Sunday, July 24, 2005

The World Health Organization’s Beijing spokesman has said that the People’s Republic of China has withheld vital information regarding H5N1 outbreaks, a type of bird flu that is infecting animals throughout Asia. The animals most affected by the disease are those among waterfowl and poultry, however in recents months it has infected humans and has also been discovered in tigers as well as swine. The Nation magazine quotes WHO officials as saying that the strain has the potential of causing a human pandemic (global epidemic) resulting in tens of millions of deaths.

The first appearance of this type of flu was in Hong Kong during 1997. As of July 21, 2005, one hundred and nine cases of human infection have been confirmed resulting in fifty five deaths outside of China reports the Centers for Disease Control. China has reported no deaths in the recent outbreaks, leading to speculation of a cover up. The Economist says eleven countries across Asia have been affected, and more than one hundred and twenty million birds have died from infection or been culled. Although this week a case was found in Russia making it the first European country with an infection and twelfth in the world.

Usually these flu viruses are carried worldwide by wild bird populations in their intestines and are non-lethal. However this variant has mutated into the most lethal strain of influenza ever recorded says Mike Davis, author of The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu. Such occurrences are natural and have happened in the past as in the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.

The current virus is morphing into a type that is spread among humans with the first human-to-human cases found in Vietnam during 2005. When avian influenza subtypes adapt for this mode of transmission the effect is deadly for humans as the immune system has no natural immunities for it and the production of appropriate antibodies to fight the infection takes some time.

Further complicating the effort to combat H5N1, it was reported in the Washington Post that the People’s Republic of China has been administering the medication Amantadine to poultry in violation of international livestock regulations that state it is for human use only since the late-1990s (all the time officially denying any cases of bird flu among its poultry); the result has been that the virus is now largely immune to the medication and is significantly deadlier. World Health Organization officials had been preparing to use the drug to fight a future pandemic and now it has been rendered useless.

Chinese government officials have said more than 1,000 migratory birds have been found dead during 2005 and there have been unofficial Internet reports of one hundred and twenty related human fatalities that are strongly denied by Beijing.

China has previously irked international agencies for its handling of public and agricultural health crises, notably the SARS epidemic that began in 2002. China’s health minister was fired after the government acknowledged it had covered up the extent of the SARS outbreak by preventing reports about the illness for months and by minimizing its seriousness says the Washgington Post.

Margaret Chan, WHO director of pandemic influenza preparedness is pressing China to allow laboratories to examine specimens from birds in Qinghai, where the H5N1 virus has killed more than 5,000 birds from five species. Recombinomics has found Chinese message boards indicating part of Qinghai province may be under martial law and quarantine.

Three outbreaks of H5N1 have affected China in recent months but the World Health Organization has not received the information or the virus samples from infected birds that they requested. “It is a matter of urgency,” said Roy Wadia, the WHO’s speaker in China. “We stress that this virus is highly unpredictable and versatile and can change any time. It is highly dangerous.”

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The bodies of two children were found this morning in a car in Heathfield, East Sussex, in the United Kingdom. A 43-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of the murders.

The boy and girl were both less than five years old, and were discovered at 11:46 this morning (GMT) when Sussex police officers forced their way into the vehicle, which was parked on Mill Close in Heathfield. The woman, who has yet to be identified, had visited Heathfield police station earlier this morning to report “an incident”, and was later arrested on suspicion of murder. The police say that they have identified the bodies. The identities will be revealed when the post mortem examinations take place, which is scheduled for next Thursday.

The woman was taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital, and has not yet been interviewed by the police. She is believed to be from Surrey but have connections with the Heathfield area. Mill Close, the road on which the incident occurred, has been closed, according to a police spokeswoman, who said, “An investigation is now under way and the area around the scene is cordoned off.” Chief Inspector Julia Pope, Wealden district policing commander, said, “This is a very tragic incident, but I would like to reassure people that it is fully contained and there is no threat to anyone in the area. We will move to restore normality and access to Mill Close as quickly as possible.” A spokesman for the South East Coast Ambulance Service said, “We sent an ambulance and two response cars but sadly two young children were pronounced dead at the scene.”

Friday, November 6, 2009

The unemployment rate in the United States has surpassed ten percent, according to figures released by the US Department of Labor on Friday.

The jobless rate, now at 10.2%, is the highest it has been since April 1983, and was an increase over September’s level of 9.8%. 190,000 jobs in total were lost last month, and 8.2 million total people have become unemployed since the recession officially began in December 2007.

“It’s pretty disappointing overall. Job losses are not moderating as quickly as I had hoped despite those earlier indicators on jobs,” economic analyst Richard Franulovich at the Westpac financial services company said.

Some economists say the jobless rate could reach 10.5% next year because employers are still reluctant to hire. Economist James Shugg predicted the weakness in the US job market is expected to continue.

“It is a lot easier for firms to make the decision not to lay someone off than it is actually to decide to take someone on,” Shugg said. “I think we are still at that point, the firms are getting less aggressive in terms of job cutting. But putting people on is still a little way to come yet.”

Despite the news, most analysts have said that this is an improvement in a way, as the rate of job losses has slowed in the past year. This January, for instance, saw 741,000 job cuts. The US gross domestic product also grew by 3.5% from July through September. President Barack Obama, however, suggested that the jobless rate may still continue to rise in the immediate future. “We are just not where we need to be yet. We’ve got a long way to go,” he said.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Australian federal member of Calare, Peter Andren died on Saturday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was aged 61.

Mr Andren who had held the seat since being elected in 1996 had previously announced his intention to run for the senate after his electorate was changed for the 2007 federal election. After Mr Andren was diagnosed with cancer in July, he announced that he would be retiring from politics at the election.

Mr Andren’s 1996 campaign platform was based upon retaining services in regional Australia, particularly banking, health and telecommunications. Over the next 11 years, Mr Andren’s primary vote grew and at the 2001 and 2004 elections was elected without preferences, achieving a majority primary vote.

In 2001, Mr Andren disagreed with his electorate on refugees. The electorate supported the government’s tough stance but Mr Andren could not support the government’s border protection measures. Following this, a vicious letter-box campaign rose up saying “you might like Peter Andren … but you won’t like what he’s got to say about keeping our borders safe”.

Fellow NSW independent member, Tony Windsor said Mr Andren’s stance on asylum seekers was just one sign of his compassion and strong belief in human rights.

Mr Windsor described Mr Andren as the “conscience” of parliament. “Peter Andren was a true representative of the people of the Calare electorate, a man of the highest integrity and the conscience of the Parliament,” he said.

“He was subjected to vitriol from time to time within the Parliament over issues, but if he believed in something he stuck to it. He didn’t compromise and I think that’s a lasting legacy that Peter will leave.”

Prime Minister John Howard said despite having a difference of opinion with Mr Andren on many issues, he had a lot of respect for him.

“I respected his skills as a local member,” he said.

“Mr Andren and I frequently disagreed on major issues and he made no bones about that and I made no bones about it either but that didn’t stop me respecting him and acknowledging the tremendous work he did for his electorate.”

Labor leader Kevin Rudd described Mr Andren as a true independent.

“Peter Andren will be a great loss to the Australian parliament,” he said.

“He was a man of principle, a man of commitment, a man who was an absolute independent.”

Leader of the Greens, Bob Brown said Mr Andren was an example of how a politician should be.

“He was an exemplar of representative politics for his electorate and the people of Calare kept returning him with a bigger and bigger majority,” he said.

“[If] anybody ever asks me how a politician should be, I am going to say, ‘Look at the record of Peter Andren'”

“He was a great Australian representative and he is a great loss to this country.”

During his political career, Mr Andren fought the sale of Telstra, introduced a bill to allow MPs to opt-out of their generous superannuation schemes, opposed the Iraq war and campaigned on environmental issues.

Mr Andren was born at Gulargambone, near Dubbo in Western NSW in 1946. Before he entered politics Mr Andren worked as a teacher before moving into journalism. Mr Andren worked as a news producer in Sydney for the Seven and Nine networks, before moving back to regional NSW where he worked as the news editor for both Radio 2GZ and Prime Television.

Mr Andren is survived by his partner and two sons.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Earlier this month, Wikinews spoke with University of Sussex professor of economics L. Alan Winters regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU) in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the subsequent negotiations leading up to and following the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement of December, which he has researched extensively. In a call, a Wikinews correspondent spoke with Professor Winters about recent developments in UK trade policy to learn more about his observations.

Winters is professor of economics at the University of Sussex, as well as founding director and fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO). His career spans over 15 years, including as chief economist at the Department for International Development, director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank, CEO of the Migrating Out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium and advisor for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Three reports where Winters is listed as an author were used as reference during the interview: “COVID-19 will reinforce the Brexit shock”, “The Costs of Brexit” and “Taking stock of the new UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: governance, state subsidies and the level playing field”.

Winters was awarded the title “Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath”, styled C.B., on June 16, 2012 as part of the 2012 Birthday Honours.

Thursday, June 1, 2006

A fuel storage tank at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) caught fire today.

The 1-million gallon storage tank caught fire at about 8:30 a.m. local time (PDT) according to Ron Myers, a spokesman for the LAX fire department. Myers said that planes were not at risk and no flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted. No injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered.

The fire is said to have been caused by a spark from a welder performing work on the tank. Reports say the fuel container was mostly empty, but authorities are still investigating.