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The National Assembly of Pakistan has elected Fahmida Mirza of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as its first female speaker, weeks after the general elections which ousted President Pervez Musharraf's party and gave the PPP the most seats in Parliament. Mirza, a former medical doctor who has previously served three terms in the National Assembly, was the joint candidate of the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N), the Awami National Party (ANP), and other allied parties. She received 249 votes out of the 324 who were present. Her main

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with author and filmmaker John Gaspard. His films Resident Alien, Beyond Bob and Grown Men, besides opening to positive critical response, were all made on very low budgets; costing around US$30,000. He says this is because "I despise the process of trying to raise money to finance movies." He has also written several books on filmmaking, most notably Digital Filmmaking 101. He says that it was "originally.....a series of notes to ourselves, to remind us of the steps we took to make a feature for very littl

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected methane in the atmosphere of a planet 63 light-years away, marking the first discovery of an organic compound on a planet outside our Solar System. The methane was found on a Jupiter-sized planet named HD 189733b. The planet closely orbits HD 189733, a yellow dwarf star in the constellation Vulpecula. Although methane can play a key role in the chemical reactions needed to form life, the planet is too close to its parent star to support life, scientists say. It is known as a "hot Jupiter" - a planet

Cheek numbing, eye watering winds whip across the plains of the Laramie Basin, Wyoming. The ground is yellow brown with patches of recalcitrant snow. Sheep Mountain is losing its winter coat. All normal affairs for March. The March edition of the Wyoming Basin Outlook Report also reports, based on February accumulations, that Snow Water Equivalent is at 99% of average. The SWE is a measure of the snow pack that feeds the streams, rivers and reservoirs that Wyoming, Nebraska and other states depend upon for water. Current averages are compa

Monday marked St. Patrick's Day, a national holiday in Ireland and a cause for celebration in many other nations. Australia's Irish pubs were expected to do booming business, while Sydney hosted one of the world's many St. Patrick's Day parades on Sunday. In the United States, Chicago's main river was coloured green on Saturday. A memorial to the Flight of the Earls was dedicated at Andermatt, Switzerland to mark the day. Early in the 17th Century, the last of the Gaelic Earls fled Ireland for Spain, travelling through Andermatt during their

The leader of the 2008 Tour de Taiwan gets a yellow jersey. But every tour winner gets assistance from a "Miss Etiquette," a tour assistant and a brand new part of the Tour de Taiwan. Miss Ettiquette has become a key feature at the awards ceremonies for every stage. Fma International Co., Ltd., the jersey sponsor of 2008 Tour de Taiwan, and a participant of the 2008 Taipei Cycle, has designed 4 different cheongsams (dresses) for "Miss Etiquette," each matching the colors of the four leader jerseys. These cheongsam made a big hit with the Tai

The Russian Language edition of Wikipedia reached the milestone of 250,000 articles on Monday, March 17. The collective of editors on the project issued a press release on that, according to which the jubilee article was determined to be “Гендерная лингвистика” (Gender linguistics) created by ru-wiki user Koryakov Yuri. In the extent of 7 years of its life, the Russian Wikipedia has become the largest Russian Language encyclopedia of all time, as well as the largest in the Runet (Russian-spoken Internet). The closest printed rival is the Terra

There were 2 games played in the National Hockey League on March 17, 2008. Game summaries Colorado Avalanche @ Minnesota Wild Brent Burns scored the first goal for Minnesota on a power play 8:54 into the first period. Colorado tied the score when Joe Sakic scored his own power play goal 4:51 into the second. Later in the second, the Wild retook the lead when Branko Radivojevic scored his 5th goal of the season. Stephane Veilleux added an empty net goal for Minnesota with 7 seconds remaining in the game. Minnesota returns to the top of the

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has vowed to step down from his position if things "get out of control" in Tibet, where violent demonstrations against China have killed anywhere from 13 to 100 people. At a news conference in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama said he was opposed to the use of violence against China's rule. "Violence is almost suicide," he said. "Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrifice their lives, it will not help." However, he acknowledges that many radical Tibetans have criticized his policy of non-violence, and says that his on

Indonesia has suspended the operating license of PT Adam Skyconnection Airlines, who trade as Adam Air, over safety concerns. The airline has recently suffered safety problems and financial difficulty. Formed in 2003, Adam Air hit financial crisis on Monday when two major shareholders, investment companies who control 50% of the airline, announced they were pulling out and selling all shares back to the original owners, who still control the other half. The reasons given were a lack of improvement in safety and alleged financial mismanagement.

NASA has stated that recent satellite images have shown that despite an unusually cold winter in the Arctic, the old or perennial ice on both the North and South Poles has continued to melt while the level of 'new ice' has increased as compared to last March. On March 18 the scientists said they believe that the increased area of sea ice this winter is due to recent weather conditions, while the decline in perennial ice reflects the longer-term warming climate trend and is a result of increased melting during summer and greater movement of the

United States presidential candidate Barack Obama today gave a speech concerning racial division, which has become a major issue in his campaign after his former pastor's racially-charged statements were widely reported in the media last week. The 37-minute speech, which Obama's advisers say was written by Barack himself, was delivered at the National Constitution Center, a history museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was broadcast live on national television. Obama said Rev. Jeremiah Wright's statements "expressed a profoundly distorted