Monthly Archives: June 2017

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

While nearly all cover of the 2008 Presidential election has focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates, the race for the White House also includes independents and third party candidates. These parties represent a variety of views that may not be acknowledged by the major party platforms.

As a non-partisan news source, Wikinews has impartially reached out to these candidates, throughout the campaign. The most recent of our interviews is North Carolina, Tom Millican, an independent corporate manager and Vietnam veteran.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Sydney, Australia –A 16 year old Sydney student was killed when a 10 metre gum tree fell on the tent in which she was sleeping.

Another girl sleeping beside her was unharmed.

The accident occurred at 1:30am AEDT at a campsite near Wombeyan Caves. The girl was participating in an overnight leadership camp with Sydney’s private Queenwood School for Girls.

Severe storms have lashed the east coast of Australia for the past few days.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Tyler Currie is running as an Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario provincial election, in the riding of Trinity-Spadina. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

An internal Wikimedia communiqué was leaked over the weekend. Like many e-mails, the document is a chain of forwards, replies, and attachments. The attached Portable Document Format (PDF) file was from a PowerPoint presentation, entitled “Wikimedia Foundation: Past, Present, and Future”. The presentation is watermarked confidential, do not distribute, and details the Foundation’s recent financial, technical, and traffic history, outlines near-term forecasts for all three, and makes suggestions for slightly longer horizons as well. By itself the document led to several inter-connected news stories.

Friday, January 25, 2008

U.S. President George W. Bush and Congressional leaders from both political parties have reached agreement on US$150 billion in tax relief in an effort to help stimulate the United States economy. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

The agreement includes provision to give up to US$600 in tax rebates to millions of wage earners and an additional US$300 refund for each child. It allows businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of capital equipment purchases.

President Bush says it is an effective, robust and temporary set of incentives that will boost the economy and create new jobs.

“This package has the right set of policies and is the right size,” he said. “The incentives in this package will lead to higher consumer spending and increased business investment this year.”

The president says he knows Americans are concerned about their economic future, with the challenges of higher energy prices and a falling housing market slowing growth.

President Bush is urging the House of Representatives and Senate to pass the agreement as soon as possible.

“We have an opportunity to come together and take the swift, decisive action our economy urgently needs,” he added.

Stock markets around the world dipped sharply early this week amid widespread fears of a U.S. recession and its potential to drag down foreign markets as well.

The stimulus deal was an unusual display of bipartisanship in Washington, with Democrats and Republicans in the House making concessions to get the deal done quickly.

Republicans dropped a provision that would have allowed businesses to reclaim taxes previously paid. Democrats dropped their demands for increases in food stamps and unemployment benefits.

House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi says she is not totally pleased with the package, but knows it will help stimulate the economy.

“This bipartisan package should be acted upon rapidly and can help alleviate the economic pain felt by millions of Americans,” she said.

John Boehner is the leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives. He says it was not easy for Republicans and Democrats to agree on a plan, but he is confident it is in the best interests of the nation.

“This agreement is a big win for the American people,” he said. “It will stimulate our economy in the most direct and effective way possible by putting money in the hands of middle income American families and by giving businesses incentives to create and build new jobs in our country.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was the president’s lead negotiator with Congress.

“I know the work isn’t done yet,” he noted. “As the Speaker said, we’ve got more to do. And I am looking forward to working with the Senate and working with the House to get a package as soon as possible, because, again, speed is of the essence.”

Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid says he wants to get the plan to the president for signature by February 15. But changes in the Senate may slow passage of the package, as Reid says senators may consider restoring provisions to extend unemployment benefits.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

It has been announced that Saudi Arabia is planning to open an official embassy in Finland, to signify continuing improvement in relations between the two countries.

Teemu Tanner, director general of Africa and the Middle East at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, said to reporters concerning Finnish President Tarja Halonen’s first visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, “One indication of this visit is that you (Saudi Arabia) are planning to open an embassy here in Helsinki,” adding that “We regard this as extremely important for relations,” and that it is only a matter of time before the facility is made available.

Another act set to strengthen diplomatic relations is the planned visit of a trade delegation headed by Saudi Minister of Trade and Commerce Hashim Yamani, which will arrive in Finland next month.

“Our relationship is no longer in relation to trade,” said Tanner. “More broadly, we will discuss regional and global issues. It is extremely important for us to know Saudi Arabia’s views on Iraq, Iran, but also issues such as Somalia… One objective of the visit is to convey notes on international questions, as we enter a very interesting phase in the Middle East peace process,” adding that the presidential visit is a relational “landmark” that will “crystallize” Finland’s image to Saudi Arabia.

Despite the comment that the international cooperation is no longer entirely a trade issue, he did point out Saudi Arabia’s important role in the Finnish economy as one of the five largest importers of Finnish products. Finland’s main exports to Saudi Arabia are mobile phones, paper, wood and machinery, while Saudi Arabia exports large quantities of raw materials for use in manufacturing plastics. The total volume if this trade is estimated to be worth over €840 million.

Other topics on the table for the two nations to discuss during Halonen’s visit include energy, the role of science, environmental issues and combating terrorism, as well as other global issues. Tanner has also suggested tourism may be a future area of attention, with a possibility of package holidays for Finnish tourists being organized to Saudi Arabia.

Finland and Saudi Arabia have been officially involved in diplomatic relations since 1969. Finland has maintained an embassy in Saudi Arabia since 1974.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

In findings announced yesterday, scientists from Johns Hopkins University took ordinary commercial drones, swapped out their cameras for coolers and packed them with human plasma, platelets and blood cells. The drones were found to deliver their cargo in usable condition after flights lasting almost half an hour, at distances of up to 12 miles.

“For rural areas that lack access to nearby clinics, or that may lack the infrastructure for collecting blood products or transporting them on their own, drones can provide that access,” says pathologist and lead author of the paper Dr. Timothy Amukele.

Although earlier studies have confirmed that drone flights do not affect the useful properties or microbe populations of human blood products, those experiments were performed on small, vial-sized samples. Here, the drones carried much larger quantities of blood, in the proportions and packaging that doctors and medical technicians would actually use on patients, with units purchased directly from the American Red Cross. Unlike Rwanda’s medical delivery drones, which were custom-made for blood product delivery by Zipline, these experiments were completed with regular, commercially available S900-model machines with minimal modification.

Post-flight, the samples were tested for cell rupture, changes in pH, air bubbles and other damage that might indicate that the packages had thawed out or otherwise become unsuitable for use in transfusions. The samples were found to have arrived intact.

Although the test was performed in an unpopulated area, it is speculated that drones might be useful not only for delivery of blood products to rural medical facilities but also for distributing blood resources through urban areas. John’s Hopkins pathologist and research team leader Dr. Timothy Armukele speculates that emergency medical teams may one day be able to transfuse patients on the spot by calling for a drone to bring blood of the appropriate type.

The details of the experiment have been published in the latest issue of Transfusion.