Thursday, September 13, 2007

Having worked as an aide, advisor, and Executive Assistant to municipal and provincial politicians, Sheila White is running for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Scarborough-Rouge River riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her 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.

The time is 18:00 (UTC) on June 4th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Monday, December 25, 2006

James Brown, often referred to as the Godfather of Soul, died in Atlanta due to congestive heart failure, combined with pneumonia. His death at age 73 was announced by his agent. After his dentist noticed something unusual with him, Brown was told to visit a doctor immediately. He was taken into the hospital yesterday for treatment of his pneumonia until his death at around 1:45 AM (6:45 AM GMT). It is not known whether he received a pneumonia vaccination, as recommended for people of his age.

He was born in 1933 and grew up in poverty until he formed James Brown & The Famous Flames. His influence on 20th century music, from funk to hip hop was profound.

Before he died, he scheduled a New Year’s Eve concert series in New Jersey and New York that would help kick off a 2007 tour.

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Sunday, December 2, 2007

The 20th annual World AIDS Day was December 1, 2007. The theme selected by the World AIDS Campaign is “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise” as it will be through 2010. The day was marked by thousands of events around the world.

“It is now time for bold leadership at all levels in order to turn the tide of HIV,” said Felicita Hikuam, Global Programmes Manager, World AIDS Campaign. An estimated 33.2 million people around the world—one in every 200—are living with HIV, and approximately 6,800 people are infected with HIV and 5,700 people die of AIDS-related illnesses every day.

“The trend is encouraging but still for every person receiving treatment four others are newly infected,” said Nelson Mandela, speaking at a concert in Johannesburg, South Africa. “If we are to stop the Aids epidemic from expanding, we need to break the cycle of new HIV infections. All of us working together with government, communities and civil society can make the difference that is needed,” he continued.

As many as 50,000 people attended the concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was telecast around the world. It was organized by Nelson Mandela’s 46664 AIDS campaign and featured performances by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Ludacris, Razorlight, the Goo Goo Dolls and Annie Lennox.File:20050702-Nelson Mandela Live8 Edinburgh.jpg

At a fundraiser in the town of Midrand, in the province Gauteng, near Johannesburg on Friday, singer Annie Lennox had strong words for the South African government’s AIDS policies.

“AIDS, as Madiba [Mandela] has said, is a human rights issue and should be treated as such in order to avoid this genocide that is affecting millions and millions of people around the world,” said Lennox in a speech. Lennox has previously been critical of the South African government’s position on suggesting some AIDS medications were toxic. “It is unacceptable that treatment has not been made available to those who need it most,” said Lennox.

The rock band Queen, which lost its lead singer Freddie Mercury to AIDS, released a new song entitled, Say It’s Not True, to coincide with World Aids Day. It has been made available as a free download from the band’s website. “By making the song available for free, we hope to help Nelson Mandela with his campaign to get across the message that no-one is safe from infection,” said Queen drummer Roger Taylor. “We have to be aware, we have to protect ourselves and those we love.”

In China, people distributed AIDS prevention brochures in the streets and promoted safe sex in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. In Changsha, official warning signs were put on hotel bedstands. The government announced on Friday an allocation of CNY860 million for AIDS prevention and control. According to official reports, there are estimated to be 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.

Also in China, the Miss World 2007 was in Sanya on World AIDS Day. The pageant presented a special tribute to the fight against AIDS, with a televised speech from former South African President Nelson Mandela, along with traditional dancers from South Africa who joined the contestants in a special song.

Friday, United States President George W. Bush urged the United States Congress to double the 2003 Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to US$30 billion over the next five years. “Above all, we rededicate ourselves to a great purpose: We will turn the tide against HIV/AIDS—once and for all,” he said.

“I’m pleased to announce that Laura and I will travel to sub-Sahara Africa early next year,” Bush said. Sub-Saharan Africa suffered nearly three-quarters of AIDS-related deaths during 2006 and is home to two-thirds of those living with HIV/AIDS.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A millionaire reality TV star is being sought by police over the murder of a model whose body was found in a Californian dumpster. 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore was found dead in an unzipped suitcase in Buena Park, Orange County.

Police are seeking real estate tycoon Ryan Jenkins, 32, a contestant on the reality show Megan Wants a Millionaire, in which former Rock of Love hopeful Megan Hauserman dates several rich men with the aim of ultimately becoming the girlfriend of one of them. Jenkins reportedly met Fiore at a Las Vegas strip club and married her two days later.

Jenkins reported the swimsuit model missing hours after the discovery of her body. Since then he has not returned calls from investigators and is considered a person of interest. Police suspect he may be on the run and are trying to trace him as well as a black and white Mercedes car he may be driving.

It is thought that Jenkins may have returned to his homeland of Canada. Fiore, who had worked for Playboy, had been strangled according to police. Her body was found by someone searching for goods to recycle. She was last seen alive at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and had not contacted her family since then.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California was modified to read “Hollyweed” on Sunday. Security camera footage shows the perpetrator was dressed all in black, said Sergeant Robert Payan.

Christopher Garcia, a spokesperson of the Los Angeles Police Department, said the suspected male offender is being investigated for trespassing rather than vandalism. The sign was not physically damaged; the modification was done using black tarpaulins decorated with signs of peace and heart to alter the “O” to read lowercase “e”.

Betsy Isroelit, a Hollywood Sign Trust spokesperson said, “There was obviously recent legislation in California that may have inspired people. But to me, it looks more like a New Year’s Eve prank.” On November 9, legislators voted in favor of a ballot for legalising recreational use of marijuana in California for the age group of 21 and above.

Previously, on January 1, 1976, Daniel Finegood had vandalised the sign using curtains in a similar manner to read “Hollyweed”. As a college student, Finegood had modified the sign for an assignment in art class. Finegood, in 1990, had modified the sign again, signifying a political issue, modifying the sign to read “Oil War” to protest the Persian Gulf War.

The sign was vandalised in 1992 before the US presidential election. Supporters of presidential election candidate Ross Perot altered the sign to read “Perotwood”.

The law legalising recreational marijuana is due to come into effect in 2018.

Saturday, February 16, 2019

On Wednesday, scientists from the University of Miami and Apex Shark Expeditions published a study in Scientific Reports, an on-line journal, documenting the disappearance of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) from a specific area off the coast of South Africa. The study found that when the whites disappeared, a Jurassic-era predator called the sevengill shark (Notorhynchus cepedianus) moved in.

The study was a collaborative project between Neil Hammerschlag of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami and Chris Fallows of Apex Shark Expeditions, a company that conducts cage diving and shark viewing trips.

The study covered more than 8000 hours of shark observations in South Africa’s False Bay spread out over the past 18 years. The great white shark population remained relatively stable until 2015, at which point their numbers went into sharp decline, sometimes reaching zero during 2017–2018. At those times, another predator, the sevengill shark, previously unknown in the study area, began to appear. The sevengill is sometimes called a living fossil because it closely resembles similar sharks from prehistoric times.

Fallows remarked, “In 18+ years of working at Seal Island, we had never seen sevengill sharks in our surveys[…] Following the disappearance of white sharks in 2017, sevengill began to show up for the first time and have been increasing in number ever since.”

The study itself outlined the tight correlation between the absence of white sharks and the presence of sevengills: “[S]evengill sharks […] were only detected during the prolonged periods of complete white shark absence, disappearing from our surveys during the intermittent short periods when white sharks temporarily returned to Seal Island, albeit in very low numbers, only to reappear when the white sharks were again absent from surveys[.]”

The sevengill shark usually lives in areas where the sea floor is thick with kelp, as opposed to the relatively clear-bottomed study area. The sevengill and great white are both ordinarily apex predators and seek some of the same food, such as cape fur seals, but great whites can also prey directly on sevengills. The great white shark and orca are the only species known to eat adult sevengills. The sevengill has seven gills, whereas most species of shark have only five gills on each side of their bodies.

The scientists behind the present study only noted various hypotheses about the cause of the disappearance of great white sharks from this area, though Dr. Alison Kock of the University of Cape Town has reported a correlation with the entry of orcas into False Bay, possibly because human activity has rendered prey hard to find elsewhere. These orcas, she suggested, specialize in hunting sharks.

The researchers noted the sevengill sharks might not have the same effect on the ecosystems involved as the great whites have had, citing the ecological disruption apparently caused off Alaska when a change in orca behavior had a knock-on effect, disrupting sea otters’ predation of sea urchins, whose population then exploded, plowing through the area’s kelp forests.