Top Stories
Iran: We will also take 'illegal actions' if UN imposes sanctions Iran has stated Wednesday that if the United Nations proceeds with imposing sanctions on the country or force them to halt their uranium enrichment, they will proceed with "illegal actions." Oil exploration in California, USA reveals giant impact crater Researchers in San Joaquin County, California have discovered what appears to be a massive impact crater made by an asteroid nearly 50 million years ago, while exploring the area for possible oil deposits.

Featured story
Mass wedding held against racism in Belgium In February, three couples refused to pledge their wedding vows in front of the black alderman of the city of Sint-Niklaas, because of the colour of his skin. So he decided to organise a mass wedding, to send a positive signal against racial discrimination in Belgium.

Wikipedia Current Events
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom, delivers the 2007 budget. The main rates of corporation tax and income tax will both be reduced by 2% from April 2008, but other taxes are increased. Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and the broker of the Dayton Peace Accords Richard Holbrooke warns that if the United Nations votes against independence for Kosovo in April the region may erupt into violence. An Israeli Special committee decides the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbullah is to be named the Second Lebanon War. Two British sailors die and a third is injured as a result of an accident on the nuclear submarine HMS Tireless in the Arctic Ocean. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces that the Bush administration will cut its security package to the Palestinian government by nearly half in order to ensure that Hamas does not receive funding. Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns that Iran will pursue nuclear development outside regulations if the United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions. A labour strike in Israel led by union Histadrut shuts down all government offices and transportation. Islamist insurgency in Somalia (2007–present): At least seven people die in heavy fighting in Mogadishu as Somalian and Ethiopian troops enter an insurgent stronghold. Sri Lankan Civil War: Eleven people die in fighting between the Sri Lanka Army and the Tamil Tigers in the Batticaloa district. President of Russia Vladimir Putin declares a national day of mourning after three separate disasters kill at least 173 people in three days: the Ulyanovskaya Mine disaster, the crash of UT Air Flight 471 and a fire in a retirement home.

Pakistan coach's death 'suspicious'
The death of Bob Woolmer, Pakistan's cricket coach at the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, has been officially labelled "suspicious" by the deputy commissioner of police, Mark Shields, in Jamaica today.

"We are now treating [the death of Mr. Woolmer] as suspicious" he said at a news conference.

Bob Woolmer unexpectedly died in his hotel room in Jamaica last Sunday shortly after Pakistan's surprise defeat at the hands of Ireland.

2007 Cricket World Cup: Pakistan vs Zimbabwe
Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 93 runs in Group D of the 2007 Cricket World Cup at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica.

After rain delayed proceedings, Zimbabwe's target was reduced by the Duckworth-Lewis method to 193 runs from 20 overs.

This was a game of farewells for Pakistan; their first game since the death of their coach Bob Woolmer, this also was their final match in the competition, and the last ODI match for their captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first.

SpaceX Falcon I rocket fails to orbit test satellite
The SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket has failed to place a DARPA demonstration payload into orbit, on its first flight into space. The rocket launched from Omelek Island, at 01:10 GMT on 21 March, just less than a year after its maiden flight which failed just seconds after launch.

The rocket, which is the first privately-funded liquid-fueled launch vehicle, was intended to place the payload into a low-Earth orbit, but all contact with the rocket was lost just over five minutes into the flight.

The first stage burn proceeded nominally, and separation occurred on schedule. As the first stage fell away from the second, it was observed to have impacted on the engine bell of the second stage. About five minutes into the flight, the second stage began to roll out of control. All data was lost at T+5 minutes, 5 seconds.

SpaceX Falcon I launches from Kwajalein Atoll
SpaceX Corporation successfully launched its Falcon I rocket today from Kwajalein Atoll. Liftoff occured at 6:00 PM PDT, following two previous launch aborts this week.

The first stage was completely successful, although there appeared to be some problems with the second stage. The sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of 300 km, and is on a traectory for re-entry.

This is the second launch for the low-cost SpaceX rocket, and the first successful launch for the company. The previous launch had a successful lift-off, but failed 35 seconds into the flight and exploded above the launch pad due to a fuel leak in the engine.

2007 Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh
Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 198 runs in Group B at the World Cup at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

After rain delayed proceedings, Bangladesh's target was reduced by the Duckworth-Lewis method to 311 runs from 46 overs.

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first.

Two UK sailors killed in submarine accident
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed in a news release, March 21, 2007, that two Royal Navy crew members had been killed in an accident aboard nuclear submarine HMS Tireless earlier in the day. The next of kin for both men have been informed.

Another submariner had been injured and was airlifted to a United States military hospital for treatment. His injuries are not considered life-threatening.

The accident occurred at 4:20 a.m., March 21, on board HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar class submarine, during a joint US-UK exercise in the Arctic.

The MoD suggested that the accident involved a piece of air-purification equipment in the forward section of the submarine. The submarine was not in danger and its nuclear reactor was unaffected. HMS Tireless is a hunter-killer submarine and does not carry nuclear missiles.

HMS Tireless was submerged under the ice cap at the time of the incident. The crew brought the submarine to surface quickly through the ice.

The Tireless was fitted, in 2001, with an update to the piece of air-purification machinery thought to have failed. As a precaution, the MoD is restricting its use on other boats until safety checks have been carried out.

"I very much regret that this incident has occurred and my thoughts go out to the family and friends of the men who have lost their lives," said Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, Commander-in-Chief Fleet.

He added, "I also wish to pay tribute to the crew of HMS Tireless that this incident has been dealt with and contained so professionally."

It was not stated what the official cause of death was.

Canadian Liberal MP expelled from caucus for supporting Conservative budget
Liberal Member of Parliment (MP) Joe Comuzzi, 73, was ousted from the Liberal caucus today by leader Stéphane Dion.

The move was in response to Comuzzi's intention to support the Conservative government's second budget, tabled March 20, 2007. Comuzzi supports the budget because it has funding for a cancer research centre that will hire 300 people in his riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North in Northern Ontario.

"It's for a single issue that's of absolute critical importance to all the people in Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario, and that's the cancer research centre," he said in responce to his decision.

Following a March 21 caucus meeting, Dion told reporters "I spoke with him. He said that he will vote for this bad budget." Dion explained that it was obligatory for his MPs to follow party direction on confidence measures, such as the latest budget. "He's well aware, after 19 years in the House, of the consequences of what he's doing,"

Comuzzi, first elected to the House of Commons in 1988, had resigned a junior cabinet position previously in 2005, in protest of Paul Matin's then Liberal government's support of same-sex marriage. He had held the Minister of State responsible for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor) portofio.

Comuzzi will sit as an Independent and had previously said he will not run in the next federal election. He is now one of the two only Independent MPs in the House.

The move will leave the Liberals with 100 seats in the House. Out of all the 308 seats in the House, the governing Conservatives have 125 seats, the Bloc Québécois have 50, and the New Democrats have 29.

Reward against terrorists in Greece
The Greek ministries of Public Order and Economy announced that they offer the amount of 800,000 euros to those who will submit infomation that could help authorities in the fight against local terrorism. More specifically, as Greek police stated, everybody who has information about the Revolutionary Struggle (ELA) terrorist far-left organization, can call (within Greece) the police numbers, 170 and 1014.

This effort by the greek government has been fully supported by the Embassy of the United States in Athens which, in a statement, announced that offers up to $1 million to those who will significantly help towards the capture of terrorists. As the Embassy stated, "you can help bring terrorists to justice and save lives by providing valuable information to resolve past acts of terrorism or prevent future ones".

The Revolutionary Struggle is regarded as a spinoff of the notorious terrorist group November 17th; the members of which were captured in 2003. ELA took responsibility for a rocket attack against the US Embassy in Athens, on January 12, 2007.

Fossilized remains of "burrowing" dinosaur found in Montana
The remains of a fossilized "burrowing" dinosaur have been found in Lima, Montana and scientists say that the dinosaur may have been forced to dig in an effort to survive the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs nearly 65 million years ago.

One full grown dinosaur and two young ones are the first evidence of any burrowing dinosaur to be discovered by scientists and is also the first evidence that a dinosaur cared for their offspring in dens.

"Burrowing behaviour allows vertebrates to escape harsh environmental conditions. Small dinosaurs could potentially have withstood severe conditions, such as drought or ... temperature extremes. Survival of terrestrial vertebrates at the end-Cretaceous event has been attributed to sheltering behaviour, with the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs resulting from their inability to find an appropriate cover," said Montana State University's chief researcher, David Varricchio.

The new dinosaur has been called "Oryctodromeus cubicularis" which is being defined as the "digging runner of the lair."

"Here we have the burrow, den, an adult with traits for digging, and two juveniles, all in the same place. It doesn't get much better than that," said researcher at Emory University, Anthony Martin.

The remains were found in an area that was once covered by an ancient flood, but Varricchio states that the flood was not the cause of the dinosaurs death.

"The bones are disarticulated; they are not in life position. It's not like they were sitting in the burrow and a flooding event filled the chamber with sediment and they were entombed. They must have died, undergone decay and then the burrow was filled," added Varricchio.

The fully grown dinosaur is at least 2.1 meters long and weighed nearly 22 to 32 kilograms. Scientists say that the dinosaurs are nearly 95 million years old and are from the Cretaceous period of dinosaurs. In evolutionary terms, the dinosaur lived just before the asteroid impact that made dinosaurs extinct.

Coroner warns on Internet drugs
In a Public Safety Bulletin released March 20, 2007, a coroner in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, warns on the dangers of purchasing pills from online companies.

Rose Stanton, Regional Coroner for the Vancouver Island area, has linked the purchase of pills on the Internet to the recent death of a British Columbia woman.

The woman, a 57-year old from the Campbell River area, died from poisoning, according to preliminary test results. The precise cause of death is still being investigated by police and the coroners service, according to Stanton.

In late December 2006, the woman had told friends of feeling unwell with flu-like symptoms, and had experienced hair-loss and blurred vision. She died a few days later.

Pills found in the possession of the dead woman were traced back to a purchase the woman made on a health-related website. The death is thought to be the first in Canada caused by pills purchased on the Internet.

Analysis of the pills by the Provincial Toxicology Centre revealed that some contained an anti-anxiety drug, obtained normally with a prescription in Canada. In addition, the pills contained a sedative not legally sold in Canada, which has been linked to overdose deaths in other countries.

On further testing, the pills were found to contain a non-medicinal filler and revealed the presence of heavy metals, some of which can cause serious illness, according to the Bulletin.

"We cannot impress upon the public strongly enough the dangers of buying medications online from a company you don't know," said Stanton. "There is just no way of knowing what you are getting."

The website in question belonged to a group of companies which, according to the coroner's investigation, change websites and Internet addresses every few days.

The B.C. Coroners Service is recommending that if someone has purchased drugs over the Internet that they are uncertain about, they should bring them, in the original packaging, to a pharmacy for proper disposal.

Toronto man claims $18 million jackpot
Luckyrajah Paramanatha, known by his nickname "Lucky", claimed his $18 million Lotto 649 jackpot Tuesday.

The previously purchased free play lottery ticket was bought at the Sunny Convenience Store on Eglinton Avenue East in Scarborough, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto). He checked them on March 19, the official draw date.

"I'm so happy," Paramanathan said. "I can't stop smiling...I started screaming. I never imagined I would win this much. I'm still shocked and overwhelmed."

Paramanatha, 43, who lives in Scarborough, moved to Canada seven years ago and is a maintenance worker at a Toronto apartment building and cleans city swimming pools. He earns $48,000 a year from both jobs. Paramanatha said that he has been playing the lottery ever since he moved to get his wife and two sons, aged 7 and 10, from Sri Lanka to move to Canada.

"This win will allow me to bring my wife and two sons to Canada to start a new life," he said.

He currently lives in an apartment building with his friend but plans later to buy a house with his family.

Church of Sweden open to homosexual weddings
The Lutheran Church of of Sweden will perform gay wedding ceremonies if the government legalizes same-sex marriage, according to Claes-Bertil Ytterberg, Bishop for the Swedish Church Assembly that is the decision-making body for the Church of Sweden.

Sweden recognized same-sex civil unions in 1995, but full marriage between persons of the same sex has remained illegal. Recently government-appointed committee has concluded civil-unions law outdated and recommended that the parliament would allow legal same-sex marriages.

The church is going to support legalizing for same sex marriage and open its doors for gay and lesbian ceremonies. The church leaves it up to the individual priest whether to perform such a ceremony or not, according to the bishop.

Even though homosexual couples would be wed in the same way as straight couples, the church would like the ceremony to be called something else because "the word wedding is so traditional and is reserved for men and women."

The Church of Sweden already performs blessings for same-sex couples, as in 2005 when special church ceremonies to mark homosexual civil unions were allowed. There are still some rifts on the issue within the Church of Sweden, however they have become less visible, the bishop says.

According to the statistics 7 million of Sweden's citizens belong to the Lutheran Church of Sweden, however fewer than 4% are reported to attend Sunday services.

NSW Opposition leader uses Yahoo Answers to query voters
The Opposition leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party, Peter Debnam, has turned to the power of the internet to communicate with his constituents. Mr Debnam has posted on Yahoo! Answers asking voters how NSW could be fixed.

Mr Debnam said he felt there was a great number of issues left neglected in the state and asked for suggestions on how to fix the state. "I believe there are a great number of issues left neglected in this state what are your suggestions to fix NSW?" said Mr Debnam. It is the first time a major Australian politician has used a community-driven site to poll voters.

Mr Debnam will be contesting the NSW Premiership at the election to be held on Saturday, March 24.

Posters on the site have complained about issues ranging from poor transport infrastructure, the state's economy, emergency room waiting times and the funding of NSW schools.

Honeybees disappearing in USA

At least 24 states across the United States are reporting that honeybees are disappearing and the reason is not known, but scientists have an idea of what might be causing the disappearance.

"Every day, you hear of another operator. It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling," said acting state apiarist, Dennis vanEngelsdorp who works for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

At least 30 to 60 percent of the bees on the west coast of the U.S. have died or disappeared. The east coast and the state of Texas have reported a nearly 70 percent loss of bees. A 20 percent drop in bee population is expected each winter and is considered normal.

“One-third of the food you eat is dependent upon honeybee pollination. If that one-third doesn’t happen, I don’t know what will occur at the grocery store” —Lance Sundberg

"Anything above [a] 30 percent [loss] is concerning," added vanEngelsdorp.

"It’s as high as 100 percent in Texas and one guy in Virginia, who has 27 hives left out of 1,400 hives. It’s to the point now where we’re starting to contact some crisis management people," said David Hackenberg who is one of the largest beekeepers in Pennsylvania.

"I’ve never seen anything like it. My hives are just getting emptied. There’s nobody home," said beekeeper, David Bradshaw.

The bees are reportedly leaving their hives to search for flowers to pollinate, and then never return home. The queen bee, nurse bee and baby bees remain in the hives only to die. Some call it a "colony collapse disorder."

"We see dead bee hives with no dead bees and nothing will live in the hive. If I had to guess, 40 percent of the bees along the East Coast are dead since September of last year. In the West Coast, it’s 25 percent and almost everybody is on either coast," said a beekeeper in Columbus, Montana, Lance Sundberg who runs the Sunshine Apiary bee hives. Sundberg has said that his bee count went from 5,600 in June of 2006 to less than 3,800 in February of 2007. He says mites might have caused at least half of the loss with the other half unexplainable.

Scientists say that the cause of the deaths and disappearances could be natural causes. Some also say that some bees became disoriented or could have been infected with mites, which could cause a lethal virus to overcome the bees. Other theories include the spread of a bee virus or a possible fungus which could cause them to die, poor nutrition and inbreeding. Scientists say that cell phone towers and crops that have been genetically engineered are not suspected of being a cause.

Tracheal mites were the cause of a drop in bee population in 1985. After two years passed, the Varroa jacobson mite, which sucks the blood out of the bees, killed nearly 80% of bees in Montana.

Pesticides may also be to blame which could cause the bees to literally get lost on their journey back home.

"One-third of the food you eat is dependent upon honeybee pollination. If that one-third doesn’t happen, I don’t know what will occur at the grocery store," added Sundberg.

Montana is the U.S.'s 5th largest producer of honey and exports hundreds of thousands of bees to California to help with the pollination of almond plants.

Today in History
238 - Gordian I and Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.

1784 - The Emerald Buddha of Thailand was installed at the Wat Phra Kaew on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

1849 - After capturing the fortress town of Mortara, forces led by Austrian General Joseph Radetzky von Radetz routed Piedmontese troops at the Battle of Novara.

1963 - Please Please Me, the first album recorded by The Beatles, was released.

1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov of the Soyuz programme returned from the Mir space station after 437 days in space, setting a record for the longest spaceflight.

March 22 is World Day for Water

Quote of the Day

Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America. ~ Russ Feingold

Word of the Day

procure; v

To acquire or obtain an item, usually through extra effort.

About Wikinews
We are a group of volunteer journalists whose mission is to create a diverse community where citizens from around the globe (including you) can collaborate to report the news on a wide variety of current events. By making our content perpetually available for free redistribution and use, we hope to contribute to a global digital commons. Got news and no computer? Call the Wikinews Hotline +1-866-653-4265 (toll-free in the U.S.) +1-202-742-5918 (outside the U.S.) +44-871-218-6397 (U.K. / Europe)
License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Articles published in this Print edition were created by Wikinewsies. Other content released under the GNU Free Documentation License. To view a copy of the CC-BY license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor San Francisco, California, 94105, USA To view a copy of the GFDL, visit: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html Wikipedia Current Events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events Today in History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Quote of the Day http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page Word of the Day http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page
About Wikinews Print Edition
For more information about Wikinews Print Edition visit: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Print

Thursday, March 22, 2007	Wikinews	Page 6

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit www.wikinews.org

March 22, 2007	The free-content news source that you can write!	Page 6

If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit en.wikinews.org

Wikinews Back Page

2007-03-22T21:08:19