Former “crossover” Canadian MP to leave politics

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Canadian MP Belinda Stronach has officially announced she will not run for re-election in her riding of Newmarket—Aurora in the next federal election. She will re-join her father Frank Stronach‘s company Magna International Inc., a large auto parts company, as the executive vice-chairwoman.

“My father is looking to the future, the company is facing important strategic decisions, and the Canadian and global auto sector and economy are in a period of great challenge,” Stronach announced. “So I am stepping aside from elected politics for the time being and will now take part in public life in a different way…I will continue to represent the interests of the constituents I serve until such time as a federal election is called,” she said. “I also plan to continue to play an active role in the community.”

During Stronach’s career a series of events have made national headlines.

In 2004, she ran against now Prime Minister Stephen Harper for leadership of then the new formed Conservative Party of Canada and finished second on the first ballot. She was later elected as Conservative MP for Newmarket—Aurora. Stronach had many differences to Stephen Harper and his Conservatives supporting abortion and same-sex marriages. She also claimed the party was going too far-right. In 2005, two days before a non-confidence vote to bring down the Liberal government, she crossed the floor to the Liberal Party of Canada and retained her seat. Upon her crossing she immediately became Minister of Human Resources and Social Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal. It also ended her personal relationship with fellow Conservative MP Peter MacKay. If Stronach had not joined the Liberals an election would have been called. On April 6, 2006, Stronach held a news conference announcing that she would not seek the leadership of the Liberals, which was later won by Stephane Dion.

In September, she was caught cheating with former NHL player Tie Domi. In October 2006, Peter MacKay referred to Stranach as a “dog”. Stronach, a feminist, demanded an immediate apology and said that it offended all Canadian women.

CTV bureau chief Robert Fife speculated the decision by Stronach, not to seek re-election, may have had something to do with her dissatisfaction over a diminished role in the new Dion caucus. “She did not have a high-profile critic’s role and she had not been prominent in asking questions in question period after Mr. Dion took over,” suggested Fife.

Stronach has been serving as Critic for Competitiveness and New Economy. She previously served as Critic for the Minister of Transport under interim leader Bill Graham.

The public is also questioning Stronach’s move to keep her seat until the next federal election, they happen every five years or less. If she had decided to leave her seat completely, an immediate by-election would be called.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Former_%22crossover%22_Canadian_MP_to_leave_politics&oldid=4498143”
Leave a comment

Manchester City agree big money for Shaun Wright-Phillips to move to Chelsea FC

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Chelsea FC had a bid of £20,000,000 for the England winger rejected on Friday after they finally made their interest in the player official.

Shaun Wright-Phillips had declared on Friday he was happy to stay at Manchester City FC, but 24 hours later he asked City to agree a fee with Chelsea so that he could move to Stamford Bridge.

Both sides have now thrashed out a fee for Wright-Phillips and the flying winger has now been given permission to open talks with Chelsea.

“As a result of Shaun’s request to speak to Chelsea we have conducted a series of complex negotiations with Chelsea,” City’s communications chief, Paul Tyrrell.

“A fee for Shaun’s transfer of £21,000,000 has been agreed and consequently we have granted his wish to talk to the other club.”

Chelsea are hoping to tie up a deal with Wright-Phillips as soon as possible so that he can join them on their tour of the U.S.A next week.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Manchester_City_agree_big_money_for_Shaun_Wright-Phillips_to_move_to_Chelsea_FC&oldid=4235859”
Leave a comment

Wikinews interviews candidate for New York City mayor Vitaly Filipchenko

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

In early May, Wikinews extended an invitation to Vitaly Filipchenko, an independent candidate in the 2021 New York City mayoral election, set to take place November 2nd, alongside other candidates. Filipchenko answered some questions about his policies and campaign during a phone interview.

Filipchenko, registered on the New York City Campaign Finance Board as Vitaly A. Filipchenko, is the first Russian candidate for New York City mayor, being born in Tomsk, Siberia in 1973, according to news agency Sputnik. He has since naturalised as a United States citizen. According to the web site, Filipchenko has been educated in road construction and maintenance and owns a moving services company; he describes himself on his web site as a “small business owner”. On his web site’s platform page, he says that “[m]y English may not be perfect – but my platform is.”

Incumbent Democrat mayor Bill de Blasio, who won re-election in the 2017 New York City mayoral election by 66.5%, cannot run for a third term under term limits. As of April 28, 22 candidates are currently running, the majority of whom are also Democrats. Ahead of the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, a poll conducted May 23 and 24 by WPIX and Emerson College of 12 Democratic candidates with a margin of error of 3.2 per cent has former commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation Kathryn Garcia and Borough President of Brooklyn Eric Adams leading with 21.1% and 20.1%, respectively.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews_interviews_candidate_for_New_York_City_mayor_Vitaly_Filipchenko&oldid=4673651”
Leave a comment

Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with NDP candidate Glenn Crowe, Bramalea-Gore-Malton

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Glenn Crowe is running for the NDP in the Ontario provincial election, in the Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Crowe did not reply to various questions asked.

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.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Ontario_Votes_2007:_Interview_with_NDP_candidate_Glenn_Crowe,_Bramalea-Gore-Malton&oldid=704112”
Leave a comment

Chef who appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ commits suicide

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Joseph Cerniglia, a chef who had appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s television show Kitchen Nightmares, has commited suicide. Cerniglia was the owner of Italian restaurant Campania. He jumped off a bridge into the Hudson river on the New York–New Jersey border. At the time of filming in 2007, Cerniglia owed suppliers $80,000.

Officials reported that 39-year-old Cerniglia had jumped off of the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson. His death has officially been ruled as suicide. His body was retrieved from the river after reports of a man jumping off of the bridge.

Ramsay released a statement to the Press Association saying “I was fortunate to spend time with Joe during the first season of Kitchen Nightmares. Joe was a brilliant chef, and our thoughts go out to his family, friends and staff.”

Cerniglia told Ramsay about his personal debt when he came to the restaurant in 2007. He said “I am financially in trouble. The debt of the restaurant alone is overwhelming. My personal debt — wife, kids, mortgage — that’s a lot of debt”.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Chef_who_appeared_on_Gordon_Ramsay%27s_%27Kitchen_Nightmares%27_commits_suicide&oldid=4460692”
Leave a comment

Computer Associates warns of massive botnet attack

Sunday, June 5, 2005

Computer Associates are warning of a current three pronged, co-ordinated malware attack on computers that are using Microsoft Windows and are connected to the Internet. The attack involves the use of three different Trojan horses called Glieder, Fantibag and Mitglieder. The goal is to create a botnet consisting of a large number of compromised computers. Access to this group of compromised machines will then be available on a black market, at prices as low as five cents per machine.

  • Win32.Glieder.AK: The first of the three, this Trojan horse attempts to de-activate an extensive list of security/antivirus related processes and services running on the target computer. It also attempts to lower security settings in order to facilitate easier access for subsequent Trojan horses.
  • Fantibag: This second Trojan horse creates filters on the target machine in order to prevent access to a large number of antivirus companies’ Web sites. Thus, not only is the target computer now well and truly compromised, but an average Windows user will be completely unable to remove these violations of their system.
  • Mitgleider: Once the first two Trojan horses have largely eliminated any possibility that the target will be able to defend itself, this one finishes the job. It opens port 38884 and configures it to act as a SOCKS 4 proxy, but the compromised system can now also be commanded to do the following:-
    • Changing the backdoor port number
    • Updating the trojan
    • Downloading and execute files
    • Uninstalling the trojan
    • Initiating an SMTP server on TCP port 25, which can be used to relay spam.
    • Executing files on the infected computer
    • Downloading and executing files via an URL

It should be noted that these Trojan horses only affect the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. No other operating systems (such as Linux and Apple‘s OS X) are vulnerable. In order to prevent infection, Windows users are advised to ensure that they have the latest operating system patches from Microsoft, that their chosen antivirus software is up to date, and that they are using firewall software where appropriate.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_Associates_warns_of_massive_botnet_attack&oldid=434901”
Leave a comment

France, Germany officials warn against using Internet Explorer

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Officials from France and Germany have warned people against using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, citing security holes, and encouraged users to find an alternate browser to surf the Internet.

The government agency Certa, which oversees cyber attacks and security, warned against using all versions of Internet Explorer. Officials from Germany had warned last Friday against the browser when malicious code was published on the Internet.

“Pending a patch from the publisher, Certa recommends using an alternative browser,” Certa said in a statement.

Graham Cluley, from the security firm Sophos, said that the weakness had only been exploited in IE6, but he noted that “Microsoft themselves admit there is a vulnerability, even in IE8.” He noted that, since more information into the malicious code is now available on the internet, hackers could alter the code to make it affect other versions of the browser.

The head of Microsoft’s security and privacy department, however, commented that “the risk is minimal. There are very few of them out there,” adding that in order for a computer to be infected by a virus, it would have to be running IE6 and be on a compromised website. “If you look at other browsers, it’s likely they will have other vulnerabilities,” he said to the BBC. “We feel strongly that IE8 is most secure browser on the market.”

Microsoft encouraged users to upgrade to IE8, which they described as the “most secure browser on the market”.

The firm is working on a patch to fix the problem, however, a spokesman said there wasn’t any specific timeframe for its release.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=France,_Germany_officials_warn_against_using_Internet_Explorer&oldid=943556”
Leave a comment

Security flaws in Mozilla Firefox internet browser fixed

May 12, 2005

The Mozilla Foundation have released version 1.0.4 of their popular Firefox browser, which fixes the two major problems discovered earlier this week.

The new version fixes no less than six security flaws, including the two ‘extremely critical’ flaws. Other fixes include one which prevents another method of running code without permission on a user’s computer.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Security_flaws_in_Mozilla_Firefox_internet_browser_fixed&oldid=4392300”
Leave a comment

UK police arrest woman over William Davis murder

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

In the United Kingdom, West Midlands Police arrested a 35-year-old woman yesterday in relation to the murder of William Davis.

The 92-year-old man was found deceased in his residence in the town of Willenhall, England on Sunday. Davis was found to have experienced serious head injuries, causing his death, according to West Midlands Police.

At a police press conference yesterday, Detective Superintendent Richard Baker appealed for any witnesses who may have been in the vicinity of the murder scene to come forward, while describing Davis’ last movements: “[H]e was seen at 9AM on Sunday 1 April in his front garden, where he stopped and chatted to passersby. At around 3:15PM a neighbour took some lunch round to his house. At 6PM concerned neighbours who were unable to rouse Bill gained access to his property and found him.” A statement from the force suggests Davis’ murderer would have departed from his house with a “heavily blood stained” appearence.

Access to Davis’ residence has been restricted as forensic examinations continue there. The woman continues to cooperate with the force. Chief Inspector Mike O’Hara, of a local policing operative in the town of Walsall — also in the West Midlands — stated his “local neighbourhood policing team who have an excellent working relationship with the local community will be on patrol to offer reassurance and will be available to link in with anyone that needs advice or would like to discuss any concerns they may have.”

Those who know of any information regarding this incident can contact:

  • Criminal Investigation Department: 101
  • Crimestoppers: 0800 555 111 [anonymous]
Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=UK_police_arrest_woman_over_William_Davis_murder&oldid=1566502”
Leave a comment

Small plane with one pilot crashes near Virginia airport

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

A small plane, piloted by sixteen-year-old Ryan McCall, crashed near Orange County Airport in Virginia, at about 9:45 a.m. local time Sunday morning, police said. He was killed in the accident.

The boy, Ryan McCall, a sophomore at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County, was alone on the plane. The plane, a 1974 Piper, model PA28140, crashed in a field just east of the airport. The plane belonged to Springfield, Virginia resident William Rushing III.

Flying instructors suggested birds might have contributed to the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are continuing their investigation as to what actually happened. Sixteen-year-old pilots are common, according to Virginia Aviation Board President Johnny Meza. He said a sixteen-year-old flying either alone or with a certified pilot is allowed. The NTSB predicted five to ten business days for a preliminary report.

The Spotsylvania County school district sent out a memorandum saying the school’s administration is working with counsellors to help students cope with the loss of their classmate. The statement said in part, “We were very saddened to hear the news about the death of Riverbend High Sophomore Ryan McCall.” Grief counsellors were available at the school to provide support to students.

The boy’s remains were sent to a medical examiner’s office for autopsy.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Small_plane_with_one_pilot_crashes_near_Virginia_airport&oldid=3395840”
Leave a comment