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Thursday, February 9, 2006

Neil Entwistle was named as a “person of interest” by authorities for the murder of his wife Rachel and nine-month-old baby daughter Lillian in their Hopkinton, Massachusetts home. Both were shot to death and found under a pile of blankets in the bedroom. The family had just moved into the home and had only been living there for ten days. Entwistle has not been in the United States since the murders.

However; it has been confirmed that Entwistle was arrested in England on two counts of murder, and one count of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition on Thursday. Until today he has not been a suspect.

“Entwistle was arrested by British authorities and faces murder charges,” said Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. “He is in police custody in England at this time.” Entwistle was arrested at around noon (7 a.m. ET).

A statement was released by the family of Rachel Entwistle saying, “The family is deeply saddened at the arrest of Neil Entwistle for the murders of Rachel and Lillian. We are heartbroken at the loss – to understand how this happened.”

District Attorney Martha Coakley, of Middlesex County, MA, said that Entwisle could have been planning a murder-suicide, but abandoned the suicide part of the plot after carrying out the murders.

“On Thursday night, (January 19) Rachel was alive and had spoken with family members,” said Coakley. She also says that authorities believe, “at some time on Friday morning, Neil Entwistle, with a firearm that we believe he had secured some time before that from his father-in-law Joseph Materazzo, shot Rachel Entwistle in the head and then proceeded to shoot baby Lillian, who was lying on the bed next to her mother. We believe possibly that this was intended to be a murder suicide, but we cannot confirm that. The murder was effected, the suicide was not. Forensic evidence linked the gun to Mr. Entwistle and his wife, but she had never used it (the gun). What we believe happened next was that Neil Entwistle returned the gun to his father-in-law’s home, that he then made preparations to leave the country.”

She also stated that Entwistle was observed leaving Boston’s Logan International Airport on a flight to England. He had purchased the ticket on the phone.

“He was then in Worksop with his parents. Authorities went to the UK to pursue that investigation. They returned, the investigation pursued. We explored motive, with witnesses, with information from searches, internet capabilities,” Coakley added. “Based upon that information and forensic information late Tuesday afternoon that linked the 22 handgun owned by Joseph Materazzo both to Neil Entwistle and to Rachel, we believed we had probable cause to seek an arrest warrant for Neil Entwistle’s arrest.”

Framingham District Court issued the warrant for his arrest last night.

Entwistle has been at his parents home in England since last month and reportedly refused to cooperate with Massachusetts investigators when they arrived in England to question him about the deaths.

So far, Entwistle has not spoken in public nor did he attend the funerals of his wife and child.

When appearing before the Bow Street Magistrates’ Court Entwistle said that he will not voluntarily consent extradition to the U.S. “at this stage.”

District judge Timothy Workman said during the hearing, “I am remanding you in custody at this stage. I am not granting you bail because at this moment I don’t have sufficient information to make that decision.”

When Entwistle was asked if he understood the charges that had been filed against him, he said, “I do.”

Court was adjourned until Friday.

Monday, December 31, 2007

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2007 if they asked you about it in, let’s say, 20 year’s time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2007, what would the question be? The year that you first signed on to Facebook? The year Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse fell apart? The year author Kurt Vonnegut or mime Marcel Marceau died, both at 84?

Let’s take a look at some of the international stories of 2007. Links to the original Wikinews articles are in bold.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Westboro Baptist Church has lost a lawsuit and has been ordered by United States District Court: District of Maryland to pay US$11 million to the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, a fallen soldier, who was killed while serving in Iraq.

The lawsuit was filed by Snyder’s father, Albert, after the church held a protest across the street from the cemetery where funeral services were being held. The church was sued for, “defamation of character, invasion of privacy–intrusion upon seclusion, invasion of privacy–publicity given to private life, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy,” according to court documents obtained by Wikinews.

Wikinews has also learned that the church filed a motion for a mistrial on October 29, but was ultimately denied.

The jury ordered that $2.9 million be awarded to the Snyder family for compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, but reports say that the church cannot afford that amount, with their assets worth under $1 million. The defendants plan to appeal the judgment and have expressed confidence they can get it overturned.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

On Tuesday, the US state of California announced it is ready to notify approximately twenty thousand state workers that they are being laid off. The announcement was made by a spokesman for California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The cuts would begin at the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

This comes after California lawmakers voted down a budget worth US$40 billion last weekend.

“In the absence of a budget, the governor has a responsibility to realise state savings any way he can,” said Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman. “This is unfortunately a necessary decision.”

The state is also planning to put all remaining public work projects on hold, which could cost thousands of construction workers their jobs.

California has the world’s eighth largest economy. It has suffered from unemployment and the housing crisis, with Schwarzenegger declaring a fiscal emergency last December.

“We are dealing with a catastrophe of unbelievable proportions,” said Alan Lowenthal, a Democratic state senator from Long Beach.

The budget plan consisted of $11.4 billion in borrowing, $14.4 billion for temporary increases in taxes, and $15.1 billion dedicated for program cuts. The package initially appeared to have enough support to reach the two-thirds majority needed to make the bill a law, but fell short by a single vote. The Assembly was at one point in session for thirty hours, breaking the record for the longest legislative session in the history of the state.

Many Republican lawmakers say they disagree with the tax increases that are included as part of the budget package.

“People don’t realize where California is at — people are losing homes, people are losing jobs,” said Republican state senator Abel Maldonado.

“You’re not going to go back to the people’s pocketbooks to fuel that spending,” added Republican state senator Dennis Hollingsworth from Temecula.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg wants another session on Tuesday, saying that he would put up the tax provisions of the budget proposal for a vote. “Bring a toothbrush, bring any necessities you want to bring, because I will not allow anyone to go home to resume their lives […] as long as we know […] that 20,000 people will be laid off,” he warned.

See the discussion page for instructions on adding schools to this list and for an alphabetically arranged listing of schools.

Due to the damage by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the New Orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. It is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. [1]. In response, institutions across the United States and Canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. Some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. At some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Controversy has arisen over the reported presence of blue asbestos on the MV Freewinds, a cruise ship owned by the Church of Scientology. According to the Saint Martin newspaper The Daily Herald and the shipping news journal Lloyd’s List, the Freewinds was sealed in April and local public health officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao where the ship is docked began an investigation into the presence of asbestos dust on the ship. Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft supervised work on the ship in 1987, and attested to the presence of blue asbestos on the Freewinds in an affidavit posted to the Internet in 2001. Woodcraft, a licensed architect by profession, gave a statement to Wikinews and commented on the recent events.

According to The Daily Herald, the Freewinds was in the process of being renovated by the Curaçao Drydock Company. The article states that samples taken from paneling in the ship were sent to the Netherlands, where an analysis revealed that they “contained significant levels of blue asbestos”. An employee of the Curaçao Drydock Company told Radar Online in an April 30 article that the Freewinds has been docked and sealed, and confirmed that an article about asbestos ran in the local paper.

Lloyd’s List reported that work on the interior of the Freewinds was suspended on April 27 after health inspectors found traces of blue asbestos on the ship. According to Lloyd’s List, Frank Esser, Curaçao Drydock Company’s interim director, joined Curaçao’s head of the department of labor affairs Christiene van der Biezen along with the head of the local health department Tico Ras and two inspectors in an April 25 inspection of the ship. “We are sending someone so that they can tell us what happened, where it came from, since when it has been there,” said Panama Maritime Authority’s director of merchant marine Alfonso Castillero in a statement to Lloyd’s List.

The Church of Scientology purchased the ship, then known as the Bohème, in 1987, through an organization called Flag Ship Trust. After being renovated and refitted, it was put into service in June 1988. The ship is used by the Church of Scientology for advanced Scientology training in “Operating Thetan” levels, as well as for spiritual retreats for its members. Curaçao has been the ship’s homeport since it was purchased by the Church of Scientology.

According to his 2001 statement, Lawrence Woodcraft had been an architect in London, England since 1975, and joined Scientology’s elite “Sea Organization” (Sea Org) in 1986. He wrote that he was asked by the Sea Org to work on the Freewinds in 1987, and during his work on the ship “noticed a powdery blue fibrous substance approximately 1 ½” thick between the paint and the steel wall,” which he believed to be asbestos. He also discovered what he thought was blue asbestos in other parts of the ship, and reported his findings to Church of Scientology executives. Woodcraft discussed his experiences in a 2001 interview published online by the Lisa McPherson Trust, a now-defunct organization which was critical of the Church of Scientology.

Church of Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw responded to Radar Online about the asbestos reports, in an email published in an article in Radar on May 1. “The Freewinds regularly inspects the air quality on board and always meets or exceeds US standards,” said Pouw. She stated that two inspections performed in April “confirmed that the air quality is safe,” and asserted that the inspections revealed the Freewinds satisfies standards set by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Pouw told Radar that “The Freewinds will be completing its refit on schedule.” The Church of Scientology-affiliated organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) had been planning a cruise aboard the Freewinds scheduled for May 8, but according to Radar an individual who called the booking number for the cruise received a message that the cruise had been delayed due to ongoing work on the ship. Citing an article in the Netherlands Antilles newspaper Amigoe, Radar reported on May 6 that a team from the United States and supervised by an independent bureau from the Netherlands traveled to Curaçao in order to remove asbestos from the Freewinds.

“I stand by everything I wrote in my 2001 affidavit,” said Lawrence Woodcraft in an exclusive statement given to Wikinews. Woodcraft went on to state: “I would also comment that if the Church of Scientology claims to have removed the blue asbestos, I just don’t see how, it’s everywhere. You would first have to remove all the pipes, plumbing, a/c ducts, electrical wiring etc. etc. just a maze of stuff. Also panelling as well, basically strip the ship back to a steel hull. Also blue asbestos is sprayed onto the outer walls and then covered in paint. It’s in every nook and cranny.”

Many Scientologist celebrities have spent time aboard the Freewinds, including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Chick Corea, Lisa Marie Presley, Catherine Bell, Kate Ceberano, and Juliette Lewis. Now magazine reported that Tom Cruise has been urged to seek medical attention regarding potential asbestos exposure, however a representative for Cruise stated he has “absolutely no knowledge” of the recent asbestos controversy. Cruise, Holmes, Travolta and Preston have celebrated birthdays and other events on the Freewinds.

In a May 15 statement to the United Kingdom daily newspaper Metro, a representative for the Church of Scientology said that “There is not now and never has been a situation of asbestos exposure on the Freewinds.” The Asbestos and Mesothelioma Center notes that agencies have recommended anyone who has spent time on the Freewinds consult with their physician to determine if possible asbestos exposure may have affected their health.

Raw blue asbestos is the most hazardous form of asbestos, and has been banned in the United Kingdom since 1970. Blue asbestos fibers are very narrow and thus easily inhaled, and are a major cause of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a form of cancer which can develop in the lining of the lungs and chest cavity, the lining of the abdominal cavity, or the pericardium sac surrounding the heart. The cancer is incurable, and can manifest over 40 years after the initial exposure to asbestos.

“This is the most dangerous type of asbestos because the fibres are smaller than the white asbestos and can penetrate the lung more easily,” said toxicologist Dr. Chris Coggins in a statement published in OK! Magazine. Dr. Coggins went on to note that “Once diagnosed with mesothelioma, the victim has six months to a year to live. It gradually reduces lung function until the victim is no longer able to breathe and dies.”