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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Ksenia Sukhinova of Russia, won the Miss World 2008 crown on Saturday, outshining 108 other international competitors. She was crowned by her predecessor Miss World 2007, Zhang Zilin of the People’s Republic of China. She pledged to “help people” and said, “I think I can help people and I want to help people and today if I walk away with this crown I will do that.”

Sukhinova, 5′ 10″, said that her immediate ambitions included meeting Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev. She is a student of Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, she is enrolled in the Bachelor of Science program, majoring in Engineering.

Sukhinova was born in 1987 in Nizhnevartovsk, in the north west of Siberia. Sukhinova won the 2007 Miss Russia beauty contest on December 14, in Moscow, where she represented Tyumen. Ksenia surpassed 50 other contestants from all over Russia. She was unable to represent Russia at Miss Universe 2008 due to her college work, so her 2nd runner-up, Vera Krasova, replaced her in the contest. Vera placed as the 3rd runner-up to Venezuela’s Dayana Mendoza.

Miss World 2008, the 58th Miss World was held at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 13, 2008. Originally, the pageant was going to take place in Kiev, Ukraine, but because of the ongoing crisis between Georgia and Russia in neighboring South Ossetia, the Miss World Organization decided to move the pageant away from Eastern Europe. 109 contestants from all over the world competed for the crown, marking the biggest turnout in the 58 years of the pageant, surpassing the previous record of 107 during Miss World 2004.

She is the second Russian contestant to win Miss World, the first was Julia Kourotchkina in 1992.

The first runner-up was India’s Parvathy Omanakuttan, while the second runner-up was Trinidad and Tobago’s Gabrielle Walcott. The other finalists were Angola’s Brigith dos Santos and South Africa’s Tansey Coetzee. There were 15 semi-finalists.

Julia Morley, Miss World committee head, and wife of Miss World creator Eric Morley said that the winner has to espouse “beauty with a purpose” with charity via fund raising, being one of the main focuses of the contest. “Over the years the crown that is worn by the winner is a symbol for fundraising. Miss World herself, this year, the winner from China, she’s raised over 30 million dollars in her year in office. So perhaps from anything else it does a lot of good things for needy children and old people, which I think is important too.” she said.

It was the sixth time that South Africa hosted the pageant, more than any other country except England. The event was aired live to millions of viewers in 187 countries, who, for the first time in the pageant’s history, were allowed to vote for one of the semi-finalists through the Internet. An international jury elected the winner.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Monday, November 2, 2020

The following is the sixth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

This month’s spotlight on the campaign trail: the Free and Equal Elections Foundation holds two presidential debates, three candidates who did not participate in those debates give their final pleas to voters, and three political pundits give their predictions on the outcome of the election.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Four people have been shot and killed and at least 15 wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a LA Fitness center in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. The gunman was among the dead.

Reports say the man walked into a dance room where an all-female Latin dance class was in session, turned off the lights and began to shoot people. CNN reports that the gunman was a “middle-aged white male.” One witness said he was carrying a duffel bag, which he put down before shooting into the crowd. After opening fire, he turned the gun on himself. At least 30 people are reported to have been in the room at the time of the shooting.

Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said, “I’ve never seen nothing quite like this. It was very chaotic. […] There’s a good belief that the shooter is deceased.”

Collier Township Police Chief Tom Devin stated that the police, “believe the shooter committed suicide at the scene but we’re not positive.” Police report that the shooter’s motive may have been a domestic dispute with one of the exercisers.

Mike Hentosz, a witness who was inside the gym, said, “I feel like it’s a dream. I don’t know what to think of it.” A woman participating in the class, Nicole, said that 10 minutes into the class, “a middle-aged white male walked into the class. He had a big gym bag. […] He looked out of place in a class full of women.” When he began firing, she reported, she ran out of the gym and escaped in passerby’s car.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Former Argentine professional wrestler and basketball player Jorge ‘Giant’ González has died at the age of 44. González died in his hometown of San Martin, Argentina. The cause of death was established to be complications of diabetes. González had suffered with the illness for several years and was wheelchair bound.

Standing over 7.5 feet (2.3 metres) tall, González was originally a basketball player before becoming a wrestler. Upon moving to the United States, he was drafted in the third round of the 1988 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. After his basketball career ended, he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW). During his time there, he wrestled as El Gigante for two years, then joining the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

During his time with the WWF, González feuded with The Undertaker. He debuted at the 1993 Royal Rumble where he eliminated Undertaker from the Royal Rumble match. He spent the entire of his time at with the WWF feuding with Undertaker and left the company in July 1993 after losing a Rest in Peace match to him. After leaving the company, he wrestled in Japan before retiring in 1995 after suffering from sciatic nerve pain.

González is the latest in a line of former WWE wrestlers to die in the last two months. In August, both Lance Cade and Luna Vachon passed away, while Mike ‘Bastion Booger’ Shaw died at the age of 53 earlier this month.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.

Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A preliminary report has been released into the disastrous crash of Spanair Flight 5022 in Madrid, Spain on August 20, which killed 154. The report confirms an earlier leaked finding that the wing flaps failed and no warning sounded to alert the pilots.

The MD-82 was headed from Barajas airport to the Canary Islands. Video footage from airport security cameras shows the airliner travelling across an unusually long distance of runway before take-off. It failed to maintain altitude and quickly dropped back down at the runway’s end, before bursting into a fireball. Just eighteen people survived the accident.

The report confirms that the aircraft failed to get beyond forty feet off the ground before entering a stall and crashing. The tail of the jet struck the ground first, and the Spanish Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC)’s report also notes that the aircraft was carrying 10,130 litres (2,673 gallons) of fuel.

The wing flaps were “fully retracted” at “0 degrees” according to the 12-page report, which also notes that the cockpit voice recorder indicates a complete failure of the take-off warning system (TOWS) – which is supposed to alert pilots attempting to take off in a plane that is not properly configured – to sound prior to the failed ascent. Spanair checks the TOWS each day and after every change in flight crew, but neither of these occurred between the accident flight and the flight before.

It is not known when the CIAIAC’s final report will be ready, but estimates vary from a few months to two years. The latest report notes “The investigation continues. It will be necessary to carry out tests and an exhaustive examination of the recovered parts of the plane.” A separate judicial investigation also continues.