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University are now scheduled to play Noosa in the 2014 Sunshine Coast Rugby Union grand final at Sunshine Coast Stadium next weekend. They defeated Toads 19–10 at Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast in the preliminary final yesterday. The first half of the preliminary final was uneventful on field with both teams scoring unconverted tries. A highlight was touch judge Steve Ryan seen laughing with the nearby crowd briefly before continuing his duties. Five-all was the score at half time. The second half saw three tries scored. Toads s

Leaders from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) member states met in Wales over Thursday to Friday in a summit addressing the organisation's role in Afghanistan and new threats from Russia and the Islamic State. __NOTOC__ Role in Afghanistan Since the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal countries involved in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's military operation in Afghanistan, have been committed to full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. This would mark the end of ISA

An estimated two thousand people from the skateboarding and surfing communities, and a Wikinews reporter, attended the funeral service and memorial paddle-out and skateboarding session this past Labor Day weekend in California for skateboarding pioneer Jay Adams, who died on August 15 while on a surfing trip with his wife Tracy in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Within days after his death several smaller Hawaiian-style paddle-out tributes were also held in his honor from Santa Cruz, California to Jacksonville, Florida. Broadcast live on the web fr

This season's Sunshine Coast Rugby Union semi finals are now scheduled to take place at Sunshine Beach and Caloundra, Australia. The venues were settled upon in the final round of play yesterday, incidentally at the same venues and teams. In Sunshine Beach Noosa defeated University 17–8 in a closer match than the final score suggested. Noosa took an early lead after eleven minutes through an unconverted try. University took the score to 5–3 seven minutes later. They would take the lead seventeen minutes into the second half and would not reli

Russian authorities have detained four people on Wednesday on suspicion of vandalism, following an incident where the spire of the iconic Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building in Moscow was painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The suspects, reportedly consisting of two men and two women, allegedly ascended the building by stairs to reach its top floor, before using climbing equipment to complete the ascent, according to Moscow police. Over the course of the previous night, the suspects proceeded to paint the top half of the building's st

Researchers from Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the United Kingdom's University of York and University of Aberdeen have measured face matching aptitude of 49 Australian passport-issuing officers and compared it against a control group of 38 students from UNSW. In the test given to both groups, both had a roughly 20% error rate. The study "Passport Officers' Errors in Face Matching" was published in PLOS ONE this Monday. Previous psychological research has shown difficulty of deciding if two photographs are of the same st

Some Texans are calling for the resignation of Governor Rick Perry, after he was indicted on Friday on two felony counts. Gilbert Hinojosa, Texas Democratic Party Chairman, said in a statement, "We call on Governor Perry to immediately step down from office. [...] Texans deserve real leadership and this is unbecoming of our governor.” On Saturday, the executive director of the state's Democratic party, Will Hailer, voiced his belief that Perry should resign, shortly after the Governor spoke at a news conference at the Texas capitol. Also on S

Yesterday the Peshmerga, military of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Iraq, gained control of parts of the Mosul Dam, as part of their advance against insurgents of the Islamic State. International opposition to the Islamic militant group has grown this week. The Peshmerga were supported this weekend by US airstrikes in their attempt to push back the Sunni insurgents, and Kurdish officials reported "good progress" in the face of "fierce resistance". Reuters reported eyewitness accounts of Kurdish forces successfully retaking Batmaiya and

85 Nigerian villagers, members of a group Nigerian officials said they believed kidnapped by militant extremist group Boko Haram earlier this month, were reported on Friday to have been freed by Chadian soldiers, as they and their captors tried to cross the border near Lake Chad. CNN reported over a hundred captives had been abducted during a Boko Haram attack on a village by Lake Chad on the night of Sunday to Monday last week. Captives were forced onto buses, before the convoy was stopped by the Chadian military as it was trying to cross the

A research team from the Australian National University have generated complex surface flows driven by three-dimensional waves. Their results show possibility of remote manipulation of floating objects and were published in Nature Physics this Sunday. As Dr Horst Punzmann told ABC, "A tractor beam is a popular term which, I think it captures quite well the basic principle. You put an object there and it propagates, it floats backwards to the source of the wave". Professor Michael Shats clarified that "We found that above a certain height, the

The US comedy actor Robin Williams was found dead yesterday by the Marin County, California Sheriff's Office, apparently by asphyxiation. Williams had been suffering from depression and announced he would re-engage in a twelve-step program. Williams was the star of a whole series of comedy films winning an Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting and Golden Globes for his acting in Good Morning, Vietnam, Mrs. Doubtfire, and The Fisher King. As well as films and television, Williams did stand-up comedy and appeared on chat shows; he appeared on

Yesterday, Nigeria's military engaged in gun battles with Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, aimed at regaining two towns in northeastern Nigeria recently captured by the group. This comes as suspected members of Boko Haram attacked a village inside Cameroon. On Wednesday, Boko Haram attacked and occupied the town of Gwoza, with over 50 reported killed as they forced Nigerian forces out of the town, a stronghold in the fight against the militants. This followed the capture of Damboa in July, leaving much of Borno State under the control of th