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.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Buffalo, New York —A proposed hotel that was supposed to be built at the corner of Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, New York is apparently off the table. The former proposal was going to be called The Elmwood Village Hotel and would have consisted of 72 rooms and cost between $7 to $10 million American dollars to build.

Today several unknown individuals were seen removing a sign that was dedicated to the “Elmwood Village Gateway,” which signifies the beginning of the Elmwood Village at the formerly proposed project’s location.

Nearly an hour later the men replaced the sign with a different and unexpected sign: “For Sale: 5 commercial parcels and 1 carriage house, By: Owner.” Those 5 “parcels” are 1109-1121 Elmwood and 999 Forest Avenue, which is located in an illegal alley, according to the City of Buffalo, behind the 5 other properties on Elmwood. Hans Mobius owns all properties named in the sale.

Sam Savarino, CEO of Savarino Companies never owned the properties and has repeatadly told Wikinews in exclusive interviews that he still had a “contract to buy the properties” and on October 2, 2006 told Wikinews in an exclusive interview that he “extended” the “agreement to purchase the property[s] and will have it under contract for what we hope is a sufficient period of time.”

“He [Mobius] is undoubtedly concerned because he has lost some tenants and is a bit impatient. I think he has properly portrayed the situation,” said Savarino in an exclusive interview with Wikinews.

Savarino also says that there may be “legal issues” to work out now, before anything else can move forward, regarding the proposal.

“There are some legal complexities that must be sorted out before anything can happen there,” added Savarino.

The welcome sign was; however, not removed entirely. The sign was placed, facing the same direction of north, on the side of the Forest Plaza Art Gallery, a new art gallery located on the corner of Forest and Elmwood.

Nancy Pollina, owner of Don Apparel which was located at 1109 Elmwood, but closed on October 14, 2006 considers this a possible “victory” in regards to the lawsuit filed against the hotel to stop it from being built, alleging that several laws were broken, including not performing an Environmental Impact Study before the proposal was approved by the city, during its approval and the proposal was “rushed.” Patricia Morris, who operates Don Apparel with Pollina, Angeline Genovese and Evelyn Bencinich, owners of residences on Granger Place which abut the rear of the proposed site, Nina Freudenheim, a resident of nearby Penhurst Park, and Sandra Girage, the owner of a two-family residence on Forest Avenue less than a hundred feet from the proposed hotel’s sole entrance and exit driveway, were also plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They filed the suit with a lawyer representing them, Arthur J. Giacalone, on April 25, 2006 in New York State Supreme Court, but the case has never gone to a courtroom.

Giacalone believes that a press release issued in July regarding the project was nothing but a statement to “save face,” but that the placement of the for sale sign might be a way of convincing Savarino to speed up the sale of the properties.

“I thought all along that Savarino’s July press release might be no more than an effort to save face. But we have no way of knowing. Similarly, Mobius might have put the for-sale sign up in an attempt to pressure Savarino into closing the deal. There’s no way to tell,” said Giacalone in an exclusive interview with Wikinews.

In regards to the lawsuit, Giacalone thinks it may now be in “limbo.”

“The lawsuit still sits in limbo,” added Giacalone.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Harry McNevin, explained in a recent interview that he quit the Board of Regents at Oral Roberts University in disgust in 1987 after 16 years of service when he learned that Richard Roberts, Oral Roberts and other Roberts family dipped into the school’s endowment fund for personal expenses.

McNevin noted that he resigned after the board practically “rubber-stamped” the “use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house.” In addition he said a country club membership was purchased for the home. The home was reported purchased for US$3 million and another $3.5 million was spent remodeling it.

The Associated Press also cited Patti Roberts, Richard’s first wife, who wrote in her 1983 memoir, “Ashes to Gold,” about expensive gifts including a blue Mercedes as a Christmas gift for Richard, a Jaguar for her, Italian suits and Palm Beach vacations. Suzanne Culpepper, the Roberts’ former nanny, said Lindsay (Richard’ second wife) and Richard spent money wildly. This included 275 pairs of shoes for Lindsay, 120 pairs of shoes (including 18 pairs of golf shoes) for Richard, 165 suits for Richard and other large amounts of clothing in their walk-in closest.

Previously the Roberts were accused of illegal political and financial wrongdoing, which forced the president to step down from his position.

A United States Senate committee is currently investigating six major ministries over their finances. Three of these ministries are headed by members of ORU’s Board of Regents.

Recently Tulsa World wrote that Oral Roberts University raised $8.8 million starting in 2001 for a new student center, but construction has begun and officials said “the school has used some of the money for scholarships and operations.” Tulsa World requested documents about the ORU student center, but the “university released details but not records about money raised for the center.”

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Having worked as an aide, advisor, and Executive Assistant to municipal and provincial politicians, Sheila White is running for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough-Rouge River 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.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Today, after two years of waiting, American iPhone users are finally able to send and receive MMS messages. This long awaited feature has caused Apple and AT&T a great deal of grief from its user base. Originally the grief was directed at Apple for the lack of inclusion on the device, but as time progressed AT&T was faulted for lack of support.

When the iPhone was released in June of 2007, it lacked one feature that was widely available on other devices: MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service. This standard, similar to the all text SMS standard, allows users to send and receive video, audio, and picture files on their mobile phones. MMS was launched in 2002 and by 2007 was a common feature on most new mobile phones. It was not until June 2009, with the release of iPhone OS 3.0, that the devices also had the capability to send and receive these multimedia messages. Unfortunately for American iPhone users, all of whom use AT&T because of an exclusive agreement between the phone company and Apple, AT&T did not allow iPhone users to use this feature; that changed today.

Current iPhone users simply need to update (from iTunes) and reboot their device in order to enable MMS. AT&T was originally concerned about not having the network capacity to handle the data demand of all the MMS messages and in Wikinews’ own testing this seems to be a valid issue. The ability to send and receive MMS messages was functional, but by midday Friday (PST), AT&T’s network was extremely slow, with messages taking in excess of two minutes to send. Tests over AT&T’s 3G network showed upload and download speeds nearly halved what they were just a few days prior.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Two children and a woman have been stabbed to death by a knife-wielding man at a crèche (day care center) in Dendermonde, Belgium. Officials have confirmed that the deaths occurred due to knife wounds inflicted by an unidentified man wearing white face paint with blackened eyes, who arrived by bicycle at the crèche in East Flanders.

The Associated Press reports local prosecutor Christian Du Four telling a news conference, “We have three people dead and 10 in various hospitals.” The injured have been taken to the University Hospital in Ghent and other neighbouring hospitals.

The alleged attacker, said to be a 20-year-old, rang the doorbell of the crèche at 09:00 UTC (10:00 local), then ran upstairs when the door was opened. He fled the scene by bicycle and was arrested at 10:30 UTC. He was reported as being injured as he was detained. State broadcaster VRT described the man as being local, whilst AP reports Leene Du Bois, a Flemish government official, as saying that he had no connection with the crèche.

The crèche had 18 children in its care, with six adults in attendance.

Police arrested the suspect at a nearby shop. Reuters reports that Belgian media believe the suspect to be a psychiatric patient.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

International police cooperation organization Interpol has put Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowers’ website Wikileaks, on its most-wanted list after a court in Sweden announced he was wanted for alleged sex crimes. Wikileaks is this week releasing more than 250,000 secret “cables” between US diplomats.

Two weeks ago, Swedish authorities ordered the arrest of Assange for suspected rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force. Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, yesterday released a “Red Notice” calling for Assange’s arrest. Interpol stated that this type of notice is not an arrest warrant, but a request “to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition.”

The incidents are alleged to have occurred in August of this year, several weeks after Assange released 75,000 documents detailing US military actions in Afghanistan. “The background is that he has to be heard in this investigation and we haven’t been able to get a hold of him to question him,” said Marianne Ny, director of prosecution in Sweden.

It was first reported that he was suspected of rape later in August, when he described the allegations as part of a “smear campaign” against Wikileaks. Wikinews reported at the time that he said “the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.” A statement posted on Wikileaks’ website after the charges were announced defended Assange. “We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind WikiLeaks think highly of Julian and he has our full support. While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations.”

Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, said that the allegations against him were made after the two women he is alleged to have raped found out that he was in relationships with both at the same time. “Only after the women became aware of each other’s relationships with Mr. Assange did they make their allegations against him,” Stephens said in a statement.

Stephens added that he had not “received a single written word, at any time, in any form, from Swedish authorities on the Swedish investigation against our client,” and he and Assange had only learnt about the case through reports in the media. “[This is] a clear contravention to Article 6 of the European Convention, which states that every accused must be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him,” he added.

Assange is currently residing in an unknown location. It has been reported he has attempted to disguise himself by cutting and dying his hair. He told Forbes magazine recently that Wikileaks has obtained documents containing evidence of corruption within a major US bank. He has reportedly been paying in cash and with friends’ credit cards.

Speaking about the release of the cables, he told ABC News: “US officials have for 50 years trotted out this line when they are afraid the public is going to see how they really behave.” It was reported on Wednesday that Ecuador, a country which critically opposes US policies, has offered Assange residency.

Along with the arrest, Assange is facing mounting pressure in the US over the leak of the cables. A retired CIA agent, Peter King, said Wikileaks should be designated a “terrorist organisation,” and called for Wikileaks and Assange to be prosecuted for the release.

On Monday evening, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, condemned the publishing of the files, thought to be leaked by Bradley Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst with the US Army before being arrested.

“It is an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations, that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity,” Clinton said. “There is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people, and there is nothing brave about sabotaging peaceful relations between nations on which our common security depends.” She added that the US “deeply regrets” the leakage of the files.

Speaking to Time magazine on the internet, Assange defended the release of the files. “It is not our goal to achieve a more transparent society, it’s our goal to achieve a more just society,” he said. He also confirmed that Wikileaks has obtained more classified material, saying:”[W]e have a lot of source material that … remains unpublished.” Assange added that it was “very important” to him that “the law is not what, not simply what, powerful people would want others to believe it is.”

Assange said in the interview with Time that all the documents had been reviewed and all names of informants had been redacted “carefully.” He said: “They are all reviewed, and they’re all redacted either by us or by the newspapers concerned.” He also said that Wikileaks “formally asked the State Department for assistance with that. That request was formally rejected.”

He was asked whether he was concerned that publishing the files could be considered civil disobedience. “Not at all. This organization [Wikileaks] practices civil obedience, that is, we are an organization that tries to make the world more civil and act against abusive organizations that are pushing it in the opposite direction,” he said. “We have now in our four-year history, and over 100 legal attacks of various kinds, been victorious in all of those matters.”