Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A British man, Ronald West, has been convicted of animal neglect after authorities received complaints about his five-year-old dog being severely overweight. Authorities discovered the case of neglect in December 2008 after a neighbor complained that West’s Border Collie Taz appeared to be too fat.

When authorities arrived at West’s residence, they found Taz’s feces scattered around the house and in every room. Authorities made several more visits to West’s home until March 2009, at which point they determined that there had been no improvements in living conditions, and so they seized the dog. Taz weighed 88lbs (40kg) when authorities seized him.

West had said that he had been ill with the flu and was unable to clean up after Taz or take him for walks. He admits that he and his friends overfed Taz which led to his obesity, but West says it was not intentional.

“I’ll put my hands up and say I’m guilty of [Taz] being overweight, but it wasn’t deliberate. You can be cruel with kindness,” said West in March, according to the police report.

West’s sentencing has been postponed because he failed to appear at today’s hearing. When sentenced, West could face a fine of up to £5,000 (US$7,581), six months in prison, and may be forbidden from owning any pets.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

The New South Wales (NSW) government says small investors will have the first opportunity to buy shares in one of Australia’s most unique public assets – the Snowy Hydro Scheme, the sale of which begins officially on Monday, May 22. NSW Finance Minister John Della Bosca denied the sale was incongruent with Labor’s stance on privatisation, or that it was a pre-election strategy.

The New South Wales, Victorian and federal government jointly owns the hydroelectric scheme and have decided to sell their shares by floating the company on the Australian Stock Exchange.

NSW taxpayers hold 58 per cent of the shares in the scheme and the State government stands to make between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from the sale. Selling the Snowy Hydro scheme could raise up to $3 billion for the Victorian, NSW and federal governments.

Mr Della Bosca told the ABC: “We’ve looked at all sorts of arrangements to raise more capital.” He said the sale would secure the future of Snowy Hydro. “Snowy is at a point where it’s not responsible for it to go further into debt and the best thing for it, to be able to do, is raise capital on the stock exchange.” The Minister denied the privatisation was a “grab for cash”.

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is demanding a constitutional referendum to hand control of all rivers to the Commonwealth. He claims the Snowy Hydro sale would damage regional Australia and is being forced by state governments, to prop up their budgets. “I’ve expressed my extreme distress and disappointment both to the federal and state governments in no uncertain manner,” he said. “I think it’s a national disgrace and I think we will live to regret it in the future.

Senator Heffernan says he has had trouble trying to raise the issue with his colleague, the Finance Minister Nick Minchin. “There’s been no discussions,” he said.

NSW irrigators have withdrawn support for the sale after the NSW, Victorian and federal governments agreed to a 10 per cent limit on the number of shares an individual can buy.

Greens MP Slyvia Hale says she believes the Government will attempt to limit the release of documents relating to the sale when Parliament resumes next week. “As with everything connected with the sale things have been kept very quiet and the Government will continue, I believe, to try and ensure that critical information is withheld from the public,” she said.

She says the sale should be suspended while an inquiry takes place.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Amidst ongoing Israeli bombings of Gaza, with the death toll of the bombardments up to 537 with another 2,500 people wounded, UN food agencies again warned that the people of Gaza are facing a heavy humanitarian crisis.

“The current situation in Gaza is appalling, and many basic food items are no longer available on the market,” Said Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, the World Food Program‘s (WFP) representative in the Palestinian territory, in a statement that was released on Friday. “This area … is one of the poorest and most heavily affected by the recent conflict,” she added.

WFP officials said that they have begun to give bread to 15,000 new recipients, a number which added to the already large group of people that had been lining up for bread after two years of Israeli blockades of Gaza, the most recent of which began in early November. The blockades, surely a catalyst for violent Hamas attacks, have been condemned by Human Rights Watch as a “violation of international humanitarian law.”

Struggling Gazan hospitals say that they are completely out of even the most basic medical supplies and have little or no capacity to deal with further casualties. In addition, Israeli ground forces entered Gaza on Saturday causing an immediate spike in casualties and even attacks on the hospitals and paramedics themselves.

As sewage runs through the streets, many Gazans are trying to flee the area by storming the border with Egypt, a move which Egyptian police blocked on Sunday and are planning to do so again today as Egyptian leaders ordered their policemen to open fire on Gazans trying to flee into Egypt.

Hasan Khalaf, Gaza’s assistant deputy health minister, described the ongoing assault on Gaza as “an Israeli massacre”.

“There is no comparison between what we have and what [Israel] are doing to us. The international community are standing unable to help us, and yet we know they have been helping Israel for tens of years.”

Monday, November 17, 2008

New Zealand’s incoming government will delay the implementation of the country’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) pending a full inquiry into climate change.

The decision was revealed in the National Party‘s confidence and supply agreement with the ACT Party. The agreement commits National to a review of climate change policy by a special select committee of Parliament.

The review will include the emissions trading scheme and possible alternatives to it, as well as “hear[ing] competing views on the scientific aspects of climate change” and considering whether responding to climate change is economically worthwhile. Implementation of the ETS would be delayed until the review is complete — a process expected to take at least a year.

The ETS requires companies emitting greenhouse gases to cover their emissions with permits. The legislation was passed on September 10, 2008, and provides for a phased implementation, with forestry entering the scheme immediately, industrial and energy sector emissions entering in 2010, and transport fuels in 2011.

The National Party won a victory over the Labour Party in last week’s elections, and has formed a new government cabinet, led by prime minister-elect John Key.

Saturday, April 23, 2005Queensland Australia’s Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen, a controversial figure who served as the State’s Premier for 19 years and reigned over the government that later became the subject of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, has died in hospital at Kingaroy, aged 94.

“By any measurement, Sir Joh was an exceptional state builder who will be remembered for consistently placing Queensland first,” said the Australian Governor General, Major General Jeffery, in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard: “He was certainly a strong political figure and I extend my condolences to his wife and his family.”

But not all voices were sympathetic, prominent Queensland Aboriginal activist Sam Watson for example: “Aboriginal people will always remember him as a racist, a thug and a dictator.”

Having suffered severe ill-health for some weeks, and declining health for years, Sir Joh passed away at around 6pm AEST. He was surrounded by his family, who had been summoned yesterday by Lady Flo, his wife and one-time Senator, for final goodbyes.

Phrases such as “Don’t you worry about that” and “Goodness gracious me” were like trademarks to the maverick leader.

Known simply as ‘Joh’ to many, he would famously describe press conferences as ‘feeding the chooks’. Today Kingaroy locals taunted waiting press with cries from “You’re chooks, you’re chooks, ha ha” to “Go home, ya vultures”, and some obscenities, reported the Courier-Mail of Brisbane.

His fall from power at the end of the 80s was surrounded in controversy, with the state embroiled in corruption findings going to the level of his deputies, and Bjelke Petersen’s claims of ignorance coming under challenge with charges of perjury. The case was never heard due to a controversial hung jury: the foreman of the jury, Luke Shaw, had been an office-bearer of the Young Nationals — an arm of Bjelke Petersen’s National Party — as well as a member of a group calling themselves ‘Friends of Joh’.

Having had his start in life as a peanut farmer in remote Kingaroy, the former Premier was fit up until the very end, but palsy was paralyzing his muscles and organs, to which he eventually succumbed.

“Throughout his life Sir Joh combined enormous energy, vision and an immense capacity for hard work, most especially during his 19-year term as Premier of Queensland,” the Governor General said.

“What looked to us to be huge risks at the time turned out to be nation building,” said Bob Katter, a former minister of Joh’s Government, who credited Sir Joh with starting the Queensland coal, aluminum and tourism industries.

He is also remembered for dismantling many of the State’s unions, and for a somewhat totalitarian and heavy handed style of keeping control.

Under Joh, street protests were banned and Special Branch monitored extensively those the authoritarian leader saw as subversives, measures prompting Queenslander, Australian Civil Liberties Council, Terry O’Gorman, to comment Sir Joh was “the most appalling premier Queensland has ever had in terms of civil liberties and human rights”.

Joh was also influential in the famous case of the Dismissal by the Governor General of then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, in 1975.

In his last years as Premier, he had taken his cause to the nation’s capital, with the “Joh for PM” campaign. But this distraction has been credited with the downfall of his government, with corruption investigations at last being conducted by his stand-in, Bill Gunn.

The body of Sir Joh, who was of Lutheran faith, is to be buried at Bethany, the family property near Kingaroy.

Unsolicited quotes from ordinary Australians, many ex-Queenslanders seeking refuge in southern states, on hearing the news:

“Outrageous bastard! Oh God! That was polite!” — “Karen”

“Guilty as Hell. And that’s where he is now.” — “Michael”

“Yay! Good riddence to bad rubbish” — “Liza”

“The dictator is gone our time 2 sing” — “John. H.”

“Yeah he took a while — about 90 f*cking years overdue!” — “Hose Man”

“The pope an joh at least somethin going right” — “Helen”

“Corrupt f*cking sh*teating Bible-bashing f*ckw*t is dead. And thank f*ck. I haven’t been so happy since September 11!” — “Greg”

“I don’t drink but I’ll be having a red whilst dancing on his grave.” — “Cellest”

“Ding dong the d*ck is dead!” — anon.

“Yeahhh!!! Fucking finally” — “Leo”

“It’s a great day today the Rednecks are silent a great victory has been won” — “Zenner”

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Since June 2019, the people of South Gippsland Shire, located at the southernmost tip of Australia, have been without a local council, after a state government inquiry found “high levels of tension” within the council. Administrators were appointed by the Victorian state government in July 2019, who have governed the shire since then. However, South Gippsland’s council is scheduled to be restored with an election to be held via post from October 5-22, 2021.

Wikinews interviewed one of the candidates standing in this election, Mat Morgan. He is running as a candidate in the Coastal-Promontory Ward, and is endorsed by the Australian Greens. The Coastal-Promontory ward covers towns such as Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Yanakie, Foster, Port Welshpool, and Toora, and elects three councillors to the South Gippsland Shire Council.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Common Sense Advisory, Inc., an independent business globalization, internationalization, and localization and translation research and consulting firm, announces the release of its list of the top 20 language service providers (LSPs) and its estimate of the size of worldwide translation and software localization market. The list, which includes Lionbridge (LIOX) and L-3/Titan (LLL) is based on the firm’s Human Delivered Service Company (HDSC) Index, a sophisticated assessment model that evaluates the business fundamentals, market strength, and service offerings of companies that depend on people to produce most of their revenue. The ranking of translation companies reflects recent industry mergers and acquisitions including Lionbridge’s acquisition of Bowne Global Solutions, a unit of Bowne & Co, (BNE).

Common Sense Advisory also estimates the current worldwide translation and localization market at US$ 8.8 billion, reaching a total of US$ 12 billion in 2010. “This figure is particularly relevant at a time where the market seems to be entering a new wave of consolidation,” comments analyst Renato Beninatto.

Explains Common Sense Advisory founder and CEO, Donald A. DePalma, “Many language services companies want to get bigger. Our certification model lets us benchmark one company against comparable language services firms, against offshore providers providing a full range of engineering and localization offerings, and against the service firms that make up our own innovative HDSC Index. This information is valuable to any procurement department – not to mention to any LSP thinking about where it fits in the marketplace relative to its competitors.”

Ranking of Top 20 Translation Companies is now available for free download.