Politics

Republican officials announced today that Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois will be leaving the United States Congress when his present congressional term concludes at the end of next year. Hastert has served in Illinois' 14th district since 1987 and his time as Speaker makes him longest serving Republican Speaker in history. Party officials have scheduled a formal announcement of Hastert's retirement for Friday, August 17. Hastert's decision has been expected since the Republicans lost the elections last November and he was removed as Speaker

The United States will be labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "specially designated global terrorist" organization according to U.S. White House officials. According to reports, U.S. President George W. Bush will label the group under Executive Order 13224 which "provides a means by which to disrupt the financial support network for terrorists and terrorist organizations by authorizing the U.S. government to designate and block the assets of foreign individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of te

Reports are surfacing that say former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, present in his blood stream when he died. A number of reports say the virus had been injected to him prior to death and the actual cause of death was a separately administered poison that HIV was intended to mask. The claims come from Doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi, a former doctor for Arafat and former member of the Health Ministry located in Jordan, who says the virus was injected into Arafat's blood stream just bef

According to officials, President Bush's senior political advisor, Karl Rove, will resign his White House post effective by the end of the month, senior administration officials said Monday. Rove has held a top position in the White House since Bush took office in January 2001. President Bush and Rove are expected to make a statement to the press at 11:35 a.m. ET (UTC-4), as Bush boards Marine One, heading for Crawford, Texas. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Rove said: "I just think it's time ... There's always something that ca

Massachusetts Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won a recent straw poll in Iowa, gaining 31.6 percent of the votes, with Mike Huckabee following with 18.1 percent. John Cox finished the Republican straw poll in last place, ending with less than 0.5 percent of the vote. Over 14,000 valid ballots were cast in the straw poll, which was conducted by the Iowa Republican Party. Earlier, a malfunctioning voting machine used in the Iowa straw poll forced at least 1,500 ballots to be counted by hand.

Tony Benn, at 82 is a still an active political figure, attending rallies and giving speeches. During the 1970s he served under James Callaghan as Energy Secretary, having earlier held the position of Secretary of State for Industry under Harold Wilson. After a number of attempts to contact Mr Benn via email, he forwarded a telephone number for the purpose of doing an interview. Following a brief discussion to explain who or what Wikinews is, and its relation with Wikipedia, Wikinews reporter Brian McNeil started putting the questions. Mr Benn

Korean government announced the second summit between the two divided Koreas will be held on Aug. 28. For the summit, Roh, president of South Korea will visit the North Korean capital for three days. North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency also announced at the same time that the two Koreas are to hold a preparing meeting of the summit in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. The two countries last held the first summit in June 2000, when Mr. Kim met then South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung in Pyongyang. The two nations remain

In a letter published this morning in the paper de Volkskrant, Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders advocated proscribing the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam. The right-wing politician, who is the leader of the Party for Freedom, compared the Muslim holy book with Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, which is currently one of the few books proscribed in the Netherlands today. According to Wilders, the Qur'an is "a fascist book" that promotes violence and should only be allowed for academic studies. In the letter, Wilders stated th

At least six miners are trapped approximately 1700 feet underground in a coal mine in Utah after portions of the shaft collapsed. The mine is owned by Utah American Energy and is close to the town of Huntington, Emery County, 160 km south of Salt Lake City. Robert Murray, The CEO, President, Director and owner of Murray Energy and the owner of Utah American Energy, said during a press conference at 5:00 p.m. (eastern time), an "earthquake caused the collapse at about 3:00 a.m. (mountain time)." The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reco

Ever since the Federal Government stepped in to take over funding of the Mersey hospital in Devonport, Tasmania, the state government and some federal MPs have criticised this act as a stunt in the prelude to the federal election to be called by November. But Prime Minister John Howard has said the act was only to safeguard the facilities of the hospital from being downgraded by the Tasmanian government, in giving an extra AUD$45 million. The Victorian government has slammed the takeover as only intended to win votes for the marginal seat of

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday announced a R$ 6.86 billion (about $3.6 billion) investment to bring running water, roads, improved housing, sewage and other services to the so-called favelas, or metropolitan slum areas in 13 states of his country. According to the President, it is the first time a project aimed at the "biggest degradation focuses" becomes part of the Brazilian political culture. The federal government would contribute 5.9 billion Reais (3.14 billion USD), the rest would come from local governments. Th

At 11:20 a.m. in the Australian state of Victoria, the Governor David de Kretser started the ceremony for the swearing in of the new Brumby's cabinet, attended by family and friends of the ministers. This comes a full week after the resignation of Steve Bracks from the top position, and his deputy John Thwaites. The ministers and their portfolios are: John Brumby has the role of Premier as well as the ministries of Multicultural Affairs and Veterans Affairs, Deputy Premier Rob Hulls has the Industrial Relations and Racing, Gavin Jennings En