Friday, April 25, 2008
In March, Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Max Riekse, one of the candidates for the Constitution Party nomination for the 2008 United States presidential election. With the Constitution Party’s national convention underway this weekend, we spoke with him one last time before he either becomes his party’s candidate or loses.
Riekse is a retired decorated Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army who served in both the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. He is also a former public school teacher and Assistant Professor of Military Science at Western Michigan University. He has a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of South Florida as well as two M.A.s, one in Political Science and International Relations, the other in Education and History. Both are from Western Michigan University.
We asked him if he thinks he has a good shot at winning the Constitution Party nomination and ultimately the presidency. He replied, “I will know Saturday the 26th if I win the nomination of the Constitution Party. As to wining the general election, I’m very sure that I will do far better then we have done in the previous 20 years as a ‘third’ party. I’m not only more qualified to be commander in chief then either the Democrat or Republican, but will be far better for the country.”
When asked about America’s illegal immigration problem he replied, “I will send all 20 to 30 million home. End birth right babies; no social security for them, etc. They are here illegally; now what part of that does anyone not understand?”
Riekse is running for president because “the Republicans and Democrats would not be having candidates that would solve the problems we have in this country and I know that I could do a lot better with my 32 years of military experience and over 20 years in Education, both in the K-12 public school venue and teaching at the University level.”
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A trustee of the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs filed a lawsuit against the US publisher of the Harry Potter series, Scholastic Inc, on Tuesday. He claimed that J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, had copied scenes from Jacob’s novel, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, to the fourth novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The suit followed a similar case last year, in which the trustee sued the UK publisher of the series, Bloomsbury Publishing plc. Both of these cases are currently pending.
The complaint stated that in both books, the protagonists “are required to deduce the exact nature of the central task in the competition”, and had done so in a bathroom. Both books also involved “rescuing hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal creatures.” The suit also claimed that Christopher Little, a literary agent of Rowling, was originally the literary agent of Jacobs. The claim was denied by Scholastic.
Scholastic called the claim “completely without merit”. They pointed out that Rowling had said in February that she had never read Jacobs’ book. The trustee said that the US was the world’s largest foreign market, so they brought their first overseas action there. He demanded that all copies of the Harry Potter novel be destroyed, and all the profit made by the book given to him.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
IRAQ –The first free elections in over 50 years have begun in Iraq, via proportional representation, to choose members for a 275-strong assembly that will then draw up a constitution.
Interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar was among the first to cast a ballot.
However violence has already begun to overshadow the event, both inside Iraq and abroad, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up close to a polling place in western Baghdad, and a riot and bomb scare in Sydney, Australia.
According to police reports four people were killed and at least nine injured in the Baghdad bombing. A total of at least 36 people have so far been killed in Iraq today in various suicide bombing since the opening of the polls.
As well as suicide bombings, insurgents have used mortars to attack the people. In southern Baghdad they killed at least two people, and in Hilla one person was killed. Mortar rounds have also been fired on other cities, including Mosul and Baquba.
28,000 polling booths in 5,578 stations opened at 7 am (local time), closely guarded by both coalition troops and Iraqi security forces. Turn out has so far been described as “sporadic”, with queues in Shia areas but few people voting in Sunni areas.
“Thank God, thank God.” said the Interim President, “Blessed are the Iraqi elections. We greet all Iraqi people and urge them not to give up their rights, to vote for Iraq, elect Iraq and not to give up on Iraq”
“Deep in my heart, I feel that Iraqis deserve free elections,” he went on, “This will be our first step towards joining the free world and being a democracy that Iraqis will be proud of.”
Thursday, December 18, 2008
A team of eight transplant surgeons in Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, led by reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, age 58, have successfully performed the first almost total face transplant in the US, and the fourth globally, on a woman so horribly disfigured due to trauma, that cost her an eye. Two weeks ago Dr. Siemionow, in a 23-hour marathon surgery, replaced 80 percent of her face, by transplanting or grafting bone, nerve, blood vessels, muscles and skin harvested from a female donor’s cadaver.
The Clinic surgeons, in Wednesday’s news conference, described the details of the transplant but upon request, the team did not publish her name, age and cause of injury nor the donor’s identity. The patient’s family desired the reason for her transplant to remain confidential. The Los Angeles Times reported that the patient “had no upper jaw, nose, cheeks or lower eyelids and was unable to eat, talk, smile, smell or breathe on her own.” The clinic’s dermatology and plastic surgery chair, Francis Papay, described the nine hours phase of the procedure: “We transferred the skin, all the facial muscles in the upper face and mid-face, the upper lip, all of the nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw including the teeth, the facial nerve.” Thereafter, another team spent three hours sewing the woman’s blood vessels to that of the donor’s face to restore blood circulation, making the graft a success.
The New York Times reported that “three partial face transplants have been performed since 2005, two in France and one in China, all using facial tissue from a dead donor with permission from their families.” “Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers, the rest of her face comes from a cadaver; she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe. About 77 square inches of tissue were transplanted from the donor,” it further described the details of the medical marvel. The patient, however, must take lifetime immunosuppressive drugs, also called antirejection drugs, which do not guarantee success. The transplant team said that in case of failure, it would replace the part with a skin graft taken from her own body.
Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon praised the recent medical development. “There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.
Leading bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania withheld judgment on the Cleveland transplant amid grave concerns on the post-operation results. “The biggest ethical problem is dealing with failure — if your face rejects. It would be a living hell. If your face is falling off and you can’t eat and you can’t breathe and you’re suffering in a terrible manner that can’t be reversed, you need to put on the table assistance in dying. There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.
Dr Alex Clarke, of the Royal Free Hospital had praised the Clinic for its contribution to medicine. “It is a real step forward for people who have severe disfigurement and this operation has been done by a team who have really prepared and worked towards this for a number of years. These transplants have proven that the technical difficulties can be overcome and psychologically the patients are doing well. They have all have reacted positively and have begun to do things they were not able to before. All the things people thought were barriers to this kind of operations have been overcome,” she said.
The first partial face transplant surgery on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire on November 27 2005, when she was 38, by Professor Bernard Devauchelle, assisted by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard in Amiens, France. Her Labrador dog mauled her in May 2005. A triangle of face tissue including the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto the patient. Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.
In 2004, the same Cleveland Clinic, became the first institution to approve this surgery and test it on cadavers. In October 2006, surgeon Peter Butler at London‘s Royal Free Hospital in the UK was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out a full face transplant. His team will select four adult patients (children cannot be selected due to concerns over consent), with operations being carried out at six month intervals. In March 2008, the treatment of 30-year-old neurofibromatosis victim Pascal Coler of France ended after having received what his doctors call the worlds first successful full face transplant.
Ethical concerns, psychological impact, problems relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.
Mr Iain Hutchison, of Barts and the London Hospital, warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient’s risk of cancer. He also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a “beating heart donor”. The transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.
According to Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. He said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.
Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon‘s facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be “a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction” and “a major step forward for the facially disfigured.”
In Wednesday’s conference, Siemionow said “we know that there are so many patients there in their homes where they are hiding from society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores, they are afraid to go the the street.” “Our patient was called names and was humiliated. We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted,” she added.
In response to the medical breakthrough, a British medical group led by Royal Free Hospital’s lead surgeon Dr Peter Butler, said they will finish the world’s first full face transplant within a year. “We hope to make an announcement about a full-face operation in the next 12 months. This latest operation shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people. These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, shut away from public gaze,” he said.
Friday, November 3, 2006
On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley West (Ward 26). Four candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Muhammad Alam, Bahar Aminvaziri, Orhan Aybars, Michele Carroll-Smith, Mohamed Dhanani, Abdul Ingar, Geoff Kettel, Debbie Lechter, Natalie Maniates, John Masterson, John Parker, David Thomas, Csaba Vegh, and Fred Williams.
For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Scientists in the UK have developed a new way to ensure boiled eggs are perfectly cooked thanks to a brand new hi-tech logo being printed on shells.
After cooking starts, people will be able to see if their egg is soft, medium or hard-boiled with the help of a thermochromic print which appears in black ink on the egg’s shell.
The eggs will be sold to consumers in the UK within the next few months. A spokeswoman for Lion Quality, the assurance scheme which came up with the idea, said: “We had a lot of inquiries from people which sparked an interest in the industry. We said OK, this is a big issue – people can’t even boil an egg.”
Gilly Beaumont, from B&H Colour Change, the company which created the logos, said: “We are still perfecting the technology, but we are very excited at the prospect of sorting a problem that has wound people up at breakfast time for decades.”
The most successful way to cook an egg has baffled some of the greatest chefs in the past. In 1998, Delia Smith dedicated a whole episode of her How To Cook programme on the best way to boil an egg. And last year, a survey carried out by the magazine Waitrose Food Limited showed five top chefs all had different techniques.
Friday, January 28, 2005
New York –American manufacturing giant Proctor & Gamble (P&G) plans to acquire Gillette Co. for US$57 billion in stock. The purchase plan calls for P&G to swap 0.975 shares of its stock per share of Gillete Co. P&G also announced a stock buyback program in which they would purchase up to US$22 billion of shares over the next 18 months. Including the stock buyback program, the merger is being financed by 60 percent stock and 40 percent cash.
P&G is known for brands such as Ariel and Tide washing powder, Max Factor cosmetics, Pringles potato crisps (chips) and Hugo Boss and Lacoste perfumes.
Gillette, known for brands such as Gillette razors, Oral B dental care, and Duracell batteries, has had growing problems with the growth of private labels and price cuts demanded by large supermarkets.
After the acquisition is completed, Gillette’s CEO James Kilts will be P&G’s vice-chairman. Kilts said that he expects that this acquisition will cause additional mergers to take place.
“I believe the consumer product industry needs to consolidate,” said Kilts, “we believe we can bring these companies together and create a juggernaut.”
P&G and Gillette have a combined market capitalization of about $185 billion US, which will make it the largest in the sector.
The early morning announcement states that 6,000 employees will be eliminated. Most of the layoffs will result from reducing overlapping management positions and other supporting positions within the combined company.
Antitrust regulators in the US and Europe plan to review the acquisition, to determine whether the combined company will have too much power over pricing and shelf space.
P&G plans to provide additional details about the merger Friday morning (East Coast time) in New York.
On October 14, 2008, Canadians will be heading to the polls for the federal election. Liberal candidate Dr. Eric Hoskins is standing for election in the riding of Haldimand—Norfolk.
Wikinews contacted Dr. Eric Hoskins, to talk about the issues facing Canadians, and what they and their party would do to address them. Wikinews is in the process of contacting every candidate, in every riding across the country, no matter their political stripe. All interviews are conducted over e-mail, and interviews are published unedited, allowing candidates to impart their full message to our readers, uninterrupted.
For more information, visit the campaign’s official website, listed below.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday that its sales in the United States rose 43% in February compared to the same period last year, as the automaker outsold rivals Toyota and General Motors.
| The strength of our new products … are resonating with customers | ||
Ford said that total sales improved to 142,285 units, compared to 141,951 units sold by GM. Additionally, Ford said that its share of the total US car market rose to 17%, up from 14% a year ago. The increase was better than analysts had predicted, and Ford’s stock rose to a five-year high in morning trading, before declining later in the day. Ford’s sales were significantly influenced by a 74% increase in fleet sales to businesses. Rental car agencies alone accounted for around 30,000 units sold. Sales to retail consumers increased only 28%.
The increases were led by sales of two sedans, the Fusion and Taurus, which rose 166.5 and 93.3% respectively, although sales of other models such as SUVs and pickup trucks also increased. Both models were significantly redesigned last year, and analysts said that improved quality from such cars were driving the increases.
Other companies also reported February sales today, nearly all reporting sales gains as well, although none as large as those of Ford. Toyota was the sole exception to the sales gains, as their sales declined 8.7%, as the company was faced with a global recall during the month that led to a temporary stoppage of production for some models.
“The strength of our new products … are resonating with customers,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of sales and marketing. However, he believed that traditional Toyota customers were not buying rival autos, but rather awaiting the results from the recalls.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Russell Korus is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Vaughan riding. 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.