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One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:38:45 GMT

Wikinews Sports

Sources [edit]

AAP. "Taiwan knocks Australia out of the Games" — The Australian, June 23, 2012
"Olympic Team Qualifying Tournament" — Archery Australia, June 22, 2010
John Salvado. "Aust men's archery team miss Olympics" — NineMSN, June 22, 2010
"World Cup Ogden and Olympic Qualifying Tournament" — Archery Australia, June 21, 2012
John Salvado. "Two Aussie archers qualify for Olympics" — NineMSN, June 21, 2012

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Anti-ACTA activists protest across Europe

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:20:02 GMT

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Internet

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Anti-ACTA protestors on the steps of Trafalgar Square outside the National Gallery in London.
Image: Tom Morris.

Guy Fawkes masks were on display in cities across Europe yesterday as part of a protest against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), an international trade agreement on copyright and intellectual property that opponents believe will limit free speech online.

Organisers of the protest said about 100,000 people turned up in German cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, and Hanover. In Berlin, police estimated 6,500 protestors. Protests also took place in Paris, Sofia in Bulgaria, Vilnius in Lithuania, Valetta in Malta, Tallinn in Estonia, and Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. In London, about 200 people protested outside some major copyright holders' offices. Last month, there were major protests in Poland when that country signed ACTA, which has led to the Polish government deciding not to ratify the agreement, for now. Latvia and Slovakia have both delayed the process of joining ACTA.

Jim Killock from the Open Rights Group, a UK digital civil liberties campaigning group, said ACTA was "undemocratic", "lacked scrutiny", and was "setting up dangerous new pressures to censor the internet".

The United Kingdom have signed ACTA, along with 21 other EU countries. Germany and the Czech Republic have held out on agreeing to it, awaiting a debate on the matter in the European Parliament in June. Baroness Wilcox, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, claims signing the treaty was important to help bring about "common enforcement standards and more effective international cooperation" in intellectual property law.

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Sources [edit]

"Anti-ACTA day: Angry crowds take action" — RT (TV network), February 12, 2012
Dave Lee. "Acta protests: Thousands take to streets across Europe" — BBC News Online, February 11, 2012
Josie Le Blond. "ACTA ignites concerns about threat to Internet freedom" — USA Today, February 11, 2012

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European cold spell kills hundreds

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:39:37 GMT

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Weather

Sources [edit]

"Winter Tightens Icy Grip Across Europe" — Voice of America, February 8, 2012

"Deadly Cold Snap: European Deep Freeze Refuses to Relent" — Spiegel Online, February 7, 2012

"Europe’s deadly cold snap should ease from next week, UN agency says" — UN News Service, February 7, 2012

AFP. "Deadly cold snap 'to get worse'" — The Daily Telegraph (Australia), February 4, 2012

"Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions" — Euronews, February 3, 2012

"Cold weather death toll passes 100 in Ukraine" — BBC News Online, February 3, 2012

Laura Smith-Spark. "Europe's cold snap claims more lives" — CNN, February 3, 2012

"Cold snap takes heavy toll in Eastern Europe" — Deutsche Welle, February 3, 2012

"Homeless facing cold all over Europe" — Euronews, February 2, 2012

External links [edit]

For the current warnings across Europe see: Meteoalarm

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Azerbaijan win 2011 Eurovision Song Contest

Sun, 15 May 2011 13:57:51 GMT

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Eurovision Song Contest

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Eurovision Song Contest

The Esprit Arena, the venue for the contest

Azerbaijan has won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. Duo Ell & Nikki, which consists of Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, won the contest with 221 points after their performence of Running Scared. This is the first time that Azerbaijan has won the contest, they first appeared in 2008. Italy took second place and Sweden finished third.

Commenting on their country's win the pair said "the one thing we want to say is, we just love you. Thank you for your support". Gasimov continued to say that he was "the happiest man in the world".

Azerbaijan received the maximum of 12 points from three countries, Russia, Turkey, and Malta.

Ukraine came fourth in the contest and fifth place went to Denmark. Switzerland came in last with 19 points. Host and last year's winner Germany finished in tenth place. Other countries that participated in the final include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Ireland, Georgia, the United Kingdom, Moldova, Slovenia, Serbia, France, Russia, Romania, Austria, Lithuania, Iceland, Finland, Hungary, Spain, and Estonia.

Two semi-final heats were held in the days before the final to determine which acts would proceed to the final. Greece and Sweden won the semi-finals with 133 and 155 points. The countries that failed to make it to the final are Malta, Armenia, Turkey, Albania, Croatia, San Marino, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Belarus, Israel, F.Y.R Macedonia, Latvia, Cyprus, and the Netherlands

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Sources [edit]

"Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Final" — Eurovision, May 14, 2011
"Azerbaijan wins the Eurovision Song Contest" — BBC News Online, May 15, 2011
"Winner's Press Conference: "We want to bring Europe together"" — Eurovision.tv, May 15, 2011
"Eurovision 2011: Semifinals results revealed" — ESC Today, May 15, 2011

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India's Anand defends chess world championship title against Bulgarian challenger Topalov

Thu, 13 May 2010 23:53:09 GMT

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Viswanathan Anand

Veselin Topalov

Viswanathan Anand, a chess grandmaster from India, has retained the world championship title after a match with Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov.

The match, consisting of a dozen games, was played in the Bulgarian capital Sofia over the last twenty days. Anand received the first-place prize of 1.2 million euro, whilst Topalov took 800,000 euro. The awards ceremony was attended yesterday by the Bulgarian prime minister, Boyko Borisov, and the international chess federation FIDE's president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Going into the last game, both sides had two wins apiece, and seven draws. However, the Bulgarian's manager, Silvio Danailov, told the Dnevnik that Topalov played the last game "rather nervously", saying: "A draw would have been a good result for him but he made a few mistakes and the Indian exploited them.

"We should concentrate on the positive sides of the match. This was a historic match for Bulgaria. The country was in the spotlight for millions of people worldwide who love the game. We should be happy and proud that we organised this event."

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Sources [edit]

"Anand defends crown against Topalov in World Chess Championship 2010" — The Echo, May 12, 2010
"India's Anand Crowned World Chess Champion in Bulgaria" — novinite.com, May 13, 2010

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Listening to you at last: EU plans to tap cell phones

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:10:48 GMT

Monday, October 19, 2009

A report accidentally published on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens, as reported by Wikileaks earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p file sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under its current mandate.

The INDECT project logo
Image: INDECT website.

INDECT produced the accidentally published report as part of their "Extraction of Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived Knowledge and Unstructured Data" project, but do not enumerate all potential applications of the search and surveillance technology. Police are discussed as a prime example of users, with Polish and British forces detailed as active project participants. INDECT is funded under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and includes participation from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Testing Project INDECT's potential usefulness, and the leaked 'sales-pitch'

Indicated in the initial trial's report, the scope of data collected is particularly broad; days of television news, radio, newspapers, and recorded telephone conversations are included. Several weeks of content from online sources were agglomerated, including mining Wikipedia for users' and article subjects' relations with others, organisations, and in-project movements.

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Leaked presentation video for Project INDECT.
Image: European Union, © 2009.

Watermarking of published digital works such as film, audio, or other documents is discussed in the Project INDECT remit; its purpose is to integrate and track this information, its movement within the system and across the Internet. An unreleased promotional video for INDECT located on YouTube is shown to the right. The simplified example of the system in operation shows a file of documents with a visible INDECT-titled cover taken from an office and exchanged in a car park. How the police are alerted to the document theft is unclear in the video; as a "threat", it would be the INDECT system's job to predict it.

Throughout the video use of CCTV equipment, facial recognition, number plate reading, and aerial surveillance give friend-or-foe information with an overlaid map to authorities. The police proactively use this information to coordinate locating, pursuing, and capturing the document recipient. The file of documents is retrieved, and the recipient roughly detained.

Conclusions, implications, potential investigative journalism impact

Technology research performed as part of Project INDECT has clear use in countering industrial and international espionage, although the potential use in maintaining any security and predicting leaks is much broader. Quoted in the UK's Daily Telegraph, Liberty's director, Shami Chakrabarti, described a possible future implementation of INDECT as a "sinister step" with "positively chilling" repercussions Europe-wide.

"It is inevitable that the project has a sensitive dimension due to the security focussed goals of the project," Suresh Manandhar, leader of the University of York researchers involved in the "Work Package 4" INDECT component, responded to Wikinews. "However, it is important to bear in mind that the scientific methods are much more general and has wider applications. The project will most likely have lot of commercial potential. The project has an Ethics board to oversee the project activities. As a responsible scientists [sic] it is of utmost importance to us that we conform to ethical guidelines."

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Although Wikinews attempted to contact Professor Helen Petrie of York University, the local member of Project INDECT's Ethics board, no response was forthcoming. The professor's area of expertise is universal access, and she has authored a variety of papers on web-accessibility for blind and disabled users. A full list of the Ethics board members is unavailable, making their suitability unassessable and distancing them from public accountability.

One potential application of Project INDECT would be implementation and enforcement of the U.K.'s "MoD Manual of Security". The 2,389-page 2001 version passed to Wikileaks this month — commonly known as JSP-440, and marked "RESTRICTED" — goes into considerable detail on how, as a serious threat, investigative journalists should be monitored, and effectively thwarted; just the scenario the Project INDECT video could be portraying.

When approached by Wikinews about the implications of using INDECT, a representative of the U.K.'s Attorney General declined to comment on legal checks and balances such a system might require. Further U.K. enquiries were eventually referred to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who have not yet responded.

E.F.F. Europe reacts

Wikinews' Brian McNeil contacted Eddan Katz, the International Affairs Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (E.F.F.). Katz last spoke to Wikinews in early 2008 on copyright, not long after taking his current position with the E.F.F. He was back in Brussels to speak to EU officials, Project INDECT was on his agenda too — having learned of it only two weeks earlier. Katz linked Project INDECT with a September report, NeoConopticon — The EU Security-Industrial Complex, authored by Ben Hayes for the Transnational Institute. The report raises serious questions about the heavy involvement of defence and IT companies in "security research".

On the record, Katz answered a few questions for Wikinews.

WN Is this illegal? Is this an invasion of privacy? Spying on citizens?

Eddan Katz When the European Parliament issued the September 5, 2001 report on the American ECHELON system they knew such an infrastructure is in violation of data protection law, undermines the values of privacy and is the first step towards a totalitarian surveillance information society.

WN Who is making the decisions based on this information, about what?

E.K. What's concerning to such a large extent is the fact that the projects seem to be agnostic to that question. These are the searching systems and those people that are working on it in these research labs do search technology anyway. [...] but its inclusion in a database and its availability to law enforcement and its simultaneity of application that's so concerning, [...] because the people who built it aren't thinking about those questions, and the social questions, and the political questions, and all this kind of stuff. [... It] seems like it's intransparent, unaccountable.

The E.U. report Katz refers to was ratified just six days before the September 11 attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In their analysis of the never-officially-recognised U.S. Echelon spy system it states, "[i]n principle, activities and measures undertaken for the purposes of state security or law enforcement do not fall within the scope of the EC Treaty." On privacy and data-protection legislation enacted at E.U. level it comments, "[such does] not apply to 'the processing of data/activities concerning public security, defence, state security (including the economic well-being of the state when the activities relate to state security matters) and the activities of the state in areas of criminal law'".

Part of the remit in their analysis of Echelon was rumours of 'commercial abuse' of intelligence; "[i]f a Member State were to promote the use of an interception system, which was also used for industrial espionage, by allowing its own intelligence service to operate such a system or by giving foreign intelligence services access to its territory for this purpose, it would undoubtedly constitute a breach of EC law [...] activities of this kind would be fundamentally at odds with the concept of a common market underpinning the EC Treaty, as it would amount to a distortion of competition".

Ben Hayes' NeoConoptiocon report, in a concluding section, "Following the money", states, "[w]hat is happening in practice is that multinational corporations are using the ESRP [European Seventh Research Programme] to promote their own profit-driven agendas, while the EU is using the programme to further its own security and defence policy objectives. As suggested from the outset of this report, the kind of security described above represents a marriage of unchecked police powers and unbridled capitalism, at the expense of the democratic system."

Sources

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

This article is a featured article. It is considered one of the best works of the Wikinews community. See Wikinews:Featured articles for more information.

"EU social network spy system brief, INDECT Work Package 4, 2009" — Wikileaks, October 4, 2009
"UK MoD Manual of Security Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Issue 2, JSP-440, RESTRICTED, 2389 pages, 2001" — Wikileaks, October 3, 2009
Ben Hayes. "Big business and security" — Guardian.co.uk, September 28, 2009
Ben Hayes. "NeoConopticon — The EU Security-Industrial Complex" — Statewatch.org, September 25, 2009
Ian Johnston. "EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"" — Telegraph.co.uk, September 19, 2009

External links

Project INDECT home page
European Commission Project INDECT remit and financing - europa.eu
Report on news & social media monitoring - Project INDECT
Promotional video - Project INDECT leaked video (hosted on YouTube)

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Rupert Grint, Harry Potter's "Ron Weasley", recovers from H1N1 swine flu virus

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:58:24 GMT

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Swine Flu

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More information on H1N1:

Rupert Grint, best known for playing Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, has now recovered from the H1N1 swine flu virus after missing some days on the set for the latest installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Rupert Grint best known for playing as Ron Weasley has now recovered from the H1N1 swine flu virus
Image: John Griffiths .

Unrelated to Grint's illness, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is currently investigating a strain of the flu virus which appears to be resisting the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. An unnamed 16-year-old traveling between San Francisco and Hong Kong was released from hospital after one week following her arrival in Hong Kong. Officials are following up on her contacts to trace the source of contagion.

Danish and Japanese authorities have also identified two other people who have come down with H1N1 flu virus following anti-viral flu treatments.

Currently there are 5,254 reported cases of H1N1 flu across Australia with ten dying from the flu. Officials say "those numbers are increasing, we think they're increasing much faster than that across New South Wales and indeed across the country"

Canada has had 33 H1N1 flu deaths and close to 7,900 reported cases.

New Zealand officials report close to 950 people who have contracted the H1N1 flu virus and confirmed its first death related to the virus. The Chief Coroner feels the virus may have contributed to the deaths of two others as well. The New Zealand director of public health said the "swine flu will be a mild illness but in some instances the infection can cause more severe illness and, in a few tragic instances, death."

Bulgaria's Minister of Health reported two young boys who are under quarantine after falling ill with H1N1 flu virus after traveling to the U.S., and Saudi Arabia respectively. Bulgaria has now had ten H1N1 flu cases.

Altogether over 70,000 persons worldwide have come down with the H1N1 flu, as confirmed through testing, and there have been over 300 registered deaths attributable to the virus.

Margaret Chan, WHO spokesperson said, "As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable." This sentiment has been repeated by the United Nations health official.

The UK health secretary, Andy Burnham has forecast over 100,000 H1N1 flu virus cases per day before September 1.

Have an opinion on this story? Post it!

Sources [edit]

"New swine flu risk as Harry Potter star falls victim" — Times Online, July 5, 2009
"NSW swine flu cases top 1,200" — Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 5, 2009
Mark Russell. "Swine flu spread unstoppable: UN" — The Age.com.au, July 5, 2009
"Three die with swine flu in NZ" — Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 4, 2009
"Harry Potter actor recovers from swine flu" — CBC News, July 4, 2009
Associated Press. "Potter star Rupert Grint recovering from swine flu" — Google news, July 4, 2009
"Bulgaria with 10 Swine Flu A(H1N1) Cases" — Sofia News Agency, June 29, 2009

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Bulgarian officials in Grand Prix talks

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:02:04 GMT

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Wikinews Sports

Sources [edit]

"Bulgaria keen to host grand prix" — BBC News Online, July 2, 2009
"Bulgaria sets sights on 2011 race deal" — ITV, July 2, 2009
"Bulgaria hopes to secure F1 race in 2011" — Associated Press, July 4, 2009
"Indian Grand Prix debut pushed back to 2011" — The Daily Telegraph, September, 30 2008

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Europeans go to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:07:15 GMT

Monday, June 8, 2009

European Parliament logo

Over the course of the last four days, people across the European Union went to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) as part of the European Parliament election, 2009. Voting began on Thursday in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and parts of Ireland. It continued on Friday across the rest of Ireland and parts of the Czech Republic. On Saturday the countries of Cyprus, France (for part of Outre-mer), Italy (day 1), Latvia, Malta, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all voted. On Sunday, the final day of polling, the remaing countries of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy (day 2), Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden voted. Votes were released last night and will continue to be released over the course of today with the exception of Netherlands, which has broken rules and partialy released them on Friday.

The current President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering

The European Parliament is divided into constituencies, which have a group of representatives (the MEPs). Each constituency elects them proportionaly. The amount of MEPs representing a political party depends on the percentage of votes they gain. For example, if 50% of the electorate of a constituency vote for the x party then 50% of the MEPs in that constituency will be from the x party. In total there are 736 MEPs up for election by approximately 500,000,000 Europeans across 27 member states making it the largest transnational election in history.

The elections didn't quite go to plan across the Netherlands, as the European Commission have asked that Dutch officials give an explanation to results they released. As countries across Europe vote on different days, the results of the election can only be released on the last day (Sunday), so that the results in other countries will not influence the decission made by people in countries that are still voting. Despite this, the Netherlands released some of their results on Friday: 92% of the votes have currently been counted. Further controversy arose from the results themselves. Results so far show that far-right Dutch Member of Parliament, Geert Wilders's party the Party for Freedom (PVV), appears to have come second behind the Christian Democratic Appeal. Wilders is facing prosecution in the Netherlands for an anti Islamic statement and was refused entry to the United Kingdom on grounds of the intent to incite hatred.

It had initially been foreseen that the Treaty of Lisbon would have entered into force by the time of these elections, making them the first to be held under its provisions. However, primarily because of the failure of the referendum in Ireland, the framework established by the Treaty of Nice will be used again. Amongst other differences, the number of MEPs to be returned depends upon which rules are in effect: while 736 MEPs will be elected under the Nice rules, this number would have increased to 751 if the Lisbon Treaty were in force. A further change that Lisbon would have brought was an increase to the powers of Parliament, including powers over the appointment of the President of the European Commission.

In the previous election, German Hans-Gert Pöttering of the centre-right EPP-ED won with 34% and Martin Schulz of the Socialists came second with 26%. Despite this, during the last term the two leaders shared, each serving approximately two years in office.

European Parliament election, 2004 - Final results at 20 July 2004
Group		Description	Chaired by	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Hans-Gert Pöttering	268
	PES	Social Democrats	Martin Schulz	200
	ALDE	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Graham Watson	88
	G–EFA	Greens and Regionalists	Daniel Cohn-Bendit Monica Frassoni	42
	EUL– NGL	Communists and the Far Left	Francis Wurtz	41
	ID	Eurosceptics	Jens-Peter Bonde Nigel Farage	37
	UEN	National Conservatives	Brian Crowley Cristiana Muscardini	27
	NI	Independents	none	29	Total: 732	Sources: [1][2][3][4][5]

Europeans have also been voting in local elections of County Councils in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

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Related news [edit]

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

European Parliament election, 2009

"United Kingdom elects first British National Party members of European Parliament" — Wikinews, June 8, 2009

Sources [edit]

"Dutch far right in poll triumph" — BBC News Online, June 5, 2009
"Final round of marathon EU vote" — BBC News Online, June 7, 2009
"Voting in 19 EU states for Parliament" — RTÉ, June 7, 2009

External links [edit]

European Election results

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Swine flu: recent developments worldwide

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:57:57 GMT

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Swine Flu

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More information on H1N1:

The H1N1 swine flu virus has now spread to 66 different countries throughout the globe, with at least 19,273 confirmed cases and 117 deaths having been reported according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) tally. A majority of the cases were reported by the United States, which now has at least 10,053 confirmed infections from the disease.

Egypt, Bulgaria, and Nicaragua each reported their first case, while Lebanon reported three.

The WHO's pandemic alert level is at the fifth level, on a scale of one to six. In order for a transition for the highest level to be made, the organisation must confirm a significant spread of swine flu in at least two continents. The WHO has recently been under pressure to include the severity of a disease spread to its criteria, not just the geographical spread of a virus. The WHO said that its committee had agreed that a statement on the strength of an epidemic should be made in any future pandemic declarations.

"There was a broad consensus on the importance of including information on severity in future announcements," the WHO said in a statement.

Australia [edit]

Australian health minister Nicola Roxon said that there are currently 878 confirmed cases of the influenza in Australia. The bulk of the cases have been in the state of Victoria, which has 752 infected persons. New South Wales is the second, with 74 infections.

Roxon predicted that the swine flu will be a problem in the next two winters, despite efforts to curb its spread.

"I would have thought we're not at the halfway point, given that we still don't have an extensive spread in Australia," Roxon said. "We are only part way, but closer, to having a vaccine and we are still prepared to put all our efforts into containing the disease as much as possible."

Roxon said that Australia's hospitals will start taking samples from people infected with the flu to monitor its spread. She said that "it gives us the tools to monitor how much of the flu in the coming weeks is seasonal flu, how much is actually this H1N1 strain, and we will simply have to keep monitoring that over the coming months." Roxon added that "this is a time to be cautious, where the combination of the flus might turn it into something much less virulent or something more virulent."

Meanwhile, Singapore has urged its residents not to travel to Victoria. A warning at the government website said that Melbourne and Victoria were affected by the disease, and advised any Singapore residents returning from those areas to keep an eye on their health for swine flu symptoms.

Brazil [edit]

The health ministry of Brazil announced on Tuesday that the number of infected people in the country has been increased to 23 after two new cases were confirmed. 25 people are also suspected to be infected.

The ministry said that both new patients are in stable condition, and had both been infected after traveling to the U.S.

Of Brazil's H1N1 cases, nine are in São Paulo, seven in Rio de Janeiro, four in Santa Catarina, and one apiece in Rio Grande do Sul, Tocantins, and Minas Gerais. Seven of the cases had been transmitted domestically.

Canada [edit]

A map showing the spread of the swine flu worldwide.

██ Confirmed cases followed by death

██ Confirmed cases

██ Unconfirmed or suspected cases

Chile [edit]

Almost four hundred swine flu cases in the South American country of Chile have been reported, local health officials say.

The Institute of Public Health in Santiago reported that 393 cases were confirmed in the country in a statement on its website. The institute said that while 98% of cases were only "mild", about two percent of all infections were fatal.

Swine flu cases in Chile have increased twofold within the last seven days.

New Zealand [edit]

New Zealand now has eleven confirmed cases of the swine flu. A further 63 are in quarantine and have been prescribed the antiviral drug oseltamivir (which goes by the trade name of Tamiflu).

Philippines [edit]

Health officials from the Philippines said that seven more people tested positive for the influenza on Thursday, increasing the number of confirmed infections from the disease in the country to 29. There are a further 47 laboratory results pending confirmation.

Francisco Duque, the Philippine's health secretary, said six of the cases were in Filipinos who had returned from visits to the U.S.

"With further characterization of the virus in our local cases, if we see that A/H1N1 poses no severe threat and is self-limited in most cases, we may be seeing a shift in our control strategy to outpatient and home management of patients showing only mild symptoms," Duque said.

Russia [edit]

Russia has reported its first case of the flu, in an unidentified 28-year-old man who had recently been in New York. The man had initially passed a medical check when he arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport last Monday, but began to feel ill two days later and was hospitalised the same day. It is currently uncertain how he obtained the virus.

Russian officials are currently screening flights that have departed from "countries of concern", including all countries in the Americas, as well as Japan and Spain. People arriving on flights from such countries have their temperatures checked by remote sensors, and those with high temperatures are hospitalised and tested for the H1N1 virus. Over a score of people so far have been identified as having symptoms of the disease, but all of them were cleared after later tests.

Turkey [edit]

Turkey's first case happened on May 16 when a passenger flying from United States to Iraq through a connected flight over Turkey entered to İstanbul Atatürk International Airport. With the latest arrival of 2 Turkish passengers from New York and Toronto on June 3, the number of confirmed cases increased to 10.

The Turkish Ministry of Health reported that no infections related for human-to-human transfer of the virus are observed until now and the hospitalized cases are treated in a dedicated hospital in Istanbul.

United Kingdom [edit]

486 people have been confirmed as infected with the H1N1 virus in the United Kingdom. 27 new cases in England were confirmed recently. Five people in the Glasgow area have been hospitalised. Three of them are in intensive care, although one man recently improved and was moved into to high dependency. A 44-year-old woman, who is said to have had underlying health conditions, is also in high dependency, at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley.

Scotland is the part of the UK with the highest ratio of affected people to population.

United States [edit]

The U.S. is the country with the highest number of confirmed swine flu infections. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 27 people have died from the virus, and a further 13,271 cases have been reported throughout the country. All fifty states, as well as two territories, have reported cases.

The state of Wisconsin has been the worst hit, with 2,217 infections, as well as three additional suspected cases.

"What is unusual today is not that there has been a death from influenza. Over 37,000 people die in the United States each year of seasonal influenza, and the rates of death and illness from this novel H1N1 strain does not appear to be radically different," said Seth Foldy, a Wisconsin health official. "What is unusual this year is that influenza continues to be widely circulating in Wisconsin and many, many other states this late in the year."

Vietnam [edit]

Vietnam's fourth swine flu infection was confirmed on Thursday, in a six-year-old girl in Vietnam's capital of Ho Chi Minh City, a local media report said. The child is currently receiving treatment. All of the infected patients had recently traveled to the United States.

Sources [edit]

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

2009 swine flu outbreak

Alexandra Odynova. "First Case of Swine Flu Confirmed in Russia" — The Moscow Times, June 6, 2009
"Swine flu kills 27 across US" — Brisbane Times, June 6, 2009
"UK swine flu cases approach 500" — The Press Association, June 5, 2009
"Swine flu tally nears 900" — ABC News (Australia), June 5, 2009
"Wisconsin endures first swine flu death" — United Press International, June 5, 2009
"Canada's health minister announces $10.8M to fight swine flu" — CBC News, June 5, 2009
Jason Gale. "Swine Flu Causes Serious Complications in 2% of Chilean Cases" — Bloomberg L.P., June 5, 2009
"Flu A/H1N1 cases keep rising in Asia-Pacific region Thursday" — Xinhua News Agency, June 4, 2009
"Swine flu cases infect 19,273 across world: WHO" — Agence France-Presse, June 3, 2009
"Brazil reports new A/H1N1 flu case" — Xinhua News Agency, June 3, 2009
"Swine Flu cases in Turkey reach 10" — NTVMSNBC, June 5, 2009

External links [edit]

Current WHO phase of pandemic alert

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Bulgarian chess grandmaster attempts to break chess record

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:16:39 GMT

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bulgaria

Sources [edit]

"Bulgaria's Georgiev aims for chess world record" — AFP, February 21, 2009
"Bulgarian challenges chess record" — BBC News Online, February 21, 2009

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Wikinews Shorts: January 7, 2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:05:57 GMT

A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, January 7, 2009 .

1 Strike on UN school in Gaza kills 40
2 US Government calls for Gaza ceasefire
3 Natural gas crisis hits Austria and Turkey on its 6^th day

Strike on UN school in Gaza kills 40 [edit]

Map of Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical officials report that a United Nations school in Gaza City, which was being used as a shelter for civilians, took a direct hit from an Israeli tank, killing more than 30 Palestinians on the 11^th day of the assault. Israeli officials have stated that rocket fire had emerged from within the school. Doctors of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya report that an additional 10 people died at the hospital and they expect an increase in the casualties as more people may be on the way to the hospital.

Sources

"Strike on Gaza school 'kills 40'" — BBC News Online, January 6, 2009
Mark Tran. "Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza" — guardian.co.uk, January 6, 2009
Nidal al-Mughrabi. "Israeli tank fire kills 40 at U.N. school" — Reuters, January 6, 2009

US Government calls for Gaza ceasefire [edit]

Secretary Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007

Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice is due at a United Nations Security Council meeting to help bring an end to the Israeli assault. United States Government officials say that they would like an immediate and stable ceasefire.

"We would like an immediate ceasefire, absolutely... An immediate ceasefire that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited," said Assistant Secretary of State Sean McCormack.

The Israeli Government, however, does not find the "international pressure" high enough to call a ceasefire. Reports also say that European Union has given a tacit green light to the Israeli assault, because they failed to come against it.

As of today, the total death toll has increased to 600 Palestinians (100 of which are civilians), and 2,700 are wounded.

Sources

"US calls for immediate, durable Gaza ceasefire" — Reuters, January 6, 2009
Matthew Lee. "Gov't: Sec. of State Rice Due at UN on Gaza crisis" — Associated Press, January 6, 2009
David Blair. "Analysis: Will Israel call a Gaza ceasefire?" — The Daily Telegraph, January 6, 2009

Natural gas crisis hits Austria and Turkey on its 6^th day [edit]

Primary Russian gas pipelines to Europe.

It has been six days since Russia halted the natural gas flow to Ukraine, and therefore to subsequent countries such as Bulgaria, Austria, Turkey, Poland, Romania and Hungary. The Russian natural gas pipeline is the primary source of natural gas for some countries such as Ukraine, Austria and Turkey.

Ukraine is currently in negotiations with Russia in order to restart the gas flow, however Russia has increased the prices from US$179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters to $250 per 1,000 cubic meters for Ukraine.

Austrian Government officials are planning a meeting due to the 90% decrease in natural gas flow coming from Russia. OMV AG reports that Austria has a three-month natural gas reserve which would allow them to get by the winter of 2009. Currently, 51% of Austria's natural gas comes from Russia and only 18% of their natural gas is produced locally.

The Turkish Government says that Turkey is more time-limited in this crisis, since they only have 5 days of natural gas reserve left. However in this situation, Iran has stated that they will increase gas flow to Turkey.

Sources

"Gas from Russia is down 90 percent in Austria" — Associated Press, January 6, 2009
"5 günlük doğalgaz stoku var" — Habertürk, January 6, 2009 (Turkish)
Megan K. Stack. "Russia halts natural gas to Ukraine for third day" — Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2009

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Sarkozy ends French job ban for Eastern Europeans

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:07:27 GMT

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Nicolas Sarkozy at the Charlemagne Prize ceremony in 2008.
Image: Aleph.

During a one-day visit to Warsaw on Tuesday French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his country would lift job restrictions on the citizens of some of the European Union's former communist states. He also promised a deal aimed at bringing Ukraine closer to the bloc but seemed to play down its chances of membership.

France was part of a majority of EU states that imposed employment restrictions on citizens of Poland and other countries that joined the European Union in 2004. The limits now in place for workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will be lifted on July 1. However, jobs in France will remain restricted for workers from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007.

"I am going to announce this during my speech in Parliament," Sarkozy said when asked about media reports on the matter. "Poland is one of the six great countries of Europe. The EU is based on the free movement of people. Poland is also our strategic partner." Of "old EU" member states, only Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Germany now maintain the ban. Norway and Liechtenstein – non-EU countries that are part of the European Economic Area – also restrict access to their job markets for citizens of the countries that joined the union in 2004. Switzerland, which has bilateral agreements with the EU on free movement of people, also restricts employment for those countries. Under EU law, these restrictions must be lifted by 2011.

Sarkozy also told a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday that Ukraine would be offered closer cooperation with the European Union during a French presidency of the bloc, which starts on July 1, but said Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told him that Ukraine did not want to join the EU outright.

"I've met with the president of Ukraine and his objective is not membership, rather closer cooperation on various levels. I will have opportunities to make such proposals," he said.

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Sources [edit]

"Sarkozy Ends French Job Ban" — New Warsaw Express, May 29, 2008
"France to let in eastern workers" — BBC News Online, May 28, 2008

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Far-right faction in European Parliament dissolved

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:42:46 GMT

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

European Union

Reactions [edit]

European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Several other political groups welcomed the break up, and the official announcement today was reportedly followed by some applause.

German MEP Martin Schulz, head of the left Party of European Socialists, released a statement saying that: "The good news is that the [group] of the ultra-nationalists no longer exists and cannot use the money of the European taxpayer to support its xenophobia and neo-fascism."

According to allied Liberal leader Graham Watson: "They are a casualty of their own philosophy which paints all foreigners into a single mould and encourages xenophobic and racist comments and remarks which have no place in the European Union. ... The irony of a Mussolini destroying the coherence of a far-right group will not be lost on Europeans from Bucharest to Brindisi."

English green MEP Jean Lambert put it this way: "This collection of unsavoury European politicians were united only by hatred - be it of other races, nationalities, sexualities or, ironically, the EU - and it was only a matter of time before they succumbed to a hatred of each other as well."

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Sources [edit]

"Uiterst rechtse fractie in Europees Parlement ontbonden" — De Standaard, November 14, 2007 (Dutch)
Honor Mahony. "MEPs welcome fall of far-right group" — EUobserver, November 14, 2007
"European far-right bloc collapses" — BBC News Online, November 14, 2007
Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "European far-right group dissolved after "xenophobic" row" — Monsters and critics, November 14, 2007
Ap/afp. "Far-right group destroyed by insult" — Times Online, November 15, 2007
Stephen Castle. "Far-right EU Parliament group dissolves" — International Herald Tribune, November 14, 2007

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Bulgaria and Romania to enter European Union

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:44:43 GMT

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The European Commission has accepted Bulgaria and Romania as members of the EU from January 1, 2007 under what analysts call the strictest terms in recent history.

The Commission emphasizes that the new members will have to do a better job fighting organized crime but also fight political corruption, which has plagued both since the fall of the Soviet Union. Both governments have been criticized for not being tough enough on corruption, a hot political ticket in the duo.

The president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has called for a pause in enlargement of the EU afterwards in order to carry out institutional reform within the Union and solve the question of a constitution for the EU, which became less certain last year when French and Dutch voters rejected the proposal. An EU treaty currently mandates institutional changes within the Union before the number of members go beyond the 27 maximum, which the Union will reach by the accession of the two new members.

If the two countries will not be able to comply with the terms, they may face consequences, some of which are directed specifically at the accession process but most of which are general requirements that all members face if they fail to meet certain standards. Specific to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria is losing up to a quarter of farm payments unless they succeed in setting up an operational database for animals called IACS by April 2007.

Furthermore, corruption and organized crime have to be addressed. Some members of the Commission have said that allowing them to enter may actually help them tackle corruption more than it would be leaving them outside of the Union. Every six months, both countries will have to report on the progress to fight corruption.

Although both economies are growing rapidly, they will be the poorest countries within the EU with GDP per capita only at about one third of the EU average. As always, there are debates about whether that's good or bad in terms of accession, some arguing that it will result in mass migration of workforce to richer countries resulting in unemployment, others by that the richer countries of the Union benefit the Union by going for cheap labor within itself, as opposed to for example India or China.

Trade of pigs from the two countries will still be forbidden as farmers from both countries have had to deal with serious diseases in pigs.

All members of the EU have to ratify the entry of new members. France, Germany, Denmark and Belgium have yet to ratify the entry of the two countries, but analysts say that they're expected to do so soon, a refusal to do so being extremely unlikely.

Sources [edit]

"EU approves Bulgaria and Romania" — BBC News Online, September 26, 2006

Darren Ennis and Marcin Grajewski. "Bulgaria, Romania to join EU in '07 under tough terms" — Reuters, September 26, 2006

"Bulgaria, Romania for EU on Jan. 1" — CNN, September 26, 2006

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English Wikinews RSS feed.

One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event

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Australia [edit]

Brazil [edit]

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Chile [edit]

New Zealand [edit]

Philippines [edit]

Russia [edit]

Turkey [edit]

United Kingdom [edit]

United States [edit]

Vietnam [edit]

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Bulgarian chess grandmaster attempts to break chess record

Sources [edit]

Wikinews Shorts: January 7, 2009

Contents

Strike on UN school in Gaza kills 40 [edit]

US Government calls for Gaza ceasefire [edit]

Natural gas crisis hits Austria and Turkey on its 6th day [edit]

Sarkozy ends French job ban for Eastern Europeans

Sources [edit]

Far-right faction in European Parliament dissolved

Reactions [edit]

Sources [edit]

Bulgaria and Romania to enter European Union

Sources [edit]

Natural gas crisis hits Austria and Turkey on its 6^th day [edit]