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Multiple deaths as Congolese government cracks down on pro-democracy protests Thousands of protesters are marching through the streets of Kinshasa demanding that the government resign over delayed elections. They were met by security forces who shot in the air and threw tear-gas grenades. Unconfirmed reports state that four people have been killed. Spain legalizes same-sex marriage Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, became the third nation Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage following The Netherlands and Belgium. By a vote of 187-147 with four abstentions, the 350-seat Congress of Deputies approved the measure to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children and inherit each others' property. USA lifts remaining sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro U.S. President George W. Bush suspended all sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro by a decree yesterday. Serbia and Montenegro was under various degrees of economic and other sanctions by the United Nations and individual countries since 1992.

Wikipedia Current Events
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announces her retirement after 24 years of service on the Court. The UK assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union amidst its funding crisis.
Wikipedia Current Events
Following a public statement from the denomination president on the eve of the event, the congregationalist United Church of Christ begins their 5-day General Synod 25 in Atlanta, Georgia to debate a number of controversial resolutions, including same-sex marriage. Indonesian police arrest 24 people suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and a 2003 attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. The members of the Australian Senate elected at the election of 2004 take office, granting the government of John Howard control of both Houses of Parliament, the first time a government has had such power since 1981. Much of the government of Minnesota shuts down as the state legislature fails to pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year. In the UK, cot death expert Sir Roy Meadow testifies before the General Medical Council hearing. He was involved with four court cases where four women were falsely accused of killing their children. Medical journal The Lancet defends him saying that he is just a "scapegoat". In the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 10 people have died during protests over delay to the presidential elections. Opposition claims the numbers are closer to 42. In Germany, the Bundestag passes a Motion of no confidence in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder by 296 to 151. The vote, at Schröder's insistence, opens the way for new elections to be held on September 18. Italian police in Genoa discover a parallel police force, called the Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies, that was apparently founded to benefit from funding after 2004 Madrid bombings. The group's website is now down

Fiji "running out of patience" with Vanuatu over ban on Fijian biscuits
Fiji's Foreign Minister, Kaliopate Tavola, said that the letter being sent to Vanuatu's prime minister would be the final gesture of Fiji's friendship.

In March, the island nation Vanuatu banned the importation of Fijian biscuits. This was the second ban on Fijian biscuits by Vanuatu in the last six months. Vanuatu has said that this ban is necessary in order to stimulate Vaunatu's biscuit industry.

The company affected by this ban, Flour Mills of Fiji, exports nearly US$900,000 worth of biscuits to Vanuatu yearly. Flour Mills of Fiji has said that the ban has forced them to layoff about a dozen people. They also stated that they will be taking legal action against the Vanuatu government for the ban.

On June 13 the Fijian government announced its intention to stop all commercial relations with Vanuatu unless this issue was resolved. Commercial relations with Vanuatu include Air Vanuatu flights and the importation of Vanuatu kava. Fijian imports of Vanuatu kava bring approximately VT350 million (US$3.2 million) to Vanuatu each year.

United States Supreme Court Justice O'Connor to retire
President George W. Bush speaks via phone to Sandra Day O'Connor, shortly after she submitted her letter of resignation citing personal reasons. The letter sits on the desk.
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, announced Friday her intention to retire from the court. She said she would be stepping down before the beginning of the court's fall term, or when the Senate confirms a successor.

More than 10 years have passed since the last vacancy on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States. Justice Stephen Breyer was the last jurist appointed to the court; Breyer was appointed by President Bill Clinton. This will be President George W. Bush's first opportunity to appoint a justice to the court.

There has been no word from the White House on who might replace O'Connor. However, shortly after the retirement was announced, President Bush held a short press-conference outside the White House where he praised O'Connor's years of public service.

This article contains first-hand journalism by a Wikinews Reporter.

Schröder loses motion of confidence
The German Federal Chancellor (Bundskanzler), Gerhard Schröder, lost a motion of confidence in the German lower parliamentary house, the Bundestag. Schröder had aimed to lose the vote of confidence in order to dissolve the Bundestag and to achieve earlier elections. In debate, Schröder argued, that there is no safe majority for his policy in the Bundestag. In his second term as Chancellor, he tried to start a reform agenda (Agenda 2010) which aimed to cut the budget deficit and unemployment in Germany, which has been criticised as neo-liberalism by several supporters of his party.

During the debate, opposition leader Angela Merkel explained that her party, the Christian Democrats supports early elections. However, she did criticise the coalition government of the Social-Democrats and the Greens, for the country's high unemployment rates (which have peaked at 5 million) and low economic growth. A Green deputy, Werner Schulz, attacked Schröder's using the vote of confidence in order to achieve early elections, which is from his point of view unconstitutional. Franz Müntefering, leader of the Social Democrats had invited members of the ruling coalition to abstain from voting. 151 deputies supported Schröder, 296 voted against him and 148 abstained from voting.

After the lost motion of confidence, the German President Horst Köhler can examine Schröder's arguments for three weeks and dissolve the Bundestag while setting a date for early elections. At least one deputy has announced he intends going to the Federal Constitutional Court to appeal against Schöder's way of using the vote of confidence. The court will then have to decide whether it was constitutional or not.

All parties know that there might be early elections by September. At the moment, opinion polls are showing a majority for conservative opposition.
This article contains first-hand journalism by a Wikinews Reporter.

Multiple deaths as Congolese government cracks down on pro-democracy protests
Thousands of protesters are marching through the streets of Kinshasa demanding that the government resign over delayed elections.

Kinshasa - a city with nine million residents - is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They were met by security forces who shot in the air and threw tear-gas grenades at the protestors. Army helicopters flew overhead as protesters threw stones at soldiers.

The UN in Congo have said that four people may have been killed in Kinshasa, but that is not yet confirmed. A journalist in the area saw bruised and bandaged protesters who said they had been beaten by police, and a local TV station broadcast images of a protester who they said had been shot dead. The station was raided shortly afterwards by police.

Another six people were killed in Tshikapa, a town 700 km southeast of Kinshasa. In another province, heavy weapons were fired at protesters. Casualties are as yet unknown. The Congolese government has declined to confirm or deny any casualty figures.

Unrest has been growing among the 60 million residents in Congo - a former Belgian colony - over delays to the first democratic elections to be held for forty years. The elections - which should have been held before last Thursday - were agreed upon as part of a peace treaty that ended a five year civil war in 2003 - a war that had seen the deaths of four million people.

The current President made a television address to the nation the night before the deadline appealing for calm and re-iterating his desire to see elections.

Protest organisers say the people were just peacefully demonstrating their desire to see the interim government resign, but were attacked without provocation by security forces. The government had recently announced another six month delay before elections could take place.

Africa faces food crisis, UN Security Council told
The head of the World Food Programme, James Morris, has told the United Nations Security Council that Africa is facing a food crisis, with one in three people there malnourished.

Zimbabwe is one country that Morris is particulary concerned about at the moment.

“It does not matter whether that instability is caused by civil conflict, drought, AIDS, poor governance or any combination of those factors-hunger almost always comes with it,” said Morris, the head of the Security Council.

“The impact of rural-urban migration on employment in Africa has been precisely the opposite of Western Europe and the United States - it has led to higher rather than lower rates of unemployment and social instability.

“At a certain point the capacities of local governments are stretched to the limit and social demands are not met, especially among competing ethnic groups perhaps not accustomed to sharing the same political space.”

In addition to Zimbabwe, 1.6 million in Malawi, 1.2 million in Zambia, 900,000 in Mozambique, 245,000 in Lesotho, 230,000 in Swaziland, and 60,000 in Namibia all need emergency food aid.

According to Morris, the World Food Programme has been told by the Zimbabwe government that they will feed the people, which goes against the policies of the WFP.

Morris highlighted the effects hunger can have - destabilizing countries and threatening peace and security. Food shortages are driving people into urban areas, where they are confronted by high unemployment and social instability.

Minnesota state government shuts down
Nine thousand state employees in Minnesota were left jobless Friday after state legislators failed to pass a spending bill that would have kept the state government up and running.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry to the people of Minnesota," said Republican state Rep. Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake. "This is disgusting."

It is not uncommon for states to miss their budget deadlines, but Minnesota, in contrast to other states, has no law that automatically extends the previous budget if lawmakers fail to approve a new budget.

Governor Tim Pawlenty accused Democrats of intentionally shutting down the government in order to hurt the Republican governor's chances in the 2006 gubernatorial elections.

"The Senate wanted to shut down government from the beginning," said Steve Sviggum, the leading Republican in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Due to the shutdown, highway rest-stops will not be staffed during the busy July Fourth weekend. Lawmakers agreed, however, to a bill that would keep the state's parks open.

A court order earlier this month requires the state to continue to provide services essential to "health, safety and property."

US officials accused of covering up human deaths from BSE and discouraging testing of suspected animals
Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) vet, had been blowing the whistle on the USDA beef inspection practices before the latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed. Dr. Friedlander said that inspectors are allowed only 15 seconds of inspection and that unhygienic practices are common in the meat industry; practices such as cow carcasses with abscesses being hosed off, wrapped up and shipped to the consumer.

Friedlander also claims that some supervisors were more concerned about falsifying inspection documents than protecting consumers and that on June 9, 2005, a cow in Texas with BSE symptoms was sent straight to the rendering plant without testing.

There have also been allegations of a "don't ask,don't tell" approach being applied by US health officials when confronted with human deaths which may be caused by eating BSE contaminated meat. The Organic Consumers Association reported last year that hundreds of people are dying in the US each year from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD or vCJD) (the human counterpart of BSE) and the deaths are being written off as "unexplainable". The disease causes holes in the brains of the victims.

A New Jersey lawyer, Janet Skarbek is being called "the next Erin Brockovich " for her research into the "Cherry Hill cluster" of 12 deaths she said were caused by people eating BSE infected meat;"I'm up to 12 confirmed cases of CJD, where it says CJD on their death certificates and where they all ate at the same racetrack.” Skarbek said.

New Jersey state officials have said that the 12 deaths were not a result from the human form of mad cow disease, but rather from sporadic CJD; but Skarbek says the government's numbers don't add up.“If you just take five of the victims from New Jersey that ate at the track most recently, two were out of 100 administrative employees and three were out of 1,000 season-pass holders. So out of that population of 1,100 people, we should see one case of CJD every 909 years.”

Leitzinger, Forbes-Robinson win the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona
Butch Leitzinger and Elliot Forbes-Robinson drove the #4 Pontiac Crawford GTO into victory lane at Daytona International Speedway late Thursday night as the winner of the Rolex sport car series Brumos Porsche 250. Early in the race, the #66 car driven by Jorg Bergmeister and Max Papis passed the #10 car in the pole position, maintaining the lead positions for most of the race.

The second caution at lap 32 occured after a car spun on the infield. The caution lasted 3 laps, and only two laps later a two-car crash happened, sending the race into its third caution. The #06 car, driven by Rob Dyson and Harrison Brix, lost a portion of the car's hood on lap 43 and had to pit, causing the car to drop down a lap.

The Howard-Boss Motorsports #4 car stole the lead position from the #19 Finlay Motorsports car at lap 47, a position it would hold for the remainder of the race. The #10 car with drivers Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli silently climbed back up to the 2nd position with 17 laps to go. The debuting #65 Pontiac GTO car, sponsored by Auto Gallery, was hit on the backstretch in the left front tire, causing him to spin and hit the wall with 14 laps to go. A similar event happened five laps later when another car spun out. Neither instances resulted in a caution.
This article contains first-hand journalism by a Wikinews Reporter.

Romania redenominates its currency
Today, Romania introduces its new redenominated currency, the new leu (code: RON), which is valued at 10,000 old lei (code: ROL). The process, which is known as redenomination, started in March 2005 when Romania started dual-currency display and all prices had to be displayed in both the old leu and the new leu. Starting from today, the first notes and coins of the new leu will become legal tender, and the new leu will become the official currency of Romania.

The redenomination (or conversion from the old to the new leu) is simple — 10,000 old lei are replaced by 1 new leu. One US dollar will buy 2.98 new lei, while one euro will buy 3.6 new lei. The old leu had been the world's least valued currency unit, with the US dollar buying 29,891 lei and the euro buying 36,050 lei (on 30 June 2005). With the introduction of the new leu, Romania's currency will be among the most highly-valued in the region.

The new leu notes and coins, introduced into circulation today, will circulate alongside the old lei until 31 December 2006, when the dual-currency period ends and all of the old lei are expected to be withdrawn. However, old lei can be exchanged at banks indefinitely.

The new notes come into denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 new lei. The largest note of the old leu was 1,000,000 lei, or 100 new lei. The largest note of the new leu is worth 500 new lei, or approximately US$167 and €139. New leu notes will also have the same dimensions as euro notes of similar value. Additionally, they will use the same colours and design as their corresponding old leu equivalent (for example, the 100 lei note will look similar to the 1,000,000 old lei note).

All notes will be printed on polymer materials. Romania was the first country in Europe to introduce polymer notes, in 1999.
The governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, said that the redenomination of the leu marks the symbolic end of Romania's economic transition from a planned economy under Communism, which was overthrown in 1989, to a free market economy.

The reason for redenomination was mainly the fact that the leu had become severely devalued, especially in the 1990s, due to high inflation rates. From 2002 onwards, the leu stabilised, and has even appreciated against the euro and the US dollar in the past year. Hence, the new leu was introduced to simplify the national currency, and also as a symbol of Romania's increasing economic stability. It is also expected to help pave the way for the adoption of the euro by Romania, which is expected in 2012-2014, after Romania joins the European Union in 2007.

Although the introduction of the new leu is viewed as beneficial on the whole, since it will bring Romania's currency more in line with the value of important global currencies such as the euro and the US dollar, concerns have been raised that the new leu will fuel inflation. Some people are concerned that the new leu will result in the rounding-up of prices, similar to what happened when the euro was introduced in the Eurozone in 2002, and therefore fuel inflation.

However, a rise in prices is not thought to occur due to the dual-currency display. This ensures that all businesses continue to display prices in both the new leu and the old leu until the end of 2006, and hence they will not be able to raise prices as easily, for fear of becoming less competitive in the market.

UN/WHO making progress in treating HIV/AIDS, but will miss 2005 target
The World Health Organisation has announced that the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatments (ART) in developing countries is increasing significantly - more than doubling between December 2003 and June 2005. One million people are now getting the drugs they need, compared to just 400,000 eighteen months ago.

However, access to treatment is not growing as fast as demand, and the UN is unlikely to reach its target of treating three million people by the end of 2005 - just over half the people who need it. The longer-term target of universal treatment by 2010 is still likely to be met.

The figures show that the number of people recieving ART is increasing in every part of the globe, but not as quickly as people are contracting HIV. The numbers getting treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, the part of the world worst affected by HIV/AIDS has increased three-fold on a year ago, and doubled in the last six months. The same rate of growth as also been seen in Asia, the second-worst affected area.

The WHO's report highlights that the best progress has been made when governments have worked together with the WHO, the UN and other parterners. The report goes on to make recommendations for simplifying the process to enable treatment levels to be increased even faster.

The UN's target was based on what was hypothetically possible if all possible steps to provide treatment were taken. The report shows the while financial, political and technical steps have been made, other areas are falling short.

Pressure groups said that countries were reacting too slowly to the pandemic and called on the G8 to provide more sustainable funding for universal treatment for Aids.

UK international development minister Gareth Thompson said: "We are committed to universal access to HIV treatments by 2010. We will spend £1.5bn in the next three years on Aids, including £150m on orphans."

Proposal made to seize home of US Supreme Court justice Souter, after eminent domain ruling
In the wake of a United States Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. New London on eminent domain last week, a California man has proposed that Justice David Souter's New Hampshire home be seized by the state and a hotel be built on the site. Logan Darrow Clements faxed a letter to town officials in Weare, New Hampshire June 28, 2005 that justified the action as such:

"The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare."

Justice Souter, who was in the majority ruling in the Kelo case, has lived at the farmhouse in Weare since he was 11 years old. Clements indicated that it was necessary to build on that location because "it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans." The action has given rise to a great deal of support nationwide, as many are writing to the councilors of the small town of Weare to voice their approval for the proposal.

The proposal for the "Lost Liberty Hotel", as it is to be called, features a number of components which seem to focus on the libertarian leanings of its designer. A dining room, called the "Just Desserts Cafe" and a museum based on the "loss of freedom in America" are two such components. Instead of a Gideon's Bible (a standard item placed in most American hotel rooms), each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.

Spain legalizes same-sex marriage
Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, became the third nation Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage following The Netherlands and Belgium. Canada, whose lower house has voted in favor of same-sex marriage, is widely expected to have that Bill pass also in the upper house, making Canada the fourth country to legalize same-sex marriage.

By a vote of 187-147 with four abstentions, the 350-seat Congress of Deputies approved the measure to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual ones, including the right to adopt children and inherit each others' property. The bill, which became law immediately, says: "Matrimony shall have the same requirements and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex."

Catholic leaders and the conservative opposition People's Party lobbied heavily against the bill "calling it an assault on the institution of marriage and a threat to social stability." The Roman Catholic Church endorsed a June 18 opposition rally in which about 2 hundreds of thousands marched through Madrid including 20 bishops.

Recent polls suggest Spaniards support gay marriage saying 62 percent of Spaniards support the government's action on gay marriage, and 30 percent oppose it.

According to an Associated Press story, Beatriz Gimeno, a longtime leader of the gay rights movement in Spain, held back tears as she hugged her partner Boti after the vote.

"It is a historic day for the world's homosexuals. We have been fighting for many years," Gimeno said. "Now comes the hardest part, which is changing society's mentality."

Gay couples can get married as soon as the law is published in the official government registry as early as Friday or within two weeks at the latest, parliament's press office said.

Rail tunnel collapses at Gerrards Cross, UK
A section of the rail tunnel outside Gerrards Cross Station in Buckinghamshire collapsed at around 8 p.m. last night. No-one was injured. 20 metres of concrete tunnel and gravel collapsed onto the Chiltern to Marylebone line, closing the railway and causing much disruption.

The tunnel was created by the supermarket chain Tesco, who had filled in a railway cutting in order to build a supermarket above it. The project was unpopular both among the local community and the rail industry who felt the project put commercial gain before railway safety.

The accident came hours after another rail accident in East Yorkshire, where a train collided with a car at a level crossing, killing the driver of the car and injuring five train passengers.

FBI's covert "Operation Site Down" targets top international warez and piracy sites
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced actions taken in eleven nations as part of the FBI's covert "Operation Site Down". The infiltration of so-called 'Topsites' resulted in searches, arrests, and seizures in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and Great Britain in addition to the United States.

Messages in response posted on a communications page for warez users read:

RiSCISO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time, Paranoid, Corrupt, Gamerz, AdmitONE, Hellbound, KGS, BBX, KHG, NOX, NFR, CDZ, TUN, and BHP were all hit, and were all hit hard.

EdN not pre'ing for awhile, investigations still going on!

An email lists people targeted, updated in Mountain Time (UTC-7) at 6:31pm, 6:36pm, 6:38pm. The last update is at 6:41pm.

The FBI began the sting in 2003, offering hosting for software cracks and movies. As the covert site infiltrated the underground warez and piracy community, it was repeatedly expanded to provide storage for an increasingly large collection of pirated material. Eventually it held some 27 terabytes of copyrighted files, including 188 copyrighted softwares valued at more than US$300,000.

In the U.S.A. William Venya, 34, of Chatworth, Calif., Chirayu Patel, 23, of Fremont, Calif., Nate Lovell, 22, of Boulder, Colo., and David Fish, 24, of Watertown, Conn were all arrested on criminal complaints of copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

USA lifts remaining sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro
U.S. President George W. Bush suspended all sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro by a decree yesterday. Serbia and Montenegro was under various degrees of economic and other sanctions by the United Nations and individual countries since 1992.

Serbia and Montenegro will now enjoy the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences which includes allowing duty-free import of more then 4600 products. Economic relations between two countries were stabilized in 2003 when Serbia and Montenegro gained a status of most favoured nation.

"We did a study and came to a conclusion that free market exists in Serbia, that there are laws to protect American investors, and we based our decision on that," the U.S. ambassador in Belgrade Michael Polt said.

The President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, wrote a letter to Bush thanking him for his move.

Fiji's War of the Ribbons

A committee of the Fijian Parliament has been receiving submissions this week on its controversial legislation aimed at establishing a Commission with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the civilian coup d'état led by George Speight, which deposed the elected government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry in May 2000.

Few pieces of legislation in Fijian history have generated such passionate support and opposition from different quarters. Public opinion polls show that the great majority of Indo-Fijians are opposed to the legislation, along with a large minority of indigenous Fijians. Supporters of the bill, being promoted by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale, argue that it will bring closure to the wounds of the 2000 coup and allow the country to move on. Opponents say that it is just a legal mechanism for releasing from prison supporters of the present government, who were convicted of coup-related offenses. For its parliamentary majority, the government relies on its coalition partner, the Conservative Alliance, several of whose senior members have been found guilty of involvement in the coup.

Opponents of the bill include Roman Catholic Archbishop Petero Mataca, who shocked many people last week with his claims that a delegation of church leaders, representing a variety of denominations, had been misled by Prime Minister Qarase about what the bill contained. At a meeting on May 2, Mataca said, the Prime Minister had told them about its compensation provisions, but had kept them in the dark about its amnesty clauses - which they learned about only later through the media. The clergymen had supported the bill at the time, he said, because they believed in reconciliation and forgiveness. The later revelations about the amnesty provisions had come as a complete surprise to them, he said. Archbishop Mataca condemned what he said was "a politically motivated bill" and called on the government to withdraw it. Rev. Josateki Koroi, the former president of the Methodist Church, which claims the membership of some two-thirds of indigenous Fijians, has also expressed grave reservations about the bill, saying that reconciliation cannot be legislated and must begin with true repentance on the part of the wrongdoer - something he believes has not happened.

Politicians opposed to the bill include the leaders of all of the Indo-Fijian dominated parties, including former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. Indigenous politicians to have spoken out against the bill include Senator Adi Koila Nailatikau (the daughter of former President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who was deposed in the coup) and her brother-in-law, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, founder of the National Alliance Party and son of former President Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau. Ganilau, a former military commander, has called it "an insult to the intelligence of ordinary people" and has warned that the armed forces could use it as a legal mechanism to remove a present of future governmment, while Nailatikau, who was kidnapped and held as a hostage by the insurrectionists, has said that if her father were alive, he would not approve of tampering with the course of justice.

One of the most strident voices raised against the legislation is that of the Military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. Bainimarama, who organized a counter-coup to quash the Speight rebellion in 2000, has been making press statements on almost a daily basis since the middle of May, condemning the legislation as undermining the integrity of the military and the judiciary. He has made a number of veiled statements, interpreted by some politicians as threats, about what the military might do if the bill is passed. Last week, the Fiji Times, Fiji's oldest daily newspaper, quoted an anonymous source, which it claimed was reliable, that President Ratu Josefa Iloilo (who is rumoured to be against the legislation) had refused a government request to "discipline" Bainimarama. Under the Constitution, the President has very little political power but is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Supporters of the bill include former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and some traditional chiefs.

Many Fiji citizens have been showing their support for the bill by wearing blue ribbons, or their opposition by wearing yellow ones.

Qoriniasi Bale said two days ago that unless opponents of the bill could make more constructive suggestions for improving it, parliament would most likely pass it without any changes.

Brazil wins Confederations Cup

After 4:1 victory over Argetina, Brazil won this year's Confederations Cup yesterday. The match took place in Frankfurt, Germany, in very bad weather conditions.

In 12th minute Adriano dribbled past some opponents and scored a great goal from over eighteen meters. Lux had no chance. Four minutes later Kaká scored the next goal with another powerful long shot from the outer of the penalty area.

After that, the Argentinians seemed as if they lost belief in positive outcome, but they were determined to change the situation. Riquelme, Sorin, Placente and others were trying to score a goal, but were unable to do get one past the posts.

At the begining of the second half, in 46th minute, full-back Cicinho, who is currently playing for Santos, made a wonderful pass to Ronaldinho, and there was 3:0 on the scoreboard. Next goal, scored by Adriano, came about twenty minutes later, after Ronaldinho's pass.

Argetinians still wanted to change the result. Two minutes after Adriano's goal, Pablo Aimar, a substitute, scored, but his team was unable to win.

When the match were reaching the end, Brazilian substituters started to dance and be delighted over the title that they won.

Brazil's first matches at the Confederations Cup were poor. Their draw with Japan, and loss to Mexico, made their supporters unhappy. But Carlos Alberto Parreira led the team to the top of competitions, which is considered a preparation for the World Cup.

Today in History
1644 - The Battle of Marston Moor, one of the decisive encounters of the English Civil War, was fought near York.

1839 - A cargo of 53 African slaves mutinied on the slave ship Amistad off the coast of Cuba.

1900 - First Zeppelin flight on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

1976 - North and South Vietnam united to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Quote of the Day

"Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom." ~ Hermann Hesse

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