Tuesday, October 14, 2008 The San Diego, California suburb of Chula Vista has responded to the recent housing crisis with an aggressive blight control ordinance that compels lenders to maintain the appearance of vacant homes. As foreclosures increase both locally and throughout the United States, the one year old ordinance has become a model for…
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American teenage girl charged with murder of her mother
Sunday, December 19, 2004 CRAIG, Alaska —Rachelle Waterman, (aka Rachelle Ann Monica Waterman and “smchyrocky”), a 16-year-old girl from Craig, Alaska, USA, has been charged with the first degree murder of her mother. The case has rapidly received a wide following on the Internet, partly because Waterman kept a public record of her thoughts and…
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Thailand forces registration of prepaid phones to thwart insurgency
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 In a move aimed at hampering the near-daily bombing attacks in southern Thailand, all owners of prepaid phones are required to register by midnight local time today or face being blocked. Originally scheduled for implementation at the end of last year, the move was deferred to allow people more time to…
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Family of Chile’s former leader Augusto Pinochet arrested on embezzlement charges
Friday, October 5, 2007 The widow and five children of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet have been arrested in Chile on embezzlement charges. They are accused of illegally transferring USD27 million to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet’s rule from 1973 to 1990. Seventeen of Pinochet’s former associates, including his former personal secretary and three retired…
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Keep your eyes peeled for cosmic debris: Andrew Westphal about Stardust@home
Sunday, May 28, 2006 Stardust is a NASA space capsule that collected samples from comet 81P/Wild (also known as “Wild 2) in deep space and landed back on Earth on January 15, 2006. It was decided that a collaborative online review process would be used to “discover” the microscopically small samples the capsule collected. The…
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MMVAs handed out in Toronto, Canada; Wikinews was there
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Last night was the 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. MuchMusic is the most watched music channel in Canada, and has been holding the event since 1990. Roughly 6,000 fans line the streets surrounding Much headquarters each year, and 1,200 more score “the wristband” and enjoy a free…