Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a program of the United Nations and a global authority on human health. In an interview with Wikinews, the WHO tells about the current H1N1 pandemic.

The organization’s 93rd update as of March 26, 2010 states 213 countries, territories, and other communities have laboratory-confirmed cases and there have been at least 16,931 confirmed deaths, including 4,653 deaths in Europe and 7,673 in the Americas.

Wikinews reporter Mike Morales talks with Karen Mah, a media relations representative for the WHO, and asks her several questions.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

The Australian federal and Victorian state governments announced on Saturday that the third stage of upgrades on the Shepparton railway line will commence next month. Their joint press release described this as a “construction blitz on the line”, with the goal of delivering nine daily return services between Melbourne and Shepparton. As of January 31, V/Line operates five return services on weekdays to Shepparton.

From September 4 to September 12, coaches will replace trains to Seymour and Shepparton, during which stage two works will continue on the line, while as part of the stage three upgrades, the crossing loop at Murchison East will be extended by 1.1 kilometres, allowing two six-car V/Line VLocity trains to pass each other.

Outside of these dates, the stage three upgrades will also involve the expansion of a new Shepparton train stabling facility, as well as signalling and track upgrades on the Shepparton railway line. The stabling facility and loop extension, along with stage two upgrades, have been contracted to Coleman Rail and KBR. Stage three is slated for completion by 2023.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, and leader of the National Party of Australia, Barnaby Joyce, said of the upgrades that “the Australian Government provided the funding for stage three to deliver the services Shepparton passengers have been waiting for, and now we’re making sure this work gets underway. Our record $110 billion infrastructure investment is all about delivering projects like this, where the community and the economy will benefit simultaneously.”

A number of local MPs also spoke on the project, with National Party federal MP for Nicholls, Damian Drum, saying that “these upgrades will give Shepparton the fast and frequent rail service befitting its status as a major regional centre.”

Mark Gepp, a Labor state MLC for the Northern Victoria Region (which covers Shepparton) stated that “delivering four extra services to and from Shepparton each day will give people in communities along the line more options for their travel and a train service they can rely on”.

Liberal Democratic MLC for Northern Victoria, Tim Quilty, told Wikinews yesterday via email that “I am very pleased to see the Victorian Government actually invest in rail infrastructure to benefit Northern Victorian communities. More efficient and reliable freight and passenger transport will benefit the city’s economy and help ease traffic on our roads.”

Quilty added that “Shepparton is an important regional centre and this investment should continue to improve transport links – with nine passenger services a day, lots of Northern Victorian towns will be envious of the service Shepparton is going to have,” but also commented on the government’s announcements, remarking that “you have to wonder, though, just how many times they can announce the same project before the next election. It would be great if they would shut up about how they are going to build it, and just get on with it.”

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

A Romanian priest and four nuns have been charged in the death of a reportedly schizophrenic nun who was crucified in an exorcism. The novice, Maricica Irina Cornici, of Holy Trinity convent in northeast Romania, died last week after spending three days gagged and chained to a cross without food or water in the church’s cellar.

The 23-year-old nun was found with a towel stuffed into her mouth and had been left in the cold room while the priest delivered prayers to drive out evil spirits. An initial autopsy revealed the nun died from dehydration, exhaustion and lack of oxygen. Prosecutors are awaiting the results of a second autopsy, which is being carried out because of a suspicion of foul play.

The priest, Daniel Petru Corogeanu, and four nuns have been charged with imprisonment leading to death. They could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. Father Daniel told local news that he was trying to “take the devil out of her”. When asked whether the nun was in need of medical help instead of an exorcism, he replied, “You can’t take the devil out of people with pills.”

Ms. Cornici, who grew up in an orphanage, is said to have entered the remote convent three months earlier. There has been speculation by the Romanian media that Ms. Cornici’s schizophrenic behaviour may have caused her fellow nuns and the priest to believe she was possessed by the devil.

The Orthodox Church has condemned the incident and suspended Father Daniel, who has refused to stop work at the Holy Trinity monastery. Riot police had to intervene when scuffles broke out as nuns yelled at a vicar who came to suspend Father Daniel on Sunday.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

On Thursday evening, a bus crash in Jordan killed two British women and four Iraqis and injured 28 people, including the Iraqi minister of science and technology Raed Fahmy.

Officials say the bus was returning from the Dead Sea to the Jordanian capital of Amman, when it overturned on a steep turn near the Dead Sea. The two women killed were employees of the United Nations Development Program.

Police say four Iraqis, including Fahmy, remain hospitalized. Fahmy, who is said to have broken his shoulder, is being treated at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman.

The British Embassy in Amman refused to give any more details about the crash or its victims.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

On July 22, Wikinews interviewed Professor Gigi Foster of School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia about measures that the government took to stop the spread of COVID-19, a virus that caused what the World Health Organization declared a pandemic last year.

Professor Foster is on faculty with the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales. She wrote an Op-Ed in the Sydney Morning Herald, arguing for a case against the so-called “lockdowns” – measures which the state governments in Australia were implementing to stop the spread of COVID-19. These measures included things like limiting the size of gatherings, directing certain business types such as gyms to close or operate at reduced capacity, limiting where people may travel and restricting residents to only leaving their home if they have a reasonable excuse to do so.

In New South Wales, these restrictions were implemented as Public Health Orders, signed by Brad Hazzard, the Minister for Health and Medical Research. Mr Brad Hazzard has authority make these Orders under the Public Health Act 2010, section 7.

Wikinews reached out to Professor Gigi Foster, asking for comment.

The interview was conducted amid an outbreak of COVID-19 in New South Wales, that has resulted in an increase of restrictions from June 26. At the day of interview, residents were legally allowed to go outdoors only for essential shopping, medical care, and exercise, in groups of no more than two people unless of a common household. On July 28, authorities extended these restrictions until the end of August.

The current outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta strain started from ‘patient zero’, reportedly a driver, which includes transporting international flight crew, as NSW Health wrote on June 16. A week later, on June 24, the driver commented that he thought that he caught the virus from a local cafe, where another patron was visibly unwell.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said that “our mission is to allow our citizens to live as safely and freely as possible”, having announced that only authorized workers — people whose occupation is essential — could leave home in selected higher risk regions in south-west of Sydney until July 30.

Work of the construction industry has been stopped for several days, and resumed this week with requirement that the construction workers get tested for COVID-19 regularly.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

In a study published yesterday online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, scientists from the Indiana University School of Medicine say the taste of beer alone triggers a release of dopamine, the brain’s chemical reward signal.

Dopamine is a chemical released by the human body and is associated with drug- and alcohol-related use and pleasure. In men with family histories of alcoholism, the dopamine release was greater.

The scientists sprayed 15 milliliters (about one tablespoon) of either beer or a sports drink into the mouths of the participants over a period of 15 minutes, scanning their brains and noting increases in dopamine levels were present. According to the scientists, 15 mL of beer does not contain enough alcohol for the alcohol to cause intoxication or any noticeable increase in blood-alcohol levels.

Brain scans were accomplished with positron emission tomography, an imaging technology using radiation to obtain three-dimensional images of, in this case, the human brain.

The senior author of the study, Dr. David A. Kareken, said “We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain’s reward centers”.

Professor of substance use, policy and practice Peter Anderson at Newcastle University in the UK said many “sorts of cues” can cause an urge to drink. “This paper demonstrates that taste alone impacts on the brain functions associated with desire. This is not surprising — if taste increases desire, it has to impact on brain functions.”