World

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has been awarded the "Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement" at the opening ceremony of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, on August 28th. The decision was taken by the Board of the Biennale, upon the proposal of the Director of this year's exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima. The Board stated that "Rem Koolhaas has expanded the possibilities of architecture. He has focused on the exchanges between people in space. He creates buildings that bring people together and in this way forms ambitio

48-year old Alain Robert, affectionately known as the 'French Spiderman', has climbed a 57-storey Sydney skyscraper without any equipment in 20 minutes. The purpose of Alain Robert's actions was to raise awareness of global warming. Following the previous like events in other cities, he was arrested and will possibly be fined. When Robert was 12, he climbed eight storeys to get into his flat instead of waiting for his parents to return. Since then, he has climbed over eighty buildings around the world, including the Eiffel Tower, The New York

Laurent Fignon, the two time former winner of the Tour de France, has died at the age of 50. His death was confirmed by his wife, Valerie. The cause of death was announced as cancer. Fignon had been battling the disease since 2009. Fignon won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 but is also remembered for the 1989 race. Fignon lost out to Greg LeMond in the final time-trail stage by just eight seconds. In his career Fignon won 76 races including the La Flèche Wallonne in 1986, Milan-San Remo in both 1988 and 1989 and the Giro d'Italia in 198

This article's primary contributor, Patrick Gillett, is an alumnus of Sunshine Coast Grammar School. A deal between Sunshine Coast Grammar School headmaster Nigel Fairbairn and the Independent Education Union of Australia has ended a week of uncertainty for 22 of the Queensland, Australia school's staff. Last week Wikinews obtained a list of 22 middle management teaching staff allegedly made redundant, or laid off due to restructuring. The restructuring is, apparently, designed to get teachers back into the classroom. During the week, staf

Ian Baldwin, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and colleagues have discovered a multi-step protective mechanism of tobacco plants against Manduca sexta caterpillars. In response to a chemical in the caterpillars' larvae, the plants release an odorous substance into air to attract another species of insects, called "big-eyed bugs" (Geocoris). These carnivores come to the scene and attack the caterpillars. The response is triggered within 24 hours, which is a relatively short period of time. The discovery occurr

The opening ceremony of basketball's 2010 FIBA World Championship took place in Sinan Erdem Dome, Istanbul on Friday. The celebrations started with a special show by the world-renowned group Cirque du Soleil. It was followed by the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, a Janissary band, and the singers Fatih Erkoç and Müslüm Gürses. Then Whirling Dervishes took to the stage. Turkish diva Sezen Aksu performed with the Italian tenor Alessandro Safina and Greek singer Haris Alexiou. To finish, Turkish dance group Fire of Anatolia performed the show

Six United States soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in eastern and southern Afghanistan. Their deaths were announced by NATO's International Security Assistance Force. They said the troops died on Saturday and Sunday. Three of the soldiers died while fighting insurgents in the eastern part of the country on Saturday. On the same day two more troops were killed by an improvised bomb. Another troop was also killed while fighting in the south. NATO's statement did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers. A military spokesman

A University of Tokyo group of researchers, led by bioengineer Shoji Takeuchi, has made an electronic sensor capable of smelling gases. The sensor uses genetically engineered frog cells. Since previous sensors were not very accurate, the scientist decided to try a biological approach. The invention was revealed in a US scientific journal yesterday, and is supposed to be used to design better machines to detect polluting gases in the atmosphere. Previous smell sensors were based on quartz rods, which vibrate when a substance binds to them. The

Former professional wrestler and manager Luna Vachon has died at the age of 48. The cause of death was not announced. Vachon wrestled for World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly World Wrestling Federation between 1993 and 2000. At the time of her death, the Canadian-born Vachon was living with her mother in Florida after a fire at her house destroyed all of her possessions including her wrestling memorabilia. Her death was announced by family and friends. Vachon wrestled for several wrestling promotions including the World Wrestling Federat

Mount Sinabung has erupted in Sumatra, Indonesia, spitting smoke and ash in the air at 00:08 local time Sunday. Surono of Indonesia's Directorate of Vulcanology said, "Initially we thought the ash and smoke were triggered by rain but now we know the driving pressure was from magma. It's clearly dangerous so we've raised the warning to the highest level, or red level." "The situation is under control. Emergency response teams are already on the scene," says a spokesperson for the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency. Saturday, Sina

Andreas Hornig, Wikinews contributor and team member of Synergy Moon, competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize, managed to interview Senior Director of Space Prizes William Pomerantz of the X PRIZE Foundation about the competitions, goals, and impacts via e-mail for HDTVTotal.com and Wikinews. Interview Please introduce yourself and the Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) My name is William Pomerantz, and I am the Senior Director of Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. In that capacity, I manage all of our space activities here at the X PRIZE, inc

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday that it planned to fine American Airlines a record US$24.2 million for flying thousands of flights that had dangerous wiring. The fine far outstrips previous penalties, and stems from the carrier's failure to properly maintain and inspect wires bundled on McDonnell Douglas MD-80 airplane wheel wells. The FAA says that American Airlines flew 286 of the airplanes 14,278 times without upgrading the wiring which could, if sparked, ignite the nearby fuel tanks and explode t