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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

British MP David Cairns has died at the age of 44. Cairns died at the University College London Hospital where he was admitted to intensive care in March suffering from acute pancreatitis. He had represented the constituency of Greenock and Inverclyde in Scotland since 2001 as a member of the Labour party.

Labour issued a statement saying “It is with great regret that we have to announce that David Cairns, member of parliament for Inverclyde, passed away at 2300 last night at the Royal Free, London. David had been suffering from acute pancreatitis after he was admitted as an emergency patient eight weeks ago. Our thoughts are with his partner Dermot, his father John and his brother Billy and all his many friends and family.” The statement added “David’s untimely death is a huge loss to parliament and politics in this country.”

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called Cairns — a former Scotland Office minister — “clearly a dedicated and principled parliamentarian, and an effective representative of his constituents, who carried respect across the political spectrum and far beyond.” Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, a Liberal Democrat, said “David contributed a huge amount to Scottish political life and was a decent, intelligent and warm figure who was liked and respected across political divides.”

Cairns’s Conservative successor to the Scotland Office job said Cairns “was a truly decent man, who worked tirelessly for his constituents and for the interests of Scotland.”

Current Labour leader Ed Miliband also released a statement, saying “David will be missed beyond measure as a former minister, as an MP, as a friend and a colleague by many people.” Former prime minister Tony Blair paid tribute to him by saying “David’s life was dedicated to public service. He was a committed and conscientious constituency MP, an excellent government minister and a passionate campaigner for social justice, equality and opportunity.”

Cairns, who was a Roman Catholic priest before entering politics, was only allowed to become an MP when a new law was passed. Before 2001 a 19th-century law had stated that former Catholic priests were not allowed to stand as members of parliament. It was only when The House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 was brought into force that he could stand for parliament.

Cairns resigned during Gordon Brown’s term as Prime Minister over disputes about Brown’s position in 2008 but was re-elected at the last general election.

Due to Cairns’s death a by-election will have to be held to decide who will become his successor.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The Iranian government has announced that the nation will be participating in a missile defense test which could take place as early as tomorrow.

According to the IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, the test is an annual exercise aimed to “maintain and develop” defense capabilities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The exercise is named ‘Great Prophet 4’ and will involve shooting a variety of live missiles at targets. Reports say the drill will be conducted in several unknown locations and will last for several days. The exercise also falls on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

The announcement comes just hours after the Iranian government stated that the nation was building a second nuclear power facility. The announcement was made in a September 21 letter from the Iranian government to the United Nations Security Council that a second nuclear plant was being constructed in the city of Qom.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Toronto residents are abuzz as the stars walk among them, during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. The capital of and largest city in Ontario, Canada has been playing host to the premieres of major motion pictures, up-and-coming indy films, and international films alike. Over the last few years, the festival has become one of the most popular in the world.

On September 5, Wikinews sent freelance photographer Richard Burdett to the eTalk Festival Party, held by television broadcaster CTV. Described as a celebration of Canadian and international film and filmmakers, the party was held at CTV’s festival headquarters, the former CHUM-City Building. The red carpet extended into the parking lot stage area meaning celebrity guests were interviewed in the same spot where Diddy performed. DJ Samantha Ronson spun well into the night for revelers, as Lindsay Lohan hid from prying eyes inside the building.

Hosted by Ben Mulroney and Tayna Kim of CTV’s eTalk program, the party was broadcast live for an hour on Startv.

• Director Atom Egoyan and his actress wife Arsinee Khanjian are always popular guests on the Toronto film scene.

• Chantal Kreviazuk will be performing at Wednesday’s 2008 Best Buddies Leadership Award gala and concert.

• The cast of Degrassi: The Next Generation visited.

• Diddy continued his performance throughout the night.

• Avatar, Titanic director James Cameron, was a Canada’s Walk of Fame that weekend.

• Jacqueline MacInnes Wood is Steffy Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful

• Actress Julie Bowen was gearing up for inducting Michael J. Fox into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

• Justin Trudeau and wife Sophie Gregoire got one last night before the Canadian federal election trail.

• Canada’s “hip-hop ambassador”, Kardinal Offishall.

• Sir Richard Branson was in town for the Virgin Music Festival and new Virgin Radio 999 FM station.

• One Tree Hill‘s Sophia Bush has been seen at many parties.

• Basketball player Steve Nash was in town to be honoured by Canada’s Walk of Fame.

• Kids in the Hall goofs around on the red carpet.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Microsoft announced on Thursday they are partnering with KIND Financial to help governments track the production and distribution of legal marijuana. Kind Financial, a California-based start-up company, began selling its Agrisoft Seed to Sale software three years ago. Microsoft is admitting Kind’s software on the Government portion of its Azure cloud service.

Although Kind Financial CEO David Dinenberg stressed to The Guardian they “absolutely do not touch the plant”, his company does business with growers and distributors of marijuana, as well as the governments that regulate it. State law in twenty-five US states — but not US federal law — has legalized marijuana, whether medicinally or for recreational use. Kimberly Nelson, Microsoft executive director of state and local government solutions, said they expect significant demand for technology to help states make sure cannabis distribution within their state is done according to their laws.

Kind also provides kiosks similar to automated tellers (ATMs) to facilitate marijuana transactions in dispensaries. The distribution of marijuana is often done only with cash or through machines like the ones Kind offers since many banks in the United States shy away from the marijuana industry entirely. Microsoft is not interacting with this part of Kind’s operations, however.

Microsoft and Kind will apply for contracts with state governments for their software. Currently, they have applied to Puerto Rico, a US territory, where medical marijuana has recently been made legal. BioTrackTHC, a company similar to Kind Financial, already has contracts with Washington, New Mexico, and Illinois.

Dinenberg said his company’s partnership with Microsoft is a major step in advancing the legitimacy of cannabis-related businesses.

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, July 8, 2013.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Legendary Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China had one more terracotta warrior guarding his tomb, recently. Pablo Wendel, an art student from Germany, disguised himself as one of the clay sculptures surrounding Qinshihuang in his final resting place, now a museum.

Police protecting the northern China museum searched for an extended period of time, as Wendel stood silently, among several thousand sculptures. When police found the 26-year-old performance artist, who later told them he was fascinated by the monumental display, they carried him away “as if he were a log.”

China was united by Emperor Qin Shi Huang over 2,200 years ago. The tomb in Xian, once the capital of China, is open to the public as a museum.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

English actress Rachel Weisz thinks that Botox injections should be banned for all actors.

The 39-year-old actress, best known for her roles in the Mummy movie franchise and for her Academy Award-winning portrayal in The Constant Gardener, feels facial Botox injections leave actors less able to convey emotion and that it harms the acting industry as much as steroids harm athletes.

In an interview with UK’s Harper’s Bazaar, coming out next month, Weisz says, “It should be banned for actors, as steroids are for sportsmen,” she claims. “Acting is all about expression; why would you want to iron out a frown?”

Currently living in New York, she also mentions that English women are much less worried about their physical appearance than in the United States. “I love the way girls in London dress,” she claimed. “It’s so different to the American ‘blow-dry and immaculate grooming’ thing.”

A compilation of brief news reports for Sunday, April 1, 2007.

Five former Maoist rebels were sworn in as ministers as part of a peace pact designed to end a decade-long insurgency that has killed more than 13,000 people in Nepal. The new government has announced assembly elections for late June, 2007. Thereafter, the new assembly is due to write a new constitution for the Himalayan nation.

Related news

• “Nepal civil war ended by peace deal” — Wikinews, November 21, 2006

Sources

• AP. “Former rebels join Nepal government” — CNN, April 1, 2007
• “Nepal elections set for June” — Al Jazeera, April 1, 2007

Under a new law that went into effect today, non-Russians will not be allowed to work as salespeople in shops and markets. The ban was presented by Vladimir Putin as a way of improving employment prospects for Russian citizens. Russian media warns that it will increase the labor costs for retailers and drive up inflation. The Federal Migration Service, a government agency, reported nearly full compliance in Moscow.

Sources

• “Trading ban targets non-Russians” — BBC News Online, April 1, 2007
• “Russia bans expats from trading” — Al Jazeera, April 1, 2007
• “Moscow markets fully meet demands of new immigration legislation” — ITAR-TASS, April 1, 2007

Today, Sunday, Google “released” their Google TiSP service. This April Fool appears on their homepage as “New! Get FREE breakthrough broadband with Google TiSP (BETA).” This directs you to a page with details of Google’s TiSP package, a package that will give you broadband after you flush a fiber-optic cable down your toilet. Google issued a press release at midnight on April 1st, 2007.

Sources

• Press Release: “Google announces free in-home wireless broadband service” — Google, April 1, 2007
• Asher Bramwell. “Google April Fools!” — Geekzone, April 1, 2007
• Garrett Rogers. “Google launches TiSP — Free wireless broadband” — ZDNet, March 31, 2007

External links

• Google TiSP

Between 100 and 200 students gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran to protest the alleged incursion into Iranian waters by the Royal Navy.The protesters threw rocks, chanted “Death to Britain” and called for the expulsion of the ambassador. Police prevented the protesters from entering the compound.

Sources

• Nasser Karimi, AP. “Protest in Iran Targets British Embassy” — Guardian Unlimited, April 1, 2007
• Edmund Blair. “Protesters pelt UK embassy as Iran row worsens” — Reuters, April 1, 2007
• “Students condemn UK navy violation of Iran’s waters” — Islamic Republic News Agency, April 1, 2007