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July 2, 2005 the Free-Content News Source That You Can Write! Page 1 July 2, 2005 The free-content news source that you can write! Page 1 Top Stories Wikipedia Current Events Fiji "running out of patience" with Vanuatu over ban on Fijian biscuits Multiple deaths as Congolese •Following a public statement from the government cracks down on pro- denomination president on the eve of the Fiji's Foreign Minister, Kaliopate Tavola, democracy protests event, the congregationalist United Church said that the letter being sent to Vanuatu's Thousands of protesters are marching of Christ begins their 5-day General Synod prime minister would be the final gesture of through the streets of 25 in Atlanta, Georgia to debate a number Fiji's friendship. Kinshasa demanding that of controversial resolutions, including the government resign over same-sex marriage. In March, the island nation Vanuatu banned delayed elections. They the importation of Fijian biscuits. This was were met by security forces •Indonesian police arrest 24 people the second ban on Fijian biscuits by who shot in the air and threw tear-gas suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali Vanuatu in the last six months. Vanuatu has grenades. bombings and a 2003 attack on the said that this ban is necessary in order to Unconfirmed reports state that four people Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. stimulate Vaunatu's biscuit industry. have been killed. The members of the Australian Senate • The company affected by this ban, Flour elected at the election of 2004 take office, Mills of Fiji, exports nearly US$900,000 Spain legalizes same-sex marriage granting the government of John Howard worth of biscuits to Vanuatu yearly. Flour Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, control of both Houses of Parliament, the Mills of Fiji has said that the ban has forced became the third nation first time a government has had such them to layoff about a dozen people. They Thursday to legalize same- power since 1981. sex marriage following The also stated that they will be taking legal Netherlands and Belgium. •Much of the government of Minnesota action against the Vanuatu government for shuts down as the state legislature fails to the ban. By a vote of 187-147 with pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year. four abstentions, the 350-seat On June 13 the Fijian government Congress of Deputies approved the •In the UK, cot death expert Sir Roy announced its intention to stop all measure to give same-sex couples the same Meadow testifies before the General commercial relations with Vanuatu unless rights as heterosexual couples, including Medical Council hearing. He was involved this issue was resolved. Commercial the right to adopt children and inherit each with four court cases where four women relations with Vanuatu include Air Vanuatu others' property. were falsely accused of killing their flights and the importation of Vanuatu kava. children. Medical journal The Lancet Fijian imports of Vanuatu kava bring USA lifts remaining sanctions on Serbia defends him saying that he is just a approximately VT350 million (US$3.2 and Montenegro "scapegoat". million) to Vanuatu each year. U.S. President George W. •In the Democratic Republic of Congo, at Bush suspended all least 10 people have died during protests United States Supreme Court Justice sanctions on Serbia and over delay to the presidential elections. O'Connor to retire Montenegro by a decree Opposition claims the numbers are closer yesterday. Serbia and to 42. Montenegro was under various degrees of economic and other •In Germany, the Bundestag passes a sanctions by the United Nations and Motion of no confidence in the individual countries since 1992. government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder by 296 to 151. The vote, at Schröder's insistence, opens the way for Wikipedia Current Events new elections to be held on September 18. President George W. Bush speaks via phone to •U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day •Italian police in Genoa discover a parallel O'Connor announces her retirement after Sandra Day O'Connor, shortly after she submitted police force, called the Department of her letter of resignation citing personal reasons. 24 years of service on the Court. Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies, that was The letter sits on the desk. •The UK assumes the rotating presidency apparently founded to benefit from of the European Union amidst its funding funding after 2004 Madrid bombings. The United States Supreme Court Associate crisis. group's website is now down Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, announced Friday her intention to retire If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit e n . wikinews.org Saturday, July 2, 2005 Wikinews Page 2 from the court. She said she would be abstained from voting. a town 700 km southeast of Kinshasa. In stepping down before the beginning of the another province, heavy weapons were fired court's fall term, or when the Senate After the lost motion of confidence, the at protesters. Casualties are as yet unknown. confirms a successor. German President Horst Köhler can The Congolese government has declined to examine Schröder's arguments for three confirm or deny any casualty figures. More than 10 years have passed since the weeks and dissolve the Bundestag while last vacancy on the Supreme Court, the setting a date for early elections. At least Unrest has been growing among the 60 highest court in the United States. Justice one deputy has announced he intends going million residents in Congo - a former Stephen Breyer was the last jurist appointed to the Federal Constitutional Court to Belgian colony - over delays to the first to the court; Breyer was appointed by appeal against Schöder's way of using the democratic elections to be held for forty President Bill Clinton. This will be vote of confidence. The court will then have years. The elections - which should have President George W. Bush's first to decide whether it was constitutional or been held before last Thursday - were opportunity to appoint a justice to the court. not. agreed upon as part of a peace treaty that ended a five year civil war in 2003 - a war There has been no word from the White All parties know that there might be early that had seen the deaths of four million House on who might replace O'Connor. elections by September. At the moment, people. However, shortly after the retirement was opinion polls are showing a majority for announced, President Bush held a short conservative opposition. The current President made a television press-conference outside the White House This article contains first-hand journalism address to the nation the night before the where he praised O'Connor's years of public by a Wikinews Reporter. deadline appealing for calm and re-iterating service. his desire to see elections. This article contains first-hand journalism Multiple deaths as Congolese by a Wikinews Reporter. government cracks down on pro- Protest organisers say the people were just democracy protests peacefully demonstrating their desire to see Schröder loses motion of confidence the interim government resign, but were attacked without provocation by security The German Federal Chancellor forces. The government had recently (Bundskanzler), Gerhard Schröder, lost a announced another six month delay before motion of confidence in the German lower elections could take place. parliamentary house, the Bundestag. Schröder had aimed to lose the vote of Africa faces food crisis, UN Security confidence in order to dissolve the Council told Bundestag and to achieve earlier elections. In debate, Schröder argued, that there is no The head of the World Food Programme, safe majority for his policy in the Thousands of protesters are marching James Morris, has told the United Nations Bundestag. In his second term as through the streets of Kinshasa demanding Security Council that Africa is facing a food Chancellor, he tried to start a reform agenda that the government resign over delayed crisis, with one in three people there (Agenda 2010) which aimed to cut the elections. malnourished. budget deficit and unemployment in Germany, which has been criticised as neo- Kinshasa - a city with nine million residents Zimbabwe is one country that Morris is liberalism by several supporters of his party. - is the capital of the Democratic Republic particulary concerned about at the moment. of the Congo. During the debate, opposition leader Angela “It does not matter whether that instability is Merkel explained that her party, the They were met by security forces who shot caused by civil conflict, drought, AIDS, Christian Democrats supports early in the air and threw tear-gas grenades at the poor governance or any combination of elections. However, she did criticise the protestors. Army helicopters flew overhead those factors-hunger almost always comes coalition government of the Social- as protesters threw stones at soldiers. with it,” said Morris, the head of the Democrats and the Greens, for the country's Security Council. high unemployment rates (which have The UN in Congo have said that four peaked at 5 million) and low economic people may have been killed in Kinshasa, “The impact of rural-urban migration on growth. A Green deputy, Werner Schulz, but that is not yet confirmed. A journalist in employment in Africa has been precisely attacked Schröder's using the vote of the area saw bruised and bandaged the opposite of Western Europe and the confidence in order to achieve early protesters who said they had been beaten by United States - it has led to higher rather elections, which is from his point of view police, and a local TV station broadcast than lower rates of unemployment and unconstitutional. Franz Müntefering, leader images of a protester who they said had social instability. of the Social Democrats had invited been shot dead.
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