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Three people who were found with €440 million worth of cocaine have been given a total of 85 years imprisonment. Perry Wharrie and Martin Wanden were given thirty years imprisonment, while Joe Daly was given twenty-five. The trio were involved in a cocaine smuggling operation which took place near Cork, a region of the Republic of Ireland. According to evidence heard by the court, Perry Wharrie, an Essex, England resident, was given a life sentence in 1985 for murdering a police officer. Judge Ó Donnabháin made the following comment when se

A Kosmos-3M carrier rocket has successfully launched the SAR-Lupe 5 satellite, the fifth and final member of the German SAR-Lupe surveillance satellite system. The rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia at 02:20 GMT this morning. The SAR-Lupe system uses Synthetic Aperture radar (SAR) to detect objects on the ground, even when it is too dark or cloudy for optical reconnaissance. The SAR-Lupe system consists of five satellites, which have been launched over the last two years. The first satellite was launched in mid-D

The Israel security forces have recently arrested six Israeli Arabs, four of them residents of east Jerusalem, on suspicion of planning to operate an al-Qaeda cell in Israel. The six, which include Hebrew University students, were indicted of trying to build terror infrastructure in Jerusalem and planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel, including an attack on a helicopter carrying a senior official during US President Bush's visit to Israel. Some of the suspects will be tried for aiding the enemy at a time of war and for soliciting a

Alleged war criminal Radovan Karadžić was caught yesterday in Serbia by Serbian security forces after almost 13 years on the run from authorities. Last night he was questioned by an inquisitor of the War Crimes Court in Belgrade. Karadžić has been accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995. The Srebrenica massacre, in which about 8,000 Muslims were killed, is among the most serious of his alleged crimes. The massacre was

Paramedics employed by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales in Australia marched on the New South Wales parliament today. They called for the Government to sack Ambulance Service of New South Wales CEO Greg Rochford, hire 300 additional ambulance officers and 60 patient transport officers. Paramedics gave the Government 48 hours to agree to the proposed staffing levels or face industrial action. "We are currently at the same levels of staffing that we had in 2002 and these not withstanding, also there's been an increase in workload of 5 p

Seventeen people in Guatemala have been killed by Tropical Storm Dolly, the fourth storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. This included twelve people from a family from Zacapa, who died when a hill collapsed on their home. The home collapse in Zapaca killed all but three of the people who were in the home at the time of the collapse. Nine children were among those who died. In Huehuetenango, a landslide killed all four people inside a house. Angel Antonio Diaz, another person who died, drowned while attempting to cross the river Punil

Emmy Award winning American actress Estelle Getty has died at the age of 84. Getty had been previously diagnosed with dementia which had been in its advanced stages. She died while at her home in Hollywood, California early Tuesday morning. "She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents. She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived," said her son Carl Gettleman. Getty was probably most famous for her starring role as Sophia Petri

The trial of Captain Marwoto Komar is set to begin this week. The first pilot to be prosecuted over an aircraft accident in Indonesia, he is being charged over the March 7, 2007 crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 at Yogyakarta International Airport, a disaster which killed 21 people. The final report by the National Transport Safety Commission found that Komar had attempted to land the aircraft, a Boeing 737, at an unsafely high speed and steep angle, resulting in the plane overshooting the runway and bursting into flames. It further said th

The United States military has confirmed that three of the six crew on board a B-52 Stratofortress that crashed near Guam's Apra Harbour yesterday are dead. The strategic bomber belonged to the US Air Force (USAF). The aircraft had been headed for a Liberation Day celebration to perform a flyover when it crashed thirty miles off the coast. Since the Monday morning accident 3,000 square miles of ocean have been searched, with aircraft drafted in from as far afield as Japan to help. The commander of the 35th wing in Guam told reporters that sin

Since current issues involving oil price increases, energy-saving and carbon-decreasing have gained public attention, the bicycle has become a popular product as everyone wants to own one. But some industrial businesspeople have pointed out a critical issue on bicycle riding, that is, personal security (safety). Jack Cheng-kuan Hsieh, Chairman of KHS Mountain Bike Corp., discussed some of the dangers of cycling with Wikinews Journalist Rico Shen as part of a press conference. In addition to Hsieh, Wikinews also interviewed Frank Feng-chou Kuo

Brazilian comedienne and actress Dercy Gonçalves has died at the age of 101. Gonçalves died of pneumonia on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She was born Dolores Gonçalves Costa on June 23, 1907 in Santa Maria Madalena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In her 80-year long career, Gonçalves has worked in the theater, revues, film, radio and television, becoming famous by her humorous use of vulgar language.

According to a new report released jointly by the Government of the Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN), the cost of providing aid and funding reconstruction after Cyclone Nargis will be US $1 billion over the next three years. ASEAN said in a press release that Cyclone Nargis was the "most devastating natural disaster in Myanmar’s history". They also say that the cyclone had a "similar scale of impact to that of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004". 84,530 died in the cyclone and