Author: Admin

<div class=Grand Finals set in 2021-22 Sunshine Coast, Australia cricket season
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Grand Finals set in 2021-22 Sunshine Coast, Australia cricket season

Posted on by Admin

Monday, March 7, 2022

Cricket Grand Final match ups on Australia’s Sunshine Coast have been set, with many being made through washed out semi finals.

Three games scheduled the be played at Burpengary, Morayfield, and Wamuran were unable to proceed when the local government, Moreton Bay Council, closed access to any sporting grounds in their region. The games affected were the Division 3 game between Burpengary and USC, the Division 1 game between Caboolture and Maroochydore, and the Division 4 game between Wamuran-Stanley River and Palmwoods.

No play was possible on either ground at the Glasshouse Mountains grounds, as the sports club that controls the facilities did not allow them access. Games affected were the Division 4 game between Glasshouse and Maroochydore, and the Division 5 game between Glasshouse and USC.

One ground in Palmwoods got a game on. The Division 5 game at between Palmwoods and Cooroy-Eumundi at the Palmwoods Sports Reserve nearly had a first innings result on day 1. The home side batted first scoring 92. Cooroy were 52 for the loss of 9 wickets. Palmwoods would get the last wicket on Sunday.

The main ground in Tewantin, Read Park, was deemed too water logged after an inspection by both teams in the Division 1 game between Tewantin Noosa and Glasshouse. Tewantins Division 6 side managed to get 61 overs in on Sunday against Yandina before lighting became a factor. That match concluded in a draw.

USC and Palmwoods got enough play in for a first innings result. The home side chased down the 86 required for that result an hour before the scheduled lunch break. Palmwoods would concede the match about 20 minutes prior to the interval.

USC all-rounder George Bagshaw said: “We bowled well, bowled them out for about 86 and yeah, did the rest with the bat. [We] certainly dug in; Me and Trav[is Bell] put on a good partnership and, yeah, good for the rest of the boys to get it done this morning.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_Finals_set_in_2021-22_Sunshine_Coast,_Australia_cricket_season&oldid=4668628”
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<div class=Market maker Bernard L. Madoff arrested in $50B ‘giant Ponzi scheme’
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Market maker Bernard L. Madoff arrested in $50B ‘giant Ponzi scheme’

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 Correction — January 10, 2009 This article incorrectly states that Mr Madoff attended Hofstra University Law School. His education was actually with Hofstra College, which he graduated from in 1960. 

Friday, December 12, 2008

Top broker and Wall Street adviser Bernard L. Madoff, aged 70, was arrested and charged by the FBI on Thursday with a single count of securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud. He allegedly told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that his $50 billion business “is all just one big lie” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme (since at least 2005).” Mr. Madoff faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $5 million. FBI agent Theodore Cacioppi said Mr. Madoff’s investment advisory business had “deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in investors’ losses of approximately $50 billion dollars.”

The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is also the founder and primary owner of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. The firm is one of the top market maker firms on Wall Street. He founded his family firm with an initial investment of $5,000, after attending Hofstra University Law School. He saved the money earned from a job lifeguarding at Rockaway Beach in Queens and a part time job installing underground sprinkler systems.

A force in Wall Street trading for nearly 50 years, he has been active in the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a self-regulatory organization for the U.S. securities industry. His firm was one of the five most active firms in the development of the NASDAQ, having been known for “paying for order flow,” in other word paying a broker to execute a customer’s order through Madoff. He argued that the payment to the broker did not alter the price that the customer received. He ran the investment advisory as a secretive business, however.

Dan Horwitz, counsel of Mr. Madoff, in an interview, said that “he is a longstanding leader in the financial-services industry with an unblemished record; he is a person of integrity; he intends to fight to get through this unfortunate event.” Mr. Madoff was released on his own recognizance on the same day of his arrest, after his 2 sons turned him in, and posting $10 million bail secured by his Manhattan apartment. Without entering any plea, the Court set the preliminary hearing for January 12.

Madoff’s hedge fund scheme may rank among the biggest fraud in history. When former energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets. The scheme would dwarf past Ponzis, and it would further be nearly five times the telecommunication company WorldCom fraud and bankruptcy proceedings in 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate civil suit on Thursday against Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and its eponymous founder Mr. Madoff. It was docketed as “U.S. v. Madoff,” 08-MAG-02735, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). SEC, New York associate director of enforcement, Andrew M. Calamari, asked the judge to issue seizure orders on the firm and its assets, and appoint a receiver. The SEC pleads, among others, that “it was an ongoing $50 billion swindle; our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions.” It further accused the defendant of “paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors” for years. Madoff’s hedge fund business had previously claimed to have served between 11 and 25 clients and had $17.1 billion in assets under management. But virtually all of the assets were missing.

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Louis L. Stanton on Thursday appointed Lee Richards, a Manhattan lawyer, as the firm’s receiver. A hearing is set for Friday, for a ruling on the SEC’s petition to grant plenary powers to the receiver over the entire firm, and an absolute asset sequestration.

Doug Kass, president of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management said that “this is a major blow to confidence that is already shattered — anyone on the fence will probably try to take their money out.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Market_maker_Bernard_L._Madoff_arrested_in_$50B_%27giant_Ponzi_scheme%27&oldid=4561285”
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<div class=BP: New cap on Gulf of Mexico oil well in place
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BP: New cap on Gulf of Mexico oil well in place

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

For the first time since April 20, no oil is flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, though the halt may be temporary, as integrity testing began on a new sealing cap. The cap was installed on a leaking well in an effort by the BP energy company to contain oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. The previous containment cap, which was removed Saturday, had a much looser fit than the new one and allowed oil to escape into the Gulf. It took about three days for the cap to be removed, the site prepared, and the new one to be slowly lowered into position.

The energy company had planned to begin running integrity tests Tuesday to measure the performance of the well under pressure. The tests were delayed a day for further analysis, but clearance to proceed was given Wednesday afternoon, then a leak in a choke line had to be repaired. BP senior vice president Kent Wells announced at his Thursday afternoon briefing that the final valve on the cap assembly started to close at 1:15 PM Thursday and was fully closed at 2:25 PM, finally shutting in the oil flow. If the tests show that the well is strong enough, the sealing cap valves will likely remain closed. If the well cannot be safely closed from the top, the new cap is designed to funnel almost all the oil to ships above while two relief wells are constructed for a permanent fix. After the old cap was removed, oil flowed freely into the waters of the Gulf until the present cap was installed at about 7:00 PM CDT Monday (00:00 UTC Tuesday).

BP has stated that this oil containment system has never been deployed at the current depths, nor has it been tested in the conditions that it will be expected to operate in. During the testing period, which could last anywhere from six to forty-eight hours, all undersea oil containment systems will be temporarily suspended. The company made clear that, even if the tests succeed, this does not mean that oil leakage has permanently ceased.

Doug Suttles, a BP executive, explained that during the test, the well pressure will be carefully monitored. Suttles said at a Monday briefing that the ideal would be for tests to show high pressure around the seal, indicating that no oil is escaping. He also stated that on the other hand, the pressures could be lower than anticipated, leading to the assumption that the well is damaged and is leaking oil and gas into surrounding rock. If this were to happen, keeping the cap shut could further damage the well. The solution for this scenario is to reopen the valves and funnel most, if not all, of the oil to ships above.

Drilling of the first relief well was suspended until completion of the integrity test. Kent Wells explained at his Wednesday morning briefing that the first relief well is now 4 feet from the original well and there is a remote possibility that the pressure test could open a path to the relief well. Drilling of the second relief well has stopped at 16,000 feet so as not to interfere with the first well and to keep routing options open in case the first relief well fails. Even if the pressure tests do succeed and the main well is shut, work on the first relief well will continue until it intercepts the main well. When this occurs, mud and cement will be pumped into the well for a permanent seal. Containment and clean up operations will continue even after the relief wells are finished to deal with oil already released.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven and marking the start of the worst offshore oil spill in United States history.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=BP:_New_cap_on_Gulf_of_Mexico_oil_well_in_place&oldid=3292278”
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<div class=Neil Entwistle agrees to extradition
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Neil Entwistle agrees to extradition

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Neil Entwistle, 27, appeared before a Magistrates’ court today and agreed to extradition to the United States, where he will face double-murder and weapons charges. Entwistle is now the prime suspect in the killings of his wife Rachel, 27, and nine-month-old baby daughter Lillian. Both were shot to death and left under a pile of blankets in the bedroom of their Hopkinton, Massachusetts home.

District Judge Anthony Evans said in court, to Entwistle, “You are agreeing to be sent immediately to the US and there will be no extradition proceedings?” Entwistle replied, “that’s right, yes.”

Ben Brandon, Entwistles council, said “Neil believes he will receive a fair and proper hearing in the US on these very serious allegations,” and wishes to go back to the U.S. “as soon as possible. He is anxious that any delay could cause his late wife’s family, and his own, additional distress.”

Earlier on Thursday, Entwistle had said before the court, that he did not agree to extradition “at this stage.”

However; Entwistles lawyer said that “he never changed his mind. He was always inclined to consent to extradition. He was going to think about it overnight with our advice. And overnight, after reserving his position, he has consented.”

Entwistle was reportedly planning a murder-suicide. Instead, police believe he fled to England, where he was subsequently arrested in London.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Entwistle could face life in prison.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Neil_Entwistle_agrees_to_extradition&oldid=798524”
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<div class=Gunman on the loose in Melbourne
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Gunman on the loose in Melbourne

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Monday, June 18, 2007

Police in Melbourne, Australia are on the hunt for a gunman who killed a man and injured two others in the city’s central business district this morning.

Officials warned all office workers to remain indoors, and train services to Flinders Street Station were temporarily on hold, as investigations were carried out on the intersection of Flinders Lane and William Street.

Malcom Bates, who witnessed the shootings at around 8:15 a.m., said the gunman grabbed a woman from inside a taxi. “The lady got away and he turned and shot three people basically point blank,” Mr Bates said. “I was right across the road”. He said that the incident took no longer than the “wink of an eye”.

Paramedics struggled to revive the one victim for almost an hour before declaring him dead at the scene. The two injured people have been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition.

Police believe the incident began at the Bar Code 24-hour bar in King Street, when a woman attempted to get into a taxi. She was apparently grabbed by the hair by the gunman who then shot her and two men who attempted to come to her aid.

Police have identified the gunman as Christopher Wayne Hudson, aged 29. They believe him to be a member of the Hells Angels bikie gang. Police have described Hudson as about 180 cm tall, with short brown hair and wearing a dark tracksuit top and dark denim jeans.

A building worker on a construction site on the corner of Queen and Flinders Streets has reportedly discovered a handgun. It is understood the gunman may have thrown the weapon into the site as he fled the scene.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Gunman_on_the_loose_in_Melbourne&oldid=454119”
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<div class=Gastric bypass surgery performed by remote control
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Gastric bypass surgery performed by remote control

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Gastric_bypass_surgery_performed_by_remote_control&oldid=4331525”
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<div class=Computer Associates warns of massive botnet attack
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Computer Associates warns of massive botnet attack

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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”
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<div class=Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Liberal candidate Kate Holloway, Trinity-Spadina
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Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Liberal candidate Kate Holloway, Trinity-Spadina

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Monday, October 1, 2007

Kate Holloway is running for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Trinity-Spadina 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.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Ontario_Votes_2007:_Interview_with_Liberal_candidate_Kate_Holloway,_Trinity-Spadina&oldid=4495432”
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<div class=Western Australia Nationals MP Vince Catania to resign from state parliament
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Western Australia Nationals MP Vince Catania to resign from state parliament

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Saturday, June 11, 2022

Nationals MP Vince Catania, who represents North West Central, will resign from Western Australia’s Parliament in August, reports indicated Friday.

Catania has served as an MP in both the lower and upper house in Western Australia’s state parliament since 2005. Initially serving as a Labor MP, he joined the Nationals in 2009.

Catania said on his resignation that “this decision comes after much soul-searching and consideration and with mixed emotions after a long career spanning more than seventeen years in the Western Australian state parliament”.

He noted the size, diversity and remoteness of his electorate, stating “having spent 17 years of working in the largest electorate in Western Australia to the best of my ability, that means being away from home for half a year and it’s not fair to the family who’s suffered over that period of time”, adding “it’s well and truly time for me to put my family first”.

Catania is married with five teenage children. In 2011, Catania lost his driver’s licence for speeding, which he blamed on the exceptional breadth of North West Central.

Catania is one of only six opposition MPs in Western Australia’s 59-seat lower house, and his resignation will result in a by-election in North West Central. He narrowly won the seat at the last election in March 2021, with a 8.4% swing to Labor cutting the two-party-preferred margin between the two major parties to 1.7%.

He led an ultimately abortive 2019 bid to remove Jacqui Boydell from the role of Nationals deputy leader, which failed after state Nationals leader Mia Davies threatened to resign if the spill motion was proposed.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Australia_Nationals_MP_Vince_Catania_to_resign_from_state_parliament&oldid=4688950”
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<div class=Wikimedia Foundation announces departure of general counsel Mike Godwin
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Wikimedia Foundation announces departure of general counsel Mike Godwin

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization which administers online collaborative websites including Wikipedia and Wikinews, announced yesterday that its general counsel Mike Godwin will leave his position this Friday. The author of Cyber Rights: Defending Free speech in the Digital Age, Godwin is a former fellow at the Yale Center for Internet Studies and staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has served as chief lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation since July 2007.

Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation Sue Gardner announced the news in a public email. She wrote, “Hi folks, I want to let you know that as of this Friday, October 22, 2010, Mike Godwin will be leaving his role as General Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation. Mike’s transition out of the role will be a fairly lengthy one: he will continue to be available to the Wikimedia Foundation to provide information and advice for several months to come.”

The Wikimedia Foundation believes Mike has always acted in what he believes to be the Wikimedia Foundation’s best interests.

Gardner stated in a “Q and A” below the text of her email that Godwin was leaving the organization due to “a confidential personnel issue”, and explained that the foundation would not elaborate upon this due to privacy concerns. Gardner noted, “The Wikimedia Foundation believes Mike has always acted in what he believes to be the Wikimedia Foundation’s best interests.”

Godwin has focused his legal career in the areas of free speech and Internet law. In an article regarding his 1999 selection as a fellow at the Yale Center for Internet Studies, The Hartford Courant characterized Godwin as “a noted cyberspace lawyer and civil libertarian”.

He is noted for writing “Godwin’s Law”, an Internet maxim which states, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”

Godwin became the first attorney to join the Electronic Frontier Foundation after its formation in 1990. In a 2007 interview with The New York Times, Godwin commented on the issue of defamation online, “The fear of defamation on the Internet is very strong. We’re going to be riding that social panic for a little bit.” He described his role at the Wikimedia Foundation, “Part of my job is to prevent restrictive rules from being put in place that prevent people from participating in massively democratic participatory media. And then let the new norms settle.” He acknowledged he empathized with others that had been criticized on the Internet, “Look, I have been smeared online. I know how bad it feels. It hurts. If democracy were comfortable, everybody would have it.”

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_announces_departure_of_general_counsel_Mike_Godwin&oldid=3299961”
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