Friday, July 16, 2010

The United States Department of the Treasury has frozen the assets of terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaki. He is wanted in Yemen for his alleged participation in the Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight.

Al-Awlaki was denoted as a “key leader” of al-Qaeda. According to US Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, al-Awlaki “…has sought to encourage his supporters to provide money for terrorist causes.”

Al-Awlaki was jailed in 2006 in a Yemen prison for kidnapping for ransom. He was released in 2007 and afterwards went into hiding.

This move by the Treasury placed al-Awlaki onto a list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. This freezes his assets, prevents American citizens from sending him money, and disallows him from traveling to the United States.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands has ordered the arrest of the president of the African country of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The warrant was issued by the ICC for seven charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, in the Darfur region of the country.

In the ruling, the ICC said that al-Bashir was “intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians and pillaging their property”. The ruling added that there was not enough evidence to charge him with genocide. A few hours after its ruling, the Sudan revoked six foreign aid agency licenses, but did not state why.

The ICC has never before issued an arrest warrant for a head-of-state while they were still in power. In the nearly six-years that the Darfur region has been engaged in battle, over 300,000 people have been killed, or died as a result of the fighting. Countless millions have fled the country, seeking shelter in refugee camps.

During a rally protesting the decision on Wednesday, Al-Bashir spoke, calling the charges worthless and told the ICC to “eat” the warrant. “[It is] not worth the ink it is written on. It is a flawed decision”. Egypt says it is also not in favor of the warrant and the government states it will ask the United Nations Security Council to stop the implementation of it.

The Human Rights Watch, a human rights organization located in the United States, in New York “the International Criminal Court has made Omar al-Bashir a wanted man”, welcoming the warrant.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

In May, periodical cicadas with 17 years life cycle emerged on the East Coast of the USA after underground development as juveniles since 1996. Researchers and scientists worked to map and study the rare wave, and the locals prepared for the noisy event. First recorded in 1666, the Magicicada septendecim species recently emerged in 1979, 1996, this year, with a next wave due in 2030.

This week, Wikinews interviewed Chris Simon, an ecology and evolutionary biologist at University of Connecticut, about the cicadas.

((Wikinews)) What caused your initial interest in periodical cicadas?

Chris Simon: As an undergraduate student, I was interested in the formation of species so when I went to graduate school I looked for a study organism that was likely to be in the process of forming new species. I chose periodical cicadas because they are broken up into reproductively isolated broods (or year classes). Reproductive isolation leads to speciation so I planned to study biochemical differences among the broods.

((WN)) You study the emergence of the periodical cicadas. What do you study? What observations are you making?

CS: We record exactly where each cicada population emerges (using GPS automated mapping and crowd sourcing). We record the presence or absence of each of the three morphologically distinct species groups of periodical cicadas (Decim group, Cassini group, and Decula group). We collect specimens for DNA analysis. We look for cicadas coming up one and four years early and late. We dig up cicada nymphs and monitor their growth rates.

((WN)) What equipment do you use?

CS: Nets, shovels, automated GPS recorders, cameras, laptop computers, automated DNA sequencers.

((WN)) Do you study the periodical cicadas with anyone else? What is their role?

CS: Yes, there are a large number of people studying periodical cicadas in my lab and in other labs. My lab is made up of Research Scientists, Postdoctoral Researchers, a technician, graduate students, and undergraduates. Research Scientist John Cooley is the leader of the GPS mapping project; he invented the automated GPS recorder; he built our crowd-sourcing website, and he is instrumental in public outreach. Postdoctoral research David Marshall also participates in the mapping project and leads the part of the research related to the mapping of stragglers. John and Dave and Technician Kathy Hill all study periodical cicada mating behavior and conduct mating and hybridization experiments. One of my graduate students Beth Wade has participated in the nymph collections and will soon start genetic work involving genome wide association mapping designed to locate genes related to life cycle. My graduate student Russ Meister is studying the genes of the bacterial endosymbionts of cicadas. My current undergraduate honors student Erin Dwyer is also studying the development of Magicicada nymphs and is helping to design a lab exercise for college students around the eastern US to do the same. Many of my past undergraduate students have studied the biochemical genetics and development of periodical cicadas. See the Simon Lab website.

CS: We are collaborating with Teiji Sota at the University Kyoto and Jin Yoshimura at Shizuoka University in Japan. They are studying the phylogeography of Magicicada. We are collaborating with John McCutcheon of the University of Montana who is studying the endosymbiont genomes.

CS: We are also collaborating with ecologists Rick Karban and Louie Yang, both professors at UC Davis who have an interest in cicada population dynamics and nutrient cycling in the ecosystem.

((WN)) You studied the periodical cicadas in 1979 and 1996 too. What changes with time?

CS: I have studied periodical cicadas since I was a student back in 1974. What changes with time is increased human development constantly shrinking the patch size of cicada populations.

((WN)) What are your thoughts on the long life span of the periodical cicadas? Why could it be so? What advantages and what disadvantages does it have?

CS: Most or all cicadas have long life cycles compared to your typical annual insect. Examples have been found of two-year to 9-year cycles in different species. Periodical cicadas evolved an even-longer life cycle and I think that part of this relates to the evolution of their synchronized life cycles and peculiar safety-in-numbers strategy for survival. To become synchronized, periodical cicadas had to evolve an exact length life cycle and all adults would have to appear in the same year. Because the nymphs grow at different rates underground, a longer life cycle and a way of counting years must have evolved so that the individuals that get to the last nymphal (underground juvenile) stage first would wait long enough for all other individuals in the population to become ready to emerge.

((WN)) News reports mention this is ‘Brood II’ of the periodical cicadas. What are the distinctive features of this specific species and what is its full scientific name?

CS: The same species exist in multiple broods. No species is restricted to Brood II. The three species present in Brood II are: Magicicada septendecim, M. cassini, and M. septendecula. These same three species are found in every 17-year brood (except the farthest north which only has M. septendecim).

((WN)) At what depth do the cicadas juveniles live underground?

CS: Most live within the top foot of soil but some have been found deeper. We do not know if they go deeper in winter. We need to do much more digging to understand the nymphs.

((WN)) How do people prepare for the cicada emergence?

CS: Of course various people prepare in different ways. Ideally, everyone prepares by studying information available on the web (especially on our websites Magicicada Central and Magicicada.org).

((WN)) Do cicadas affect transport in the local area?

CS: No, not really. Occasionally individuals can be seeing flying across highways and sometimes they smash into cars.

((WN)) Do cicadas usually stay outside or do they also invade houses too?

CS: They stay outside. One might accidentally fly in through an open window but that would be rare.

((WN)) What do the cicadas eat?

CS: Cicadas suck xylem fluid (the watery fluid coming up from the roots of plants) in deciduous forest trees and herbs. Essential amino acids in the cicada diet are supplied by their bacterial endosymbionts. There are two species of endosymbionts. One makes 8 essential amino acids and one makes two essential amino acids.

((WN)) Do cicadas damage crops or city vegetation? What damage?

CS: Cicadas do not chew leave so they do not damage crops like other insects. They can inflict some damage by their egg laying. Cicadas lay eggs in pencil-sized tree branches. If there are not enough branches available, too many female cicadas may lay eggs in a single branch weakening it and making it susceptible to breakage by wind. This can sometimes cause damage in fruit orchards. If the branches break, the eggs die so this behavior is selected against by natural selection.

((WN)) Thank you.

CS: You’re welcome. I am happy to have this opportunity to communicate with your readers!

Saturday, April 30, 2005

The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced a recall of foods containing banned dyes which increase the risk of cancer. The food products were sold at the Tesco, Waitrose, and Somerfield supermarkets.

A Bristol company called “Barts Spices” found the illegal Para Red substance in their Barts Ground Paprika, which was sold in 48g and 46g jars with a “Co-op” label. The batch codes on the affected products are 5032 and 5089 (expiration Dec 2007), and 5075 (expiration February 2007).

Tesco also found that their 130g package of BBQ rice cakes (expiration November and December 2005) contained both Para Red and Sudan I.

“It would be very prudent to assume that it could be a genotoxic carcinogen,” FSA scientific advisers told reporters.

“As a company committed to supplying only the very finest quality food ingredients, we took the immediate decision to withdraw our ground paprika spice from all outlets selling the product and advertised a product recall in the national press,” a Barts Spices spokesman said in a statement.

Sudan I is only authorized for industrial use to colorize petroleum products, such as shoe polish. Para Red and Sudan I are banned under the British Colours in Food Regulations of 1995.

Britain last went through a major food recall in February, when Worcester Sauce was found to contain chili powder dyed with Sudan 1.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The Capital & Coast District Health Board today issued a “code red” for two Wellington hospitals. Both Wellington Hospital and Kenepuru Community Hospital have a staff shortage of about 20 nurses, and the hospital is calling on any help available.

Dr Robyn Toomath, director of clinical support services at the Health Board, is calling for “any qualified nurses in the community who are between jobs, are on extended leave or are semi-retired, who might be able to help fill in, or to do some short term work for us.”

“As of today we are around 20 nurses down compared to our usual staffing levels, primarily due to illness” said Dr Toomath. “We have physical beds available, but we can’t admit patients unless there are appropriate levels of staff to safely resource those beds.”

The message to the general public was to “please save our Emergency Department for emergencies”, she said. “We want to be able to focus our Emergency Department resources on patients who genuinely need hospital-level care.”

Any qualified nurses who are willing to help at either of the two hospitals should contact Steve Crew in the Patient Services Coordination Unit, at the Capital and Coast District Health Board.

Friday, May 29, 2009File:Anna Mikkola.jpg

Anna Mikkola is running for European Parliament in Finland as a member of the eco-socialist Left Alliance party. At the age of 28 she’s the youngest member of the 14 candidates on the Left Alliance’s list for the multi-national body. She spoke to Wikinews during a break in campaigning. Finland votes in the European Parliament election on June 7.

Thanks for joining us, Anna.

((Anna Mikkola)) Thanks for asking. I had a convenient break in the campaign this afternoon.

((WN)) You’re the youngest member of your party’s list in the Euro elections; but you’ve also had an extensive career in politics already. How did you first get involved in political activity?

((Anna Mikkola)) I believe I was 16 or 17 at the time, and I just stopped by at the local party office and asked if there was something I could do. There had just been a general election in Finland and the conservatives widely spoke of things I could not accept. Like [how] public financing for culture and sports is unnecessary. One politician even suggested young people could spend their time climbing trees and not expect society to provide them with facilities.

((WN)) So from there you went straight into the Left Youth. How did you choose that party? Did you explore others?

((Anna Mikkola)) It was between the Green party and the Left Alliance. The Greens I felt concentrated too much on individual life style choices as a method of doing politics, so I chose the Left Alliance. I have always been the sort of person who likes to think of structures and their effects, the big picture in a social sense if you may.

((WN)) So what’s it like campaigning for a nationally-elected office? Is it like organizing youth locally or does it feel basically different?

((Anna Mikkola)) Basically different. The whole country is one constituency, which means more traveling than most people do in a year. It’s also expensive as in our election system candidates have to buy their way into public knowledge. Luckily I have both an extensive election team covering the whole country and also some financial support from the Left Youth movement.

((WN)) You mentioned last night waiting for a bus and seeing three with pictures of you on the side pass by…

((Anna Mikkola)) It’s kind of absurd. I have ads in public transport in the 6 biggest cities in Finland. You are definetely more conscious of yourself when you’re traveling on a bus or tram that has your face on it.

((WN)) Now, Finland’s role in the world has fundamentally changed in your lifetime: from a neutral state with closer ties to the Soviet Union than many others in democratic Europe, to EU member and now potentially to NATO member. Do you think your youth makes it easier for you to adapt to the changes going on?

((Anna Mikkola)) Well, it makes my relationship with Finland’s EU membership definetely easier and less emotional maybe than for many older people. Finland has been in the EU my whole adulthood, so for me membership is not the question. I am more interested in looking at the content. I think the new political generation of around 30 year olds, who are making their breakthrough, are going to change political discourse substantially.

((WN)) Do you see green & socialist politics as being the key to this younger generation? In your view can you have environmentalism without socialism?

((Anna Mikkola)) We have an interesting Green party in Finland, who have accepted the necessity of additional nuclear power and support market mechanisms as a part of their climate policy without any questions or caveats. So yes, there is an attempt to create a green capitalist system. The youth as well are divided on this issue. Many people however do see the problems of turning the environment or climate action into products you can buy or sell and speculate with. In that sense I feel environmentalism cannot be separated from socialism, which has a fundamentally different logic.

((WN)) The other end, though, to the importance of the youth vote is voter apathy; how do you deal with the situation of “celebrity” candidates, in particular far-right candidates like Timo Soini?

((Anna Mikkola)) In European elections the problem is apathy in general, not just youth apathy. But maybe you can separate between two types: many older people do not vote in these elections because they don’t like the EU and/or because they feel they cannot change anything by voting since the EU is too big and too far way. These are choices, often resulting from considering the options. Many young people do not vote in elections in general, because they do not really even notice them. Their apathy is not a result of a decision, but genuinely a product of being out of the whle political process. This is something Timo Soini cannot change I think. His candidacy is a big risk for him in any case, since his party is a one man show to a great extent. If he buries himself in Brussels it might well be the end of that party.

((WN)) You’ve been working in Brussels yourself for over a year now; how did you stay in touch with the situation in Finland before the campaign began?

((Anna Mikkola)) Mostly by visiting Finland often. It’s been two years that I have worked in the European parliament now. Working as a parliamentary assistant to a Finnish MEP kind of means you need to be aware of what is happening in Finland and what the papers are saying about it.

((WN)) Now let’s talk policy; on your website you mention numerous issues with the Lisbon treaty but also say that EU membership isn’t an either-or consideration. If you could re-write Lisbon, what would you take out, what would you put in?

((Anna Mikkola)) Simply put I would take out all the militarisation stuff, and remove the neoliberal economic thinking of no rules for the financial markets, and maybe remove some of the new policy areas. I would put in a social progress clause that would ensure rights (especially worker’s rights) inside the EU and add a recognition for e.g. cross border strikes.

((WN)) On the subject of militarization, what would be the best alternative to the European Defence Agency? What’s the right path, if any, for collective European defense?

((Anna Mikkola)) Defense is a word that is understood very differently in different European countries. The Finnish tend to understand this term as passive defense, but many — especially old colonial countries — understand it in a more active sense, as including pre-emptive and aggressive operations outside EU borders. I believe the right path to be a firm concentration on non-aggressive peacekeeping. As for a common European defense, I am against the idea because of the abovementioned reasons. The European Defence Agency is basically an arms trading operation, when its role would maybe be better in co-ordination of crisis management and peacekeeping.

((WN)) So in the long run should the other countries in Europe leave NATO as well?

((Anna Mikkola)) That is for them to decide. However any European defence organisation would be based on NATO, and would not respect the status of non-allied countries. I believe the European Union should respect it.

((WN)) With regard to workers’ rights, a number of parties on the left have raised objections to the Posted Workers Directive and the European Court of Justice’s positions on the rights of workers from one EU country working in another. Finland both receives foreign workers and sends workers elsewhere; how could the Posted Workers Directive be best fixed, in your view?

((Anna Mikkola)) There is no point in fixing the directive. The ECJ’s decisions have been based on the Treaties, and override the directive, which itself is actually not too bad. This is why European trade organisations too have been demanding a social progress clause I mentioned earlier to be put in the Lisbon Treaty, which would be the only way to fix the situation. So that the rights of workers could not be overriden by for example the free movement of services, which has happened in most of the ECJ decisions.

((WN)) And what are the practical chances that such a clause would be put in?

((Anna Mikkola)) Close to zero at this point. However the Lisbon Treaty most probably will not be the last Treaty in the EU. And of course the Irish will still vote on it for a second time. Should the result be a no this time too, the chances would increase. What is not widely being talked of is that were are now in a situation where the EU is doing its best to get into effect a Treaty that was negotiated years ago and is founded on an economic logic that has clearly failed. This does not seem to bother most people.

((WN)) But given that this process has taken so long, do you think the will for a new Treaty would be present — especially with the current Treaty having passed most national parliaments by solid majorities only a year ago?

((Anna Mikkola)) Solid majorities…The Finnish parliament started its proceedings with it before a translation was available. Then they ratified without any public discussion. I think there would be will, but it is clearly not appropriate to talk about it, since the Lisbon Treaty is presented as the only option. Besides, tax payers pay the politicians to do their job. With that money one would assume they would not say they don’t have the energy for a new Treaty.

((WN)) What place does the organized left have in a post-Lisbon Europe? Would they have to make an uncomfortable alliance with the anti-European right?

((Anna Mikkola)) I think such an alliance would be impossible in post-Lisbon EU too. The anti-European right tends to combine their act to anti-immigration as well in many cases, and very aggressively. I think with the current economic crisis there is an increased risk that the political right, even neofascism, could gain as people look for some way to express their frustration.

((WN)) So to wrap up, then: what’s the best thing the next European Parliament can do, and what’s the best thing you could do in the next European Parliament?

((Anna Mikkola)) I think the best thing would be to recognise different opinions. The Parliament is very keen to restrict other voices and likes to pretend were are all one happy family. That is not politics at all.

What I could do and want to do is to speak and try to fix problems with rights; they have not been properly dealt with in the EU, whether they are workers’ rights or for example net users’ rights. The fundamental problem with for example the telecoms package is that its staring point is not users’ rights, defining them and then going into other stuff. Instead, the starting point is the interests of industry, and the limiting of users via different methods in order to protect certain copyright interpretations. The result then for the user is a collection of random and often illogical “rights”. The net is something most politicians seem to be unable to handle as a normal and social part of life for millions and millions of people.

((WN)) So where should net rights come from — from free speech rights, from privacy rights, from practical considerations of restricting the movement of information?

((Anna Mikkola)) From all of those. Mostly you tend to be in a situation, where you have to explain it to politicians that you cannot cut someone’s connection (to for example bank services and other daily things) without a court order in copyright cases.

((WN)) How do you feel about movements like Sweden’s Pirate Party, which is a single-issue group pursuing radical copyright reform?

((Anna Mikkola)) Very neutral.

((WN)) Anything else you’d like to tell the readers?

((Anna Mikkola)) It’s been a pleasure. This is actually my second interview online, sort of. The first was earlier this week when I spent two hours on an anti-immigration forum answering questions. I must say you have been very friendly in your questions compared to that.

((WN)) Well, thanks for that. It’s been a pleasure and thank you for taking the time out for this.

((Anna Mikkola)) Thank you, and now I have to run to my next event!

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, August 11, 2008.