Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen won the FIA Formula One 2009 ING Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium.

Kimi qualified 6th, but jumped to second after a multiple crash in the first corner involving Jenson Button (Brawn) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) collided with the rookies Romain Grosjean and Jaime Alguersuari and all four drivers were out of the race. When the pace car turned off the lights and the race restarted Kimi overtook the pole-sitter Giancarlo Fisichella in Eau Rouge, who drove his Force India to the second place.

Sebastian Vettel finished third for Red Bull, while his teammate Mark Webber was ninth after a drive-through penalty for unsafe release from pit-stop. BMW Sauber Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld placed 4th and 5th respectively.

Rubens Barrichello finished after Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen. Nico Rosberg closed the top eight for Williams.

Jenson Button did not score any points but still leads the championships with 72. Rubens Barrichello earned 2 points and is within 16 of Button. Sebastian Vettel is now only 3 points behind Barrichello and Mark Webber still has 51.5 points. Brawn GP tops Constructors’ standings with 128 points. Red Bull Racing is 23.5 points behind with other far behind.

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Monday, December 31, 2007

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2007 if they asked you about it in, let’s say, 20 year’s time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2007, what would the question be? The year that you first signed on to Facebook? The year Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse fell apart? The year author Kurt Vonnegut or mime Marcel Marceau died, both at 84?

Let’s take a look at some of the international stories of 2007. Links to the original Wikinews articles are in bold.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The United Stated Department of Justice has asked for corruption charges against former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to be dropped because evidence was withheld from the defense team by the original prosecutors. The Justice Department has stated that they will not retry Stevens.

In a statement, US Attorney General Eric Holder said, “After careful review, I have concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial. In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial.”

Stevens was convicted in October on seven felony counts of lying on senate disclosure forms about gifts, largely in the form of free renovations to his home, received from an oil service company; his conviction is thought to have been a large factor in his November electoral defeat to former Anchorage mayor Mark Begich, the current junior Senator from Alaska. Stevens immediately appealed his conviction and has maintained his innocence.

The prosecution case has met with a number of procedural difficulties, with US District Court judge Emmet G. Sullivan holding the prosecution in contempt in March for failing to turn over documents concerning an FBI whistleblower’s reports of mishandling of the case. The Justice Department has since replaced the case’s prosecutors, and the allegations of misconduct have held up sentencing from the original convictions.

The filed papers indicate that notes were never turned over from an interview that has the oil contractor estimated the house renovation for far less then he specified at trial.

The original trial team was removed, but in the end Attorney General Eric Holder thought it would be best if the case was dropped. NPR’s source indicate that Holder wish to forcefully transmit that prosecutorial misconduct will not be tolerated. The trying prosecutors are under investigation by the Justice Department for their conduct in the matter.

Stevens, now 85, served as Alaska’s Senator from 1968 to 2009.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Rapper Dababy (cropped).jpg

Following remarks by the rapper DaBaby regarding HIV/AIDS at a Miami, Florida festival, his remix of Dua Lipa’s song Levitating has lost a significant amount of radio audience in the United States of America. Yesterday, Billboard reported that, out of all the radio plays for Levitating, DaBaby’s remix now only makes up 49.5% of the radio plays for the song, a 20.7% decrease from last week.

At a performance at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami, DaBaby told an audience, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cell phone light in the air”, and went on to say, “Fellas, if you ain’t suck a nigga dick in the parking lot, put your cell phone lights in the air.” Lipa responded on her Instagram story by writing that she was “surprised and horrified” by DaBaby’s words, adding that “we need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS”.

Audacy, which is the second-largest radio group in the USA, told Billboard that they had removed the remix of Levitating from their stations “in light of DaBaby’s homophobic statements”. Jeremy Rice, who is the programming and branding director of Long Island-based WBLI in New York, has said that his station shifted to the version of Levitating that solely features Lipa, saying that WBLI management “just think it’s the right thing to do” given what he called DaBaby’s “plain wrong and hurtful” comments.

Fellow rapper T.I. defended DaBaby, arguing that “If you have a Lil Nas X video, and him living his truth, you gone damn sure have people like DaBaby who are going to speak they truth.” Lil Nas X is a gay rapper, who released the music video for his single Industry Baby on July 23, which “depicted him and a crowd of male dancers seemingly performing nude”, with their genitals blurred, according to Snopes.

Although DaBaby initially stood by his comments, on August 2 he apologised “to the LGBTQ+ community” for what he called “my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS”. While saying that he appreciated “the many people who came to me with kindness, who reached out to me privately to offer wisdom, education and resources”, the rapper also wrote that “social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate and learn from your mistakes”.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Canadian Astral Media Inc. will buy out Standard Radio Inc., which runs many radio stations in Canada. Standard Radio Inc. is the largest privately owned multimedia company in Canada.

Montreal based Astral Media Inc. will buy all of the assets from Standard Radio Inc. for about CAN$1.2-billion. Standard Radio Inc.’s 52 radio stations, and Astral’s 29, will be brought together by Astral Media Inc. This will give Astral 81 radio stations in total. This makes Astral the largest radio operator in Canada of FM and AM radio.

“With the acquisition of Standard Radio, Astral Media will not only be acquiring the best performing radio stations in the country, we will at the same time acquire a company with similar values and culture. said Ian Greenberg, President and CEO of Astral Media.

“Over the past four decades the Slaight family has built a remarkable collection of strong radio brands and has contributed meaningfully in shaping the Canadian radio industry as we know it today. We are delighted with the prospect of welcoming Standard Radio’s employees into our team.”

Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio also commented on the deal.

“We are looking forward to becoming a part of the Astral Media family,” said Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio. “We are pleased to see our legacy live on with a company such as Astral that has such a strong track record and commitment to its employees and to the Canadian radio and television industries.”

All of Astral’s radio stations are run in Quebec and Atlantic Canada and it also runs various television stations across Canada. Astral also has two french channels that broadcast on Sirius satellite radio Canada.

The company hopes to finalize the deal in or before April.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Toronto residents will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Toronto Centre (Ward 28). One candidate responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Edward Chin, Paula Fletcher (incumbent), Patrick Kraemer, Suzanne McCormick, Daniel Nicastro, and Michael Zubiak.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.