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Bomb blasts in Iraq kill nearly 200 Several car bombs have killed 190 people in Baghdad on Wednesday and wounded over 200 others in what is being reported as the worst string of bombings to occur in Iraq the US-led invasion in 2003. Bible publishing firm in Turkey attacked; 3 killed Two Germans and a Turkish employee of a bible publishing firm, which was earlier accused of proselytizing, have been killed in an attack.

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380 million year old fossilized trees found in New York, USA Two fossilized trees said to be over 380 million years old have been found in the state of New York inside a rock quarry.

Wikipedia Current Events
Joseph Nacchio, the former Chief Executive Officer of Qwest Communications, is found guilty of insider trading for stock sales worth tens of millions of dollars made in 2001. The United States holds talks with NATO and Russian officials over plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe. The Prime Minister of Australia John Howard states that the Murray-Darling Basin faces an "unprecedentedly dangerous" water shortage and that irrigation for farmers will be cut off unless there is significant rain in the next 6-8 weeks. An Amnesty International report claims that the attacks on Afghan civilians by the Taliban are widespread and systematic.

2007 Cricket World Cup: West Indies vs Bangladesh
West Indies have beaten Bangladesh by 99 runs in the Super 8 stage of the World Cup at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados. Both teams had already failed to qualify for the semi-final stage of the tournament before today's match. Bangladesh's World Cup is now over, while West Indies have one match remaining against England on April 21.

West Indies stumbled to 55/3 after a slow start, losing Gayle and Smith cheaply with Shivnarine Chanderpaul scoring 50 off 85 balls. They had only reached 67-3 at the half-way point of their innings, restricted by some tight bowling from seamers Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel. However Ramnaresh Sarwan (91 not out), Brian Lara (33) and Marlon Samuels (31) salvaged a respectable total of 230 for the hosts. 230 is the lowest score that a opening batting team has won with in this world cup(Zimbabwe-Ireland had a tie at 221), previous low was 235 for Sri Lanka against England.

Bangladesh found scoring against West Indies' pace bowling attack difficult and were bowled out for just 131 after 43.5 overs. Daren Powell was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3/38 off 10 overs, while Corey Collymore took 2/11 and both Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle finished with 2/28.

Toss: Bangladesh won, and elected to field first.

380 million year old fossilized trees found in New York, USA
Two fossilized trees with their roots, trunks and heads still attached, and are said to be over 380 million years old, have been found in the state of New York inside a rock quarry near Gilboa, New York in the USA.

Researchers call the extinct tree a Wattieza and this particular tree stood over 30 feet tall and used spores to reproduce rather than seeds. It may have even looked like many palms trees that exist today, but did not have any leaves. Instead they had fronds much like a fern.

"These were very big trees. Our reconstruction shows them to be a lot longer and much more treelike than any of the reconstructions before. I don’t think any of us dared think of them being quite that big," said paleobotanist at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and one of the researchers who studied the tree, William Stein.

Over 130 years ago in 1870, the same kind of trees, but only the stumps, were also found in Gilboa after flood waters caused the stumps to be exposed. A few decades later in the 1920s, another set of stumps were found in the same area.

In 2004, the researchers found a top to one of the trees that weighed almost 400 pounds not too far from Gilboa.

Researchers say that these trees likely shaped the forests of Earth as we see them today, and that the trees existed long before dinosaurs were roaming the planet.

"In forming the first forests, they must have really changed the Earth system as a whole, creating new types of micro-environments for smaller plants and insects, storing large amounts of carbon and binding the soil together. The rise of forests removed a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused temperatures to drop and the planet became very similar to its present-day conditions," said the leader of the research team, Christopher Berry.

Wattiezas were most common during the Devonian period and existed on the planet before fish evolved sufficiently to leave the seas.

Molten steel kills 32 workers in Liaoning,China
Molten steel spilled out and killed 32 workers at the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation mill in the city of Tieling in Liaoning province, China.

The ladle containing 1,500-degree-Celsius liquid steel poured into an open room, where employees take breaks in-between shift changes, at 7:45 a.m. local time. At least 6 others were injured, one of them critically.

"It is the most serious accident to hit China's steel industry since 1949," said China's deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety, Sun Huashan.

At least 4 workers have been arrested after the accident. The manager of mill, an operator, technician and a supervisor of a workshop were all arrested and are being questioned as an investigation in launched into what caused the accident to occur.

Canadian soldier falls from tower, dies afterwards
Wednesday, a Canadian soldier died in a non-combat related incident after falling from a communications tower in Afghanistan.

"It was not operationally related at this time. It was simply, unfortunately an accident," Col. Mike Cessford said. "I would stress that we take every precaution to minimize the dangers to our soldiers. However, risk is inherent in the nature of the work that we do."

The soldiers name will not be released until the other relatives have been notified due to the family's request.

This is the first non-combat related incident in Kandahar. Most Canadian forces are based at Kandahar Airfield as part of the International Security Assistance Force.

Most Canadian soldiers which have been killed were in bomb attacks and/or during combat. Fifty-four Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.

Bible publishing firm in Turkey attacked; 3 killed
Three people are dead after five "brothers" attacked employees at the Bible publishing firm Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, Turkey. Two of the victims were German and the other was from Turkey.

The employees had their throats slashed and were tied up at the hands and ankles according to police.

Later after the attack, four men were arrested. One was being treated for serious wounds when he attempted to jump out of a window when police went to chase him. All of the alleged killers are between 19 and 20 years old.

According to police, the "five brothers" carried a letter saying "We are going to our deaths."

"[I condemn the attacks] in the strongest terms.[We will] do everything to clear up this crime completely and bring those responsible to justice," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Foreign Minister.

"This is savagery," said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish Prime Minister.

Protests were taking place at the firm recently after the firm was accused of "proselytizing" a Muslim nation, but it is not known if the murders are related to the protests.

The names of the victims or suspects have not been released.

Nearly a dozen killed in suicide bomber attack in Iraq
In Baghdad, Iraq, conflicting reports say that 5 to 11 people were killed and 10 to 28 others were wounded when a suicide bomber in a car drove into a fuel truck in the downtown Baghdad district of Karradah, but CNN reports that the blast occurred in the Baghdad district of Jadriya.

The blast happened at approximately 1:15 p.m. local time in Baghdad and reports say that the death toll is higher.

Yesterday, nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad.

Bomb blasts in Iraq kill nearly 200
Several car bombs in Baghdad, Iraq have killed 190 people on Wednesday and wounded over 200 others in what is being reported as the worst string of bombings to occur in Iraq since 2003 when the United States invaded the nation.

One bomb in the Sadriyah market in Baghdad killed at least 140 people. 150 others were wounded in the attack. The same market was under re-construction after it was targeted in February by a bomb which nearly destroyed it. 135 people were killed in that attack.

Just after the blasts, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki had the Iraqi army colonel in charge of the Sadriyah district arrested and called those responsible for the blasts "soldiers of Satan."

"This monstrous attack... did not distinguish between the old and young, between men and women. It targeted the population in a way that reminds us of the massacres and genocide committed by the former dictatorship," Maliki told reporters.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is believed to be responsible for the attacks, though no one has claimed responsibility.

Compensation sought for New Zealand's Internet outage

Wikinews reported previously on an Internet outage in New Zealand that lasted for over five hours. Telecom New Zealand, the company that owns and operates the "local loop", said that they will review compensation for its customers on a case-by-case basis.

A wholesale ISP is attempting to give its subscribers compensation for the outage. CallPlus says that it is asking Telecom for the thousands of dollars it needs to pass on to its affected customers. They doubt Telecom will give them the money needed.

Peruvian farmers issue warning to government

Farmers in Peru striking over the Peruvian government's stance on coca, have issued an ultimatum. The ultimatum appears to be: negotiate within 24 hours, or face roadblocks indefinitely.

The protests come in response to a coca eradication drive and measures Peruvian president Alan García is taking against cocaine production in the country.

Peruvian police have arrested the leader of the Shining Path rebel group, Jimmy Rodríguez on charges of organising anti-government protests.

Missile shield to feature in talks

Meetings are underway at NATO headquarters in an attempt to reassure Russia that the missile defence plans pose no threat. The United States maintains the system is to protect against missiles from rogue states, whereas Russia sees the system as compromising its strategic interests in the region.

In today's talks NATO allies encouraged the United States to make the planned anti-missile shield capable of covering all of Europe. They did this without committing themselves to joining the project.

Reaction to the proposed system in European states has been mixed.

Water cuts possible as Australia faces drought

Irrigation water to a substantial proportion of Australia's farming regions could be cut due to drought conditions, Australian PM John Howard has warned.

Mr Howard's comments concerned the Murray-Darling Basin, one of the largest systems in Australia. "If it doesn't rain in sufficient volume over the next six to eight weeks, there will be no water allocations for irrigation purposes in the basin", adding that the drought conditions could continue until May 2008.

He continued "It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise," he said. "We must all hope and pray there is rain."

Russian plans for Bering Strait tunnel received with skepticism

Satellite view of the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.

Credit: NASA

Russia, in coordination with the government of the United States and Canada, is planning to build a tunnel from Russia to Alaska, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow Wednesday.

The tunnel is budgeted to cost US$65 billion and would take 10 to 15 years to build. The tunnel is to provide train and automobile transport between Alaska and the Russian Far East, and to carry petroleum and natural gas pipelines, and high-voltage electrical cable.

The proposed tunnel is 64 miles long, or about 100 kilometers, in total, and is designed to link with two islands in the Bering Strait. The project is expected to have a very positive economic effect in the area.

Derek Brower, an energy market expert, called the project "absurd" and suggested the Russian government is playing political games to threaten its European customers to sign energy deals.

"I've never heard of this plan," said Sergei Grigoryev, Vice President of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft.

"To be honest, anyone who look[s] at the map will realize that the project is too hard to implement," an anonymous government source told Reuters.

Today in History
1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament of the Commonwealth of England.

1862 - Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard completed the first test on pasteurization.

1884 - Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Humanum Genus, denouncing Freemasonry and the doctrine of a separation of church and state.

1914 - A fire and a gun battle between the National Guard and striking coal miners in Colorado led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow massacre.

1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 people before committing suicide in the Columbine High School massacre.

April 20 is Ridván begins at sunset in the Bahá'í Faith.

Quote of the Day

It may often be noticed, the less virtuous people are, the more they shrink away from the slightest whiff of the odour of un-sanctity. The good are ever the most charitable, the pure are the most brave.

~ Dinah Craik

Word of the Day

fulgurous; adj

Resembling a lightning flash.

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