World in brief, Oct. 25

WikiLeaks strapped for cash
WikiLeaks will stop leaking classified data in order to concentrate on securing enough funding to stay afloat, according to its founder. Julian Assange said the restrictions imposed by American financial companies in Dec. 2010 may cause the organization’s collapse, the Associated Press reported. The online organization leaked 250,000 U.S. State Department cables late last year, after which point MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and Western Union no longer accepted donations to the organization. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said that in 2010, WikiLeaks would receive more than 100,000 euros (US $140,000) on average per month. That amount has since dropped to between 6,000 and 7,000 euros, Hrafnsson said.

Police pepper spray Haka dancers
A group of people performing the Haka dance after a high school football game in Roosevelt, Utah left police perplexed enough to use pepper spray to disperse the dancers last Thursday. The group began the traditional Maori dance to honour one of the teams as the players approached the field entrance, but were blocking the exit of team players and game officials, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported. The two police offers tried to create an exit but, as one spectator explained, the group was absorbed by the dance, which required the players to be loud and talk in unison. The officers then used pepper spray to disperse the dancers. The police had been unaware the group was going to perform the dance. Some people were affected by the pepper spray, while others also reported being hit with police batons.

A World Cup legacy, unfortunately
A 19-year-old in Kent, England was evicted from her apartment last week for refusing to stop holding all night vuvuzela parties, the Telegraph reported. Toni Nicholson’s landlords, Town and County Housing, took legal action after neighbours complained of the excessive noise. Nicholson had ignored their requests to stop the parties for over a year. The teenager would invite people on Facebook to bring their instruments to the parties, which first entered the public consciousness during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The instruments can reach 131 decibels, as loud as a jet plane passing 30 metres above your head. More than 40 people usually attended the parties. Neighbours also complained of fights, property damage, and things being thrown off the first-floor balcony. Nicholson did not comment on her eviction.

Customers abandon Netflix
Movie rental firm Netflix has been bleeding subscriptions since June after raising its price for renting DVDs and streaming films online.  It lost 800,000 customers in the third quarter of this year, down from 23.8 million subscribers three months ago, according to the Globe and Mail. It has, however, seen a 65 per cent rise in profits in the same period of time, earning US$62.5 million. Netflix has plans to sell its DVD service. The company is the largest video streaming service in the United States. It is set to launch in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2012.