Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Bindeez beads, a children’s toy from Australia and manufactured by Moose Enterprise in Hong Kong, is being pulled off toy store shelves in the United Kingdom after traces of an illegal drug, which is converted into gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) when ingested, was found inside the toy. At least 20 million toys are affected.

So far at least three children from the U.K. and at least two from Auckland, New Zealand have fallen seriously ill and are currently receiving medical attention. The toy is also sold in the United States as Aqua Dots, with two reports received by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of children needing hospitalization after ingesting the beads.

“We’ve asked all our customers to take them off the shelf while we retest everything to make sure the toys comply with all regulations,” said the company in a statement, although no mandatory recall has been issued for the product. The statement also says that the plant in Hong Kong was not using a chemical mixture approved by the company.

“This substitution was not at any time approved by Moose nor was Moose made aware of any substitution by the supplier,” added the statement.

The toys were supposed to contain a non-toxic chemical known as 1,5-pentanediol, but instead 1,4-butanediol, which is mainly used in creating the illegal drug GHB, was used in the toys. When humans consume 1,4-butanediol, the body converts it into GHB and could make the individual seriously ill, causing headaches, seizures, dizziness and in some cases death. GHB is a natural chemical found in a variety of things such as beef, wine and some varieties of citrus fruits. It is also used as a pharmaceutical which is sold as Xyrem.

Recent animal research indicates that drugs are available for human use which may work as antidotes to the poison, either by hindering its conversion to GHB with 4-methylpyrazole (fomepizole, Antizol) or by blocking GHB’s effectiveness at the receptor (SCH 50911). Rodent testing has found the lethal dose of 1,4-butanediol to range from 1.4 to 2.5 grams per kilogram body weight, but an antidote can increase the lethal dose by a factor of 10.

It is not known how the chemicals got mixed up, but officials for the toy company say that they are continuing the investigation. The toy is currently banned in all of Australia, but the company says all those who bought it will be refunded their money.

“The issue of how a dangerous substance was used in these beads and not the non-toxic substance … that is going to take us a few more days to uncover,” said Australia’s Fair Trade Minister, Linda Burney in a statement to the press.

The toy was recently named Australia’s number one toy for 2007.

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Buffalo, New York — In an unanimous vote, the City of Buffalo‘s Planning Board voted to table the Elmwood Village hotel Proposal, postponing voting on legislation for up to 30 days.

The Board said its decision was due to the lack of public involvement, saying that there have not been enough meetings.

The Elmwood Village Hotel is a proposed project by Savarino Construction Services Corporation and was designed by Karl Frizlen of The Frizlen Group. The hotel would be placed on Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, New York. In order for the hotel to be built, at least five buildings, that include both businesses and residents, must be demolished.

The Forever Elmwood Corp. is a Buffalo-based non-profit organization founded in 1994. Justin Azzarella, the Executive Director for the organization voiced support for the proposal, stating: “I am here today to lend Forever Elmwood’s support the hotel project. Particularly, Forever Elmwood is encouraged by the fact that this building follows the more stringent Elmwood Village Design Guidelines. We have been speaking with Savarino Construction, and they have promised us [Forever Elmwood] that they will engage the community further, including the surrounding Block Clubs and businesses. For that reason, while Forever Elmwood is in support of this project and the type of project that it is, we are asking also that the project be tabled so that the community can be further engaged. Specifically the surrounding Block clubs which include the Granger, Claremont, Asland and The Lincoln Parkway Block Clubs.”

“Because of the excellent work that Karl does and the game plan that they have, I think its an ideal use of this particular location. I think that this particular type of development needs to be encouraged and promoted as opposed to roadblocked,” said a man who owns five properties near the proposal site.

However, Evelyn Bencinich, a resident of Granger Place and whose house would be located directly behind the hotel said, “My property value will be depreciated or non-existent because no one is going to want to live behind a multi-story hotel. We are facing up to a year of noisy and dangerous demolition and construction. Children, pets and even drunk rebellers could wander on site and get hurt. Traffic tie-ups caused by large machinery and garbage bins is inevitable. Where will pedestrians walk? We could experience increased unsanitary flooding in our yards and basements due to the digging and cementing for the underground parking garage. Rats will be displaced into the immediate neighborhoods and be in great abundance. Once we get past the year of nightmare construction, what if you build it and they don’t come? We could ultimately have a seven million dollar rooming house on our corner.”

Patty Morris, co-owner of Don Apparel with Nancy Pollina at 1119 Elmwood also asked that the project be tabled saying, “this has only been public knowledge for less than two weeks and the public never saw the redesign. How can you vote on anything that no one has seen yet? The Board cut off Morris saying, “so specifically you don’t have any problem with it [the design] you just…” Morris then said, “Oh I am totally against this project, but thats besides the point isn’t it.”

The planning board is also concerned that the current design may still be too big.

At one point Board member Susan Curran Hoyt said, “we know you’ve cut down your number of rooms on this project, but we still see it doesn’t seem to fit the description of a ‘botique’ hotel,” and asked Eva Hassett, Vice President of Savarino Construction, “we wonder if you could reduce the rooms further.”

“One thing I didn’t talk about was the price levels of these rooms and that will be important to know. The room rate will be somewhere between US$120 and $160 a night, which is about the same price of the Hampton Inn down town and the smaller you make the hotel, the more expensive the rooms will get. We believe that we’ve made a good compromise in terms of the size of the hotel and perhaps botique means different things to different people,” said Hassett.

The board was also concerned that there is not enough parking asking, “are there alternative plans for valet parking off-site, in the event that you have a full hotel or a large event going on?”

“We are exploring several possibilities with respect to additional parking for valet and parking near-by,” replied Hassett. “We are also exploring the possibility of using the rear of 1105 Elmwood for additional parking, which would give us an additional ten or eleven spaces.”

The new design has a total of 55 parking spaces for 72 rooms, with 39 of them underground and the rest on ground level.

Hassett also said that a “parking study” will be done on the area.

Concerns that the second floor of the hotel will be too close to the property of 605 Forest were also brought up. The board asked how far the hotel would be from the property and Karl Frizlen replied saying it would “be approximately five feet from the property line,” but he also admitted that, “I do not know exactly how close the house next door” will be from the hotel, but did say “I think the house is about four or five feet away from the property line and we [the hotel] sit right on the property line.”

The board is concerned the setback from the property is not enough saying the space between the building and the hotel is “pretty narrow.”

The City’s Common Council also agreed to table the proposal also citing the need for more public engagement and the need for more organizations to respond including the Buffalo Preservation Board and the Office of Historic Preservation.

During that meeting, Hassett also said the proposal to try and get a variance to obtain the properties of 605 and 607 Forest were “now off the agenda.”

The Common Council is expected to meet and hold a public hearing about the project and the rezoning of the properties to be demolished (1119-1121 Elmwood) on Tuesday March 7, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall. At the moment the properties are not zoned for a hotel.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Austrian cellist and conductor Heinrich Schiff’s death was announced yesterday morning, having died overnight. He was 65.

Born in Gmunden in 1951, Schiff made his orchestral début in 1971. His 1978 recording début earned him an Artist of the Year award at the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis. After achieving worldwide acclaim he retired as a soloist in 2012 following a 2008 stroke, becoming a conductor instead. He had already been taking conducting jobs as a sideline from the late 1980s.

Schiff studied at the Vienna Music Academy, and conducting roles included with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Northern Sinfonia, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Instructing jobs included at the Cologne Academy of Music and Dance, the University of Basel, the Salzburg Mozarteum, and Vienna’s University of Music and the Pictorial Arts.

Awards included the French Grand Prix du Disque. Performances included the 1988 German Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, attended by the UK’s Prince Charles.

Schiff complained in 1988 classical music was “very much mistreated” by contemporary artists. “Take the Mozart violin concertos,” he said. “If you hear any of the top ten violinists playing them it’s beautiful sound, fine technique, but the style is hopelessly wrong — it’s almost a different language.”

Fellow cellist Steven Isserlis said last year Schiff credited the music of Bach with his recovery following the 2008 stroke. “He looked at me, and said quietly: ‘Bach saved my life'”, Isserlis said. “I asked him what he meant and he told me that a few years ago, he had a serious stroke, and was in danger of losing all mobility on his left side. As soon as he got to hospital, and realised what was happening, he started (almost instinctively, I imagine) to go through the fingerings of the Prelude to Bach’s first suite, moving his fingers ceaselessly to the imaginary music. He did this for about 20 hours a day, he thinks; and gradually his whole body came back to life, powered by those fingerings.” Isserlis lamented the “terrible, terrible” loss of a “person with a core of true goodness and humanity; and a wonderfully serious, genuine musician”.

Schiff died early yesterday morning in a Vienna hospital.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

In an overwhelming vote, the Icelandic parliament voted Tuesday to grant the incarcerated Bobby Fischer full citizenship. The former world chess champion has been detained in Japan since July after being arrested for attempting to travel with a revoked United States passport. Japanese officials have previously said that in such a case Fischer would be sent to Iceland rather than face punishment for violating US economic sanctions by playing a match in Yugoslavia. The US has said it will oppose any such action.

The vote earlier today was 40 in favor, 2 abstentions, 21 absent, and 0 opposed. By a special variation from usual protocol, the measure was pushed through in only 12 minutes. The parliament had earlier declined to grant Fischer full citizenship, offering him instead a special Icelandic passport. This, however, was not enough for Japan, which refused to release him.

Fischer’s case has been long and convoluted. Originally pursued by the US for economic sanction violations, Fischer has been on the run since 1992. In that time he has shown his anti-Semitism by having issued statements praising the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and denying that the Holocaust occurred. For these and other comments the United States Chess Federation revoked his membership. He is now also wanted for tax evasion on some property he owns in the US. He was arrested in Japan in July for travelling with a revoked passport, and has been held since then awaiting deportation. In that time he has tried to avoid being deported by doing such things as revoking his US citizenship and marrying a Japanese woman.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Reggie Bibbs is a 43-year-old-man living in Houston, Texas. Mr Bibbs was born with a genetic disease called neurofibromatosis (NF), which causes him to develop tumors on his body (see infobox on the right). NF can be a subtle disease, but in Bibbs’ case it has left him with a disfigured face and deformed leg. But he is happy with the way he looks, and doesn’t want to change his appearance to please other people. He has launched a successful campaign entitled “Just Ask”, and that’s just what Wikinews did in a video-interview.

The interview was prepared by Wikinews reporter Michaël Laurent with the help of Bertalan Meskó (who has a popular genetics and web 2.0 blog). Their questions were sent to a close friend of Mr. Bibbs, Lou Congelio, who kindly conducted the interview.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Catherine Mullany, a newly married British woman, and her husband, Ben Mullany, have been shot while on honeymoon in Antigua. Catherine died on the scene, while Ben is in a critical condition in Hospital.

The families of the Mullanys have described themselves as “deeply shocked and devastated.”

The incident occurred at 05:00 Antigua time (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday, and it is being treated by police as a robbery. A police spokesperson described the incident. “Shortly after 5am this morning officers from the Bolans Police station responding to a call, arrived at Cocos Hotel and Restaurant in the Valley Church area, the scene of a murder.” UK police have been asked to help in the inquiry.

Catherine Mullany was a doctor, who, before her death, planned to become a GP. Ben was a physiotherapy student at the University of the West of England (UWE), which is located in Bristol, England. Mary Price, the Media Relations and Internal Communications Manager for UWE, gave Wikinews the following statement:

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.”