Sunday, February 13, 2005

New York –”Buy cheap Viagra through us – no prescription required!” Anyone with an active email account will recognize lines like this one. According to some reports, unsolicited advertisements (spam) for Viagra and similar drugs account for one in four spam messages.

Ever since pharmaceutical giant Pfizer promised to cure erectile dysfunction once and for all with its blue pills containing the drug sildenafil citrate, spammers have tried to tap into male anxiety by offering prescription-free sales of unapproved “generic” Viagra and clones such as Cialis soft tabs. Legislation like the U.S. CAN-SPAM act has done little to stem the tide of email advertising the products.

Now Pfizer has entered a pledge with Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest software company, to address the problem. The joint effort will focus on lawsuits against spammers as well as the companies they advertise. “Pfizer is joining with Microsoft on these actions as part of our shared pledge to reduce the sale of these products and to fight the senders of unsolicited e-mail that overwhelms people’s inboxes,” said Jeff Kindler, executive vice president at Pfizer.

Microsoft has filed civil actions against spammers advertising the websites CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct. Pfizer has filed lawsuits against the two companies, and has taken actions against websites which use the word “Viagra” in their domain names. Sales of controlled drugs from Canadian pharmacies to the United States are illegal, but most drugs sold in Canada have nevertheless undergone testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is not the case for many of the Viagra clones sold by Internet companies and manufactured in countries like China and India. While it was not clear that CanadianPharmacy was actually shipping drugs from Canada, Pfizer’s general counsel, Beth Levine, claimed that the company filled orders using a call center in Montreal, reported the Toronto Star.

For Microsoft’s part, they allege that the joint effort with Pfizer is part of their “multi-pronged attack on the barrage of spam.” As the creator of the popular email program Outlook, Microsoft has been criticized in the past for the product’s spam filtering process. Recently, Microsoft added anti-spam measures to its popular Exchange server. Exchange 2003 now includes support for accessing so-called real-time block lists, or RTBLs. An RTBL is a list of the IP addresses maintained by a third party; the addresses on the list are those of mailservers thought to have sent spam recently. Exchange 2003 can query the list for each message it receives.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Last night HBO premiered I Am An Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. Since its inception, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has made headlines and raised eyebrows. They are almost single-handedly responsible for the movement against animal testing and their efforts have raised the suffering animals experience in a broad spectrum of consumer goods production and food processing into a cause célèbre.

PETA first made headlines in the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Alex Pacheco, then a student at George Washington University, volunteered at a lab run by Edward Taub, who was testing neuroplasticity on live monkeys. Taub had cut sensory ganglia that supplied nerves to the monkeys’ fingers, hands, arms, legs; with some of the monkeys, he had severed the entire spinal column. He then tried to force the monkeys to use their limbs by exposing them to persistent electric shock, prolonged physical restraint of an intact arm or leg, and by withholding food. With footage obtained by Pacheco, Taub was convicted of six counts of animal cruelty—largely as a result of the monkeys’ reported living conditions—making them “the most famous lab animals in history,” according to psychiatrist Norman Doidge. Taub’s conviction was later overturned on appeal and the monkeys were eventually euthanized.

PETA was born.

In the subsequent decades they ran the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty against Europe’s largest animal-testing facility (footage showed staff punching beagle puppies in the face, shouting at them, and simulating sex acts while taking blood samples); against Covance, the United State’s largest importer of primates for laboratory research (evidence was found that they were dissecting monkeys at its Vienna, Virginia laboratory while the animals were still alive); against General Motors for using live animals in crash tests; against L’Oreal for testing cosmetics on animals; against the use of fur for fashion and fur farms; against Smithfield Foods for torturing Butterball turkeys; and against fast food chains, most recently against KFC through the launch of their website kentuckyfriedcruelty.com.

They have launched campaigns and engaged in stunts that are designed for media attention. In 1996, PETA activists famously threw a dead raccoon onto the table of Anna Wintour, the fur supporting editor-in-chief of Vogue, while she was dining at the Four Seasons in New York, and left bloody paw prints and the words “Fur Hag” on the steps of her home. They ran a campaign entitled Holocaust on your Plate that consisted of eight 60-square-foot panels, each juxtaposing images of the Holocaust with images of factory farming. Photographs of concentration camp inmates in wooden bunks were shown next to photographs of caged chickens, and piled bodies of Holocaust victims next to a pile of pig carcasses. In 2003 in Jerusalem, after a donkey was loaded with explosives and blown up in a terrorist attack, Newkirk sent a letter to then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat to keep animals out of the conflict. As the film shows, they also took over Jean-Paul Gaultier‘s Paris boutique and smeared blood on the windows to protest his use of fur in his clothing.

The group’s tactics have been criticized. Co-founder Pacheco, who is no longer with PETA, called them “stupid human tricks.” Some feminists criticize their campaigns featuring the Lettuce Ladies and “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads as objectifying women. Of their Holocaust on a Plate campaign, Anti-Defamation League Chairman Abraham Foxman said “The effort by PETA to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent.” (Newkirk later issued an apology for any hurt it caused). Perhaps most controversial amongst politicians, the public and even other animal rights organizations is PETA’s refusal to condemn the actions of the Animal Liberation Front, which in January 2005 was named as a terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

David Shankbone attended the pre-release screening of I Am An Animal at HBO’s offices in New York City on November 12, and the following day he sat down with Ingrid Newkirk to discuss her perspectives on PETA, animal rights, her responses to criticism lodged against her and to discuss her on-going life’s work to raise human awareness of animal suffering. Below is her interview.

Monday, January 1, 2007

Ban Ki-moon, South Korean foreign minister, officially assumed his post as United Nations Secretary-General today.

Ban, the eighth UN Secretary-General, is also the first Asian to serve in this office in 35 years.

Ban, 62, grew up on the Korean peninsula in the midst of the Korean War that divided the region. He promises to bring peace to the North Korean nuclear conflict.

Along with North Korea, Ban faces a litany of difficult issues including the genocide in Darfur, tensions in the Middle East, an international campaign against AIDS and poverty in line with his predecessor Kofi Annan’s Millennium Goals, a push to increase the size of the Security Council, and calls for ethics reform within the United Nations.

In his inaugural address, Ban said, “My first priority will be to restore trust.”

“The United States will rely on his leadership to help steer the UN organization through the reforms already underway,” said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel on Sunday, “and to propel it even further on the path of reform.”

Ban will temporarily reside in a hotel in New York City until renovations on his official residence are completed as part of a modernization plan approved by the UN General Assembly.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The upcoming 2006 Brampton municipal election, to be held November 13, features an array of candidates looking to represent their wards in city council or the council of the Peel Region.

Wikinews contributor Nick Moreau contacted many of the candidates, including Stephanie Beaumier, asking them to answer common questions sent in an email. This ward’s incumbent is Grant Gibson, also challenging Gibson is Malcolm Jones, Larry Lee, Jeffrey Schrik, Jagtar Shergill, and Whoston Wray.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Cathedral Square, Sydney, Australia —Wikinews attended the Wheelchair Rugby Tri-Nations Series in Cathedral Square, Sydney, ongoing from Wednesday. This is the first time an international wheelchair rugby event has been held outdoors, and in this arena. Three nations are competing: the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

The venue is Cathedral Square, Sydney, which is adjacent to Hyde Park. The Sydney Central Business district is on the other side of the park. An outdoor stadium has been constructed specifically for the tournament, which is believed to be the first time an international wheelchair rugby tournament has been held outdoors. This choice was validated by the fine and warm weather. Free sunscreen was given to the crowd.

The Opening Ceremony was officiated by Australian Paralympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Jason Hellwig. In attendance were the Premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, Robyn Kemmis, and Paralympic swimmer Matthew Cowdrey. A large crowd, mostly consisting of school groups, was entertained by boy band Justice Crew singing their hit Best Night.

Each team is to play the others two twice, on Wednesday September 18 and Thursday September 19. Finals are to be held on Friday. All three teams are highly ranked internationally. The United States team is ranked number one in the world. It won bronze at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, gold at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and bronze at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, and is the current world champion. This is its first visit to Australia since the 2000 Summer Paralympics.

The Australian team, known as the Steelers, is ranked second in the world. It won silver in Beijing and gold in London. The team is almost unchanged from the one that won in London. Greg Smith has become the assistant coach.

The first game, held immediately after the Opening Ceremony, was between the United States and Australia. The United States proved the better team, forcing errors and turnovers. Three turnovers in the first quarter were especially costly for the Steelers, who lost 56–43.

The second game was held at 17:30 under lights. The crowd was small, but there were a number of New Zealand fans in the crowd, including a few Maori. Two of the New Zealand players are also Maori. The well-disciplined United States team proved too good for the Wheel Blacks as well, who lost 58–40 in an entertaining contest.

The third game was at 19:30, between Australia and New Zealand. The Australians led the whole game, which was nonetheless entertaining to the last. In the dying seconds of the game, Australia’s Ryley Batt shunted a stalling New Zealand player across the line to force him to score, then threw the ball to team mate Chris Bond, who raced for the line at high speed but was beaten by the buzzer. Australia won 61–48.

The New Zealand team, known as the Wheel Blacks, is ranked tenth in the world. It won gold in Athens.

Highlights of the tournament are scheduled to be shown on Foxtel Sports in Australia on September 28 and 29.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Venezuela will provide heating oil at a 40% discount to low income families in Massachusetts this winter. According to an agreement signed on Tuesday Citgo, the Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, will provide 12 million gallons of discounted home heating oil. The oil will be distributed through two nonprofit organizations, Citizens Energy Corp. and the Mass Energy Consumer Alliance.

In August William Delahunt (D-Mass) met President Hugo Chávez in Caracas. The meeting between a member of Congress and a head of state so critical of the White House, sparked negotiations that led to the deal. Mr Delahunt said he was simply trying to smooth strained US-Venezuelan relations while helping low-income people in his home state.

Hugo Chávez says he is leading a Bolivarian Revolution and calls his program an act of justice for poor Americans, whom he says have been neglected by their government. Mr Chávez is one of Latin America’s harshest critics of U.S.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty.Venezuela has been selling fuel on preferential terms to countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, extending low-interest loans and accepting partial payment in goods ranging from bananas to sugar.

Critics said Delahunt should not be working so closely with Chávez, an outspoken leftist. Steve Johnson, a Latin American specialist at the conservative oriented Heritage Foundation, said “Meeting with the leader who calls himself a revolutionary populist is not something I’d like my congressman to be doing.”

Representative Delahunt said “This is a humanitarian gesture,” and that his constituents’ needs for heating assistance trump any political points the Chavez administration can score. Asked if he was subverting State Department policy toward Chávez, Mr Delahunt said, “I don’t work for Condoleezza Rice. I don’t report to the State Department. I report to the people who elected me in the state of Massachusetts. I belong to an independent branch of government.”

Over 10 percent of US oil imports come from Venezuela, and while Mr Chávez seeks to diversify his markets, the US remains his leading trade partner.

When the discounted oil arrives early December Citizens Energy will determine suitable recipients with the help of local organizations that serve the poor. 350 local dealers will then distribute three-fourths of the oil to local families.

The remaining quarter will be distributed or sold to homeless shelters, food banks, and low-income housing groups by MassEnergyConsumer Alliance. Larry Chretien, the nonprofit group’s executive director says home heating oil prices are expected to increase by 30 percent to 50 percent this winter because of rising oil prices. The CITGO agreement could help ease the crunch on some families.

Friday, March 3, 2006

Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe is reported to be feeling much better after suffering from chest pain for some time.

The Olympic gold medalist was due to swim in the 100m and 200m freestyle and in three relays at the Commonwealth Games, but due to his complaints his fitness has been in doubt. He has been unable to take the drugs needed to overcome his pain as they are banned from the Games.

Thorpe told the media Thursday “It’s actually the best I’ve felt in a while; the antibiotics are starting to work.”

Thursday, January 28, 2010

American historian Howard Zinn, best known for his work A People’s History of the United States, died Wednesday, January 27, of a heart attack while traveling to Santa Monica, California. He was 87.

Born in 1922 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Zinn served in the Army during World War II as a pilot. After the war ended, he took his medals and papers, put them in a folder, and wrote on top “Never again,” becoming an anti-war activist for the rest of his life. He attended Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in history and wrote his dissertation on New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia‘s congressional career.

Zinn worked for Spelman College from 1956 to 1963, where he encouraged his students during the civil rights movement to request books from the segregated public libraries. He was a critic of Spelman’s non-participation in the movement, and as a result was fired. He then became a professor of political science at Boston University from 1964 to 1988.

While a professor in Boston, Zinn wrote his major work A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980. The work took a revisionist view of history, telling the story of American history through the eyes of women, Native Americans and workers, as well as accusing Christopher Columbus of committing genocide during his travels.

A People’s History of the United States was praised by some and criticized by others, though Zinn noted that his book was not meant to be an objective history of the United States. Zinn also wrote more than 20 other books, including You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, his autobiography. He is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Nathan Sutherland appeared in SPECIFIC court today in Phoenix, Arizona for a preliminary hearing. He is charged with raping a patient at the Phoenix Hacienda Healthcare facility where he worked as a licensed practical nurse. The woman, whose impairments prevent her from consenting to sex, gave birth to a healthy baby boy this past December.

WHICH JUDGE, WHICH CHARGES, WHAT POSSIBLE SENTENCE, WHO ELSE MAY HAVE SPOKEN FORMALLY.

According to Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, Sutherland is currently facing two felony charges, one count each of sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult.

“The charges in this case are very serious. The defendant sexually assaulted a very vulnerable adult who had no capacity to resist, no capacity to cry out,” said one prosecutor at Sutherland’s initial court appearance.

Neither the staff at the Hacienda Healthcare facility nor the woman’s family knew she was pregnant until the day she gave birth. Court documents list the woman, 29, as “unable to make any decisions or give consent due to her disability.” She had been in the care of this Hacienda Healthcare facility since age 3. Her parents told the press she has limited movement in her arms, legs, neck, and face but does have “significant intellectual disabilities as a result of seizures very early in her childhood.”

As part of the investigation, authorities tested the DNA of all the facility’s male employees. According to police spokesperson Tommy Thompson, Sutherland was given a court order to submit to a DNA test last Thursday. He complied, and the results indicated he is the child’s biological father.

Sutherland otherwise declined to speak to the police, invoking his right not to do so under the fifth amendment of the United States constitution.

“There’s no direct evidence that Mr. Sutherland has committed these acts,” said Sutherland’s lawyer, David Gregan. “I know at this point there’s DNA. But he will have a right to his own DNA expert.” Both Gregan and a former neighbor of Sutherland’s described him as a good father to his children.

The woman is a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe.

Hacienda Healthcare issued a public apology and suspended one doctor who worked at the facility. Another resigned. William Timmons, their CEO at the time, also resigned.

Sutherland’s bail hearing was today. A Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner set bail of US$500,000 cash and ordered he wear a monitoring bracelet if released. His next court appearance is scheduled for January 30.

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

The Macedonian government declared a nationwide state of emergency on Thursday in face of a heatwave that is predicted to get worse.

As forest fires rage across the country, temperatures of over 44°C (111°F) are predicted for the weekend. The emergency plan, which has been implemented for at least two weeks, reduces working hours to six hours a day, calls for special shifts for outdoors workers, and warns people to stay out of the sun and take other common sense precautions.

The new working hours for state and public workers are from 7am to 1pm indoors, and two shifts of 7am to 11am and 6pm to 8pm outdoors. All pregnant women have been given paid leave. Although these measures are not compulsory for the private sector the government has recommended that they are adopted where possible. It is expected that lost time will be made up through Saturday working over the rest of the year.

According to Pande Lazarevski, director of the government’s Crisis Management center, over 200 fires have been registered across the country, destroying roughly 2,500 hectares of land, mainly forests.

Health services have seen an increase in emergency calls and the Red Cross has teams on stand-by.

Meteorologists have explained that the soaring temperatures are caused by a heat mass from Africa, and have predicted that temperatures will start dropping next weekend.

At least 35,000 people died in the European heatwave of 2003.