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The government of the United Kingdom has given corporations like fast food chain McDonald's the right to award high school qualifications to employees who complete a company training program. Two other businesses, railway firm Network Rail and regional airline Flybe, were also approved. The decision was made by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which oversees the national curriculum. McDonald's said it will offer a "basic shift manager" course, which will train staff in marketing, customer service, and other areas of restaurant ma

Suharto, second president of Indonesia, has died today in a Jakarta hospital at the age of 86. The cause of death was announced as multiple-organ failure. He had been in the hospital since January 4, when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. A week of national mourning was declared by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In a televised address, the current president described Suharto as "one of Indonesia's best sons and national leaders who has done very great service to his beloved nation" and called for all Indonesians to p

__NOTOC__ Deaths in 2008 The following deaths were reported over the past week: Richard Darman, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget , 64 Richard Darman, who was the trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Non-Executive Chairman of the AES corporation, as well as being the aide to five presidents died of Leukemia on Friday. In 1990 he successfully persuaded Congress to raise taxes, despite the fact that former president George Bush pledge to do otherwise. Sources Thomas Cecil Gray, pioneer in anesthes

Wikinews has learned that a new entity calling itself The Regime used keylogging to gain an administrator password to 711chan.org, a site popular with the open vigilante group "Anonymous" that has recently been attacking Scientology online. At 9:57 p.m. (eastern time) the site 711chan.org, was replaced, allegedly by The Regime by the title Church of Scientology along with a statement on the home page stating "This website has been deleted due to copyright claims from the Church of Scientology." A search performed using Google, on 711chan has r

Barack Obama has won the South Carolina Democratic primary, with 55 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton came in second with 27 percent of the vote, while John Edwards was third with 18 percent. "Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina," Obama told his supporters. "In nine short days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change,

The National Hockey League has announced in a press conference earlier this week that it will open the 2008-09 NHL season with two series' in Europe. On October 4 and October 5, the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning will play in Prague, Czech Republic at the Sazka Arena, and the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins will play in Stockholm, Sweden at the Stockholm Globe Arena. Each of the four teams will also play exhibition games in Europe. The Rangers will play against Metallurg Magnitogorsk of Russia's elite league in the IIHF-sanc

At least 45 people have been killed in a new surge of violence that began after Kenya's disputed December 27 presidential election. Some sources have said that there have been over 80 deaths in the last 3 days. The latest deaths come as former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan is in Kenya to try to broker a compromise. Police had imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Nakuru, about two hours north of Nairobi, after new violence broke out on Friday. The killings appear to be ethnically motivated, as Kikuyus seek revenge for attacks against

An unresponsive United States reconnaissance satellite is in an uncontrolled, decaying orbit and will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in late February or early March. According to Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation." The satellite is out-of-control, and therefore there is no possibility to guide it to re-entry over an ocean or unpopulated area. On the one hand, since most of the earth's surface is water or unpopulated, death or property loss due to any

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101. Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States. Schreckengost's peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes. In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost's work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, potte

After successive suicide attacks in Mosul in recent days, killing over 40 people including the city's police chief, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced on Friday that Iraqi security forces and American troops were gathering for what he described as a "decisive" offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and its allies. "We have set up an operations room in Nineveh to complete the final battle with al Qaeda along with guerrillas and members of the previous regime," al-Maliki stated during a ceremony honoring the victims of the recent a

A 16-year-old male from Novato, California has been arrested in Tennessee over allegations he intended to hijack a commercial passenger airliner in the United States. The boy, who was unnamed due to his age, was a passenger on board Southwest Airlines Flight 284 from Los Angeles to Nashville on Tuesday, with his parents reporting him missing at 11:30 am the same day. Although he remained calm throughout the flight and made no hijacking attempt, authorities report he had handcuffs, duct tape and yarn inside the aircraft cabin with him. Althoug

Australia will press on with plans to withdraw its troops from Iraq in June this year, although promises were made by the nation's foreign minister that relations with the United States will not be affected by the move. Foreign minister Stephen Smith said that the withdrawal will be conducted in an orderly fashion to minimise inconvenience to other nations in Iraq. Speaking in New York as part of his first US visit since the election he said "We want to do that in a way which sees minimal disruption, which causes the least inconvenience to our