Audio Wikinews News Brief for October 21, 2008
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From Wikinews, the free news source, this is the Audio Wikinews Brief for Tuesday, October 21, 2008. I'm Kevin Fields, and here are today's current stories.

In an interview with Público, a Spanish newspaper, the prime minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has stated that " if there is a global recession, it seems logical to expect that Spain will enter the recession in 2009." In the interview Zapatero also described the worldwide economic situation as "difficult." He recognized that "the developed countries are or are going to experience negative growth, and developing countries are also going to see falling growth; resulting in a worldwide loss of jobs." Regarding the global financial situation, Zapatero continued by saying that "the financial system is a part of the economy, a crucial part. We have a year-long financial crisis, which has had its most acute moment in the past two months, and I think now the financial markets are beginning to recover." Asked about whether it would be desirable to another plan to help those overwhelmed by the size of their mortgage, Zapatero reiterated the falls in the Euro Interbank Offered Rate. Zapatero then claimed that the average Spanish citizen would see their mortgage decrease by €28 a month (€330 per year) as result of the recent drops in interest rate, lead by seven central banks, including the European Central Bank which covers Spain, dropped their interest rate by 0.5%. The prime minister then said that he was pleased with the role of Spain in the recent summits discussing the financial crisis, before adding that he believes the European Union will lead the way in solving the current issues in the markets.

Wikinews has learned that the Church of Scientology has begun to falsely accuse the internet protest group Anonymous of a 2007 school shooting in Finland. On October 17, the President of the Church of Scientology in New York City, John Carmichael, also accused Anonymous of being behind the shooting. In an October 18 press release, the Church accused Anonymous of being involved in the November 2007 shooting at Jokela High School, in which a man named Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed nine people, and himself. Wikinews contacted the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Finland by e-mail, seeking evidence or a statement to confirm or deny any connection to Anonymous and verify or debunk the claim made by the Church. Wikinews was able to confirm that there was no connection between Anonymous and the 2007 shooting. The accusations are part of a Scientology tactic developed by the organization's founder, L. Ron Hubbard called "fair-game". The Church uses this tactic to harass people, often fabricating lies and defamation against those who protest or criticize their beliefs. Wikinews contacted the Church several times by e-mail for a statement, but the Church has yet to reply.

In a related story, admitted Anonymous member Dmitriy Guzner has admitted that he launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the official website of the Church of Scientology, scientology.org. He now faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment. The attack involves overwhelming a web server's connections, making it unavailable for access to other visitors. The United States Attorney's Office released a statement on this issue. "A New Jersey man was charged today for his role in an attack on Church of Scientology websites in January 2008 that rendered the websites unavailable," they said. "Dmitriy Guzner, 18, of Verona, New Jersey, has agreed to plead guilty to computer hacking for his role in the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against the Scientology websites. "

In Buffalo, New York, a suspicious package was received by National Action Financial Services, a subsidiary of Sitel, Inc.. According to an FBI spokesperson, the mail department found the package, evacuated the building and contacted the local police department. The package has been described as containing some type of white powder. One anonymous employee said management was being very "hush hush" about it. National Action Financial media contacts were not available for comment, and the Amherst Police Department referred Wikinews to the local FBI office. The FBI stated that no hospitalizations were required, but could not comment further as it is an ongoing investigation.

This has been an Audio Wikinews Brief and is freely available for copy under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license at http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/. Catch the latest breaking news on Wikinews at Wikinews.org.

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