a driver’s license and drive. The new decree is to be under effect from June 2018. After the signing of the landmark decree, Saudi’s foreign affairs ministry tweeted, “By order .. Traffic system allows women to drive the car in the Kingdom” ^{((ar)) Arabic language: ???? ????.. ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????} .

Saudi Arabia was the only country where women were prohibited from driving. A committee of ministers is to decide upon how to implement this decree, and provide recommendations within a month. A majority of the country’s religious advisory Council of Senior Scholars had agreed with the amendments. Though women would be issued driving licenses, their permission to drive would have to be in accordance with the Shari’a law, the scholars said. Also, Saudi Arabia has a law about guardianship, which mandates women seek permission from male guardians before leaving home. The committee would make recommendations about scenarios like this.

Last year, prince Alwaleed bin Talal issued a statement in support of eradicating this ban. The prince said, “Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity”. He added, “They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion.” The prince also cited economic concerns. In his statement, he said families had to rely on drivers when a female member had to travel, which could be avoided if women were allowed to drive. He said, “Having women drive has become an urgent social demand predicated upon current economic circumstances”.

Manal al-Sharif, who was punished for driving in Saudi Arabia, and who advocated rights for women to drive, tweeted, “Today, the last country on earth to allow women to drive #Women2Drive#Daring2Drive we did it”, after the announcement was made. Women who protested against the unequal rights in 1990 and 2011 were punished, in various cases jailed and banned from travel for years.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Microsoft announced today the official launch of MSN adCenter in France and Singapore. adCenter allows advertisers to target specific demographics using information provided by Microsoft’s Hotmail and Microsoft Passport Network users.

“The launch of adCenter in France and Singapore is a great first step to delivering on our global vision to connect advertisers to consumers in a much more meaningful way,” said Yusuf Mehdi, senior V.P. of MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform.

Advertisers will be able to target ads based on geographic location, gender, age range, time of day, and day of the week. If MSN has no information on the visitor it will display ads based upon keywords. Additional features include a cost estimator and a site analyzer that will recommend keywords based on the content of the advertiser’s website.

MSN currently has a contract for Yahoo ads that runs through 2006, and they are expected to slowly phase them out, although MSN has not confirmed this.

adCenter has been in testing in France and Singapore since March. Testing in the US will begin in October. Microsoft plans to eventually sell ads on websites outside of MSN.

This initiative is a part of a broader strategy that Microsoft has launched to compete against Google’s AdWords service, in operation for several years, which allows advertisers to bid on specific keywords and ensure ad placement on the company’s search engine and other online properties. Microsoft’s chief executive vowed to “kill Google” in an expletive-laden tirade against the firm, according to US court documents filed by Google.

Many internet users choose to block web page advertisements from both Microsoft and Google, using several different techniques of ad filtering, such as adblock in the firefox web browser.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Access to search engine Google has been limited and most of Google’s online services cannot be accessed in Turkey. The access limitation happened due to the blocking of an IP set that belongs to Google. These IP addresses were shared between YouTube and other Google services.

The Turkish news site Hürriyet Daily News reports that Turkey’s Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TCP) (a government agency that manages Turkish ISPs) indefinitely shut off access to several Google services. The shut-off came after the banning of YouTube for alleged insults against Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. TCP released an official statement Friday, saying it had blocked access to some Google IP addresses “because of legal reasons”. Under Turkish law, it is an offence to “insult Turkishness.”

Softpedia states that the limited access to Google could be a result of the government trying to block specific DNS addresses that relate to Google, as part of its ongoing attempts to block YouTube. Since Google services share common software and IP addresses, the search engine itself suffers from access restrictions. Turkish citizens are concerned that this move of the governmental agency was another step towards a complete ban on Google, as exists in China.

Several Internet sites have been banned in Turkey in recent years, and although some of them were subsequently unbanned, most of them remain inaccessible. Engelli Web, a website listing banned sites reports that currently YouTube (since May 2008), Last.fm (since June 26, 2009), and Spanish newspaper El Mundo (since May 14, 2010) are among the banned sites in Turkey. MySpace and WordPress were also among banned sites for a period of time. Websites will be blocked following a court decision or if TCP decides to block on its behalf.

RetweetToday reports that Turkish citizens on Twitter have also reported access problems. Comments about the blockage are being shared using hashtags such as TurkeyCensorGoogle and TurkeyGoogleBan, as well as NoGoogleNoWeb.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

A bomb positioned below the car of a police officer in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom has exploded, killing him. The unidentified 25-year-old officer, recently employed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland after graduating from a college of police training three weeks prior, was directly involved in the incident as he sat inside the vehicle outside his residence in Omagh, County Tyrone, which occurred at a time immediately before 1600 BST (1500 UTC) today. The man, who died at this location, has now been identified as Constable Ronan Kerr.

It is currently uncertain as to whether or not any other individuals were killed or injured as a result of the incident. It is also unclear who was responsible for committing the act. It is thought that dissident republicans were responsible for the bomb blowing up today, due to numerous similar prior incidents involving them.

Gerry Adams, the current president of Sinn Féin, has stated: “I want to send my condolences to his family at this hugely traumatic time. Sinn Féin is determined that those responsible will not set back the progress of the peace and political process.”

Shaun Woodward, the present Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has claimed that “[t]his evil and cowardly attack will sicken everyone across Northern Ireland. These crimes are targeted on those who protect the community. We all deeply mourn the brave young man whose life was taken by this savage crime. We all have a duty to stop those behind it from succeeding.”

Over the course of the past one-and-a-half years, numerous incidents of a similar nature have taken place with Police Service of Northern Ireland employees being targeted. Despite various devices being unsuccessful in detonating, a police officer suffered an explosion in January 2010. As a consequence, both of his legs were lost. In a separate incident in May 2008, another police officer lost their legs as the result of a bomb attack. In March 2009, a group of dissident republicans were responsible for fatally shooting a policeman in Craigavon, County Armagh.

David Cameron, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, said of today’s incident: “Those who carried out this wicked and cowardly crime will never succeed in dragging Northern Ireland back to a dark and bloody past. Their actions are rejected by the overwhelming majority of people right from all parts of the community.” Meanwhile, Peter Robinson, the current First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive, commented that “[i]t was a young man who was bravely entering the police service, recognising that he was putting his life on the line. I have absolutely no doubt the overwhelming number of people in NI want to move on. It’s only a few Neanderthal who want to go back. They will not drag us back to the past.”

Monday, December 28, 2015

According to witness reports, Boko Haram gunmen and suicide bombers killed at least fifteen people in an attack in the city of Maiduguri, Nigeria yesterday, before the military drove them off.

Locals reported hearing gunfire as evening prayers ended at local mosques. The military pushed back the militants, who were on trucks and firing at civilians with guns and grenade launchers, with heavy weapons fire. Amidst the fighting, suicide bombings were carried out.

A local resident Sheshu Mala said that during the attack, “all the residents in the area fled their homes to other parts of the city.” As people fled, two female suicide bombers reportedly detonated themselves in groups of people.

Government sources say ten other suicide bombers have been killed.

The militant group Boko Haram started in the city of Maidugari, where the attacks took place; they lost the territory three years ago as the military retook the city.

The news came after another Boko Haram attack on the village of Kimba killed at least fourteen people on Friday.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Marion Schaffer is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Oakville riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Wikinews spoke to several residents of the US state of Texas finding varying opinions, and responses, to the threat from the West Nile virus; this, in contrast to the troubling media reports released recently. The state as a whole has seen more than 400 confirmed instances of the illness so-far this year.

A Longview woman, said, “[…] It’s terrifying. I’m so scared.” The woman was quick to point out a virus-related death occured in her city the same day. When asked about her daily routines, in light of the virus, she said, “I don’t go outside. I stay indoors. West Nile [virus] is bad.” The Director of Nursing for a large encampment located near Tyler said their operation had seen no cases of the illness, despite serving over 19,000 campers this summer. Her staff took no special precautions during August.

Although having some worries, Jimmy Philmont, 39, of Fairfield told Wikinews, “[…] I don’t let it keep me up at night. Overall, I’m not too scared.” Asked if he was aware of recent virus-related deaths in Texas, Philmont said, “Yeah, I am. That’s kind of scary. But, you have to live your life, you know? The world is hot now. You can’t go hide in a hole somewhere.” Earlier in the month, Tim Whitley, a city official in Malakoff, told Wikinews his city had began using a pesticide specialist to spray twice-weekly. Whitley explained two treatments per week is more often than usual for the city, “With the concerns in Dallas, we’re taking it seriously”, he said.

A nurse at a senior activity center in Austin told media she’d taken time to educate their facility’s clients about the virus and proper precautions; Adding, “They feel less alarmed and we try to protect our folks here […]”. Mark Kitsmore, 54, of Tyler said, “Honestly, I’m not too worried about it.” He jokingly commented, “I’ve probably used a little more bug spray over the past few weeks, though.”

Twenty-six people have died so-far this year as result of having contracted the virus, approximately half occurring in Texas. The mayor and county judge in Dallas have declared a state of emergency in response to the virus.