Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The New Zealand government has announced that the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, which will make Telecom unbundle the ‘local loop’, has passed in parliament only six months after it was introduced. The bill was passed under urgency on the last sitting day of the year.

The bill was opposed by two members of parliament from the ACT party and supported by 119 votes. The ACT party voted against the bill to prevent a split of the company into three divisions: retail, business and network.

Unbundling the local loop means that Telecom, New Zealand’s telecommunications monopoly company, will open its lines to competitors and provide “naked DSL”, which some say will lead to equal and fair competition in the Internet sector. The decision to unbundle the local loop occurred earlier this year when a mole leaked the proposal and the government had to make the announcement earlier than planned.

The bill will also enable minister of communications Cunliffe and the Commerce Commission the powers to split Telecom into the three divisions, after public consultation. The Telecommunications Commissioner will also have more power to implement the changes and monitor the implementation.

The bill will ensure that consumers do not have to purchase a phone account when signing up for an Internet account; before the bill was passed, a NZ$10 fee was added to the bill if the phone account was not with the Internet service provider.

The Honourable David Cunliffe, minister of communications, said that “We now have a clear, firm mandate from the people of New Zealand. Kiwis are demanding fast, ‘all you can eat’ broadband, which this legislation is designed to deliver.”

Hon Cunliffe said that history has been made with the new bill as it will bring New Zealanders faster and better broadband. “What some people said couldn’t be done is being done. What some people said wouldn’t work is being given the opportunity to work with an overwhelming majority. The bill equips New Zealand for the new digital age— an age where the smart use of technology will determine our continued prosperity as a country and make economic transformation a reality.”

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.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Ernest Krajniak from Chilton, Wisconsin in the United States has been charged with arson after a lit cigarette ignited gasoline soaked clothes, setting his apartment ablaze.

On Friday April 3, Krajniak, 47, cleaned his entire apartment with about five gallons of gasoline, wiping everything down with the soaked clothes. After he was finished, he piled the soaked clothes in the center of his bedroom, lit a cigarette and then threw what was left of the still lit cigarette, into the pile.

Krajniak never called the fire department and never pulled the alarm. Instead he yelled ‘fire’ a few times then walked to the police station where an ambulance took him to a local hospital for the treatment of minor burns. The fire department later arrived to put out the blaze and his apartment was extensively smoke damaged. 11 other apartments were also damaged, leaving the occupants without a place to stay for at least a week.

“I should have never used that,” said Krajniak during a court appearance on Monday. He admitted to knowing that gasoline was highly flammable. He was arrested and his bond has been set a US$2,500. Krajniak’s next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, April 13. According to WISinfo.com, Krajniak has no prior criminal record.

The careless smoking of cigarettes has been blamed for thousands of fires across the U.S. In January 2008, an unnamed elderly woman in Buffalo, New York was receiving oxygen for medical problems in her home and lit a cigarette and began to smoke it. The oxygen coming from her mask then facilitated the ignition of her clothing, setting her on fire.

In the U.S. in 2002, only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Buffalo, New York — A woman in Buffalo, New York in the United States is in critical condition tonight at Sisters Of Charity Hospital after she accidentally set herself on fire.

The unnamed elderly woman was receiving oxygen for medical problems in her home and lit a cigarette, and the oxygen coming from her mask facilitated the ignition of her clothing, setting her on fire.

Despite her “severe” burns as described by firefighters on radio communications, she was still able to dial the emergency line in the U.S., 911.

In the U.S. only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials in 2002. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

A snow-laden tree branch killed a man on Literary Walk in Central Park in Manhattan on Thursday. The body was later identified as Elmaz Qyra, a middle-aged resident of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Qyra was found by a passerby around 3:30 p.m. local time (11:30 UTC), and was pronounced dead by authorities at the scene.

One witness, who would not release his name, said, “It was obviously a direct hit to his head. There was this big pool of blood spreading through the snow. It was horrifying.”

Qyra’s shift at The New York Athletic Club (NYAC) had likely just ended. “It happened at the time he finished working. He might have been trying to get home.” said Gaz Bharmi, Qyra’s brother-in-law. “The breaking of the branch and the other fallen trees were likely caused by the accumulation of wet, unusually heavy snow,” the New York Parks Department said in a statement.

Qyra, an immigrant from Albania, came to New York with his family ten years ago in order provide them with a better life. Qyra “loved” Central Park, and would regularly have his teenage children meet him there after finishing his health club shift. “He goes there every summer with the kids to take picture and have hot dogs,” Bharmi remarked. Cesar Zuzunaga, Qyra’s NYAC supervisor said, “He was always talking about his family, and he was family to us here.”

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes affected the midwestern and southern United States yesterday into today with damage reported in several states and at least two people killed.

In Mississippi, at least ten counties suffered power outages, and the National Weather Service reported a tornado struck areas near the town of Sardis. At least 11,900 customers were without power in Indiana, where debris blocked roadways and a tornado reportedly damaged homes in the town of Solsberry. In Tennessee major damage was reported around the Nashville area with widespread tree and some building damage reported. One man was killed in Nashville when a tree fell on a building he was using as shelter, according to police. An EF2 tornado was also confirmed to have touched down in the town of Mount Juliet.

Damage was also reported in Georgia, where a tornado caused extensive damage in Adairsville, and one person was reported killed. Damage and flipped vehicles resulted in the closure of Interstate 75 at Adairsville. The Storm Prediction Center and National Climatic Data Center said the fatality in Adairsville was the first tornado-related fatality in the United States in 220 days, since a deadly tornado in Florida June 24, ending the longest recorded time between tornado fatalities in the United States.

The threat for severe weather is expected to continue into tonight as the storm system continues to push east, with the possibility of damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Tyler Currie is running as an Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario provincial election, in the riding of Trinity-Spadina. 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.