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Saturday, August 25, 2007

The leading supplier of school uniforms in the United Kingdom, Lancashire-based manufacturer Trutex, has announced it is “seriously considering” including GPS tracking devices in future ranges of its uniform products after conducting an online survey of both parents and children.

“As a direct result of the survey, we are now seriously considering incorporating a [tracking] device into future ranges” said Trutex marketing director Clare Rix.

The survey questioned 809 parents and 444 children aged nine to 16. It showed that 44% of parents were worried about the safety of pre-teen children, and 59% wanted tracking devices installed in school apparel. 39% of children aged nine to 12 were prepared to wear clothing with tracking devices in them, while teenagers were notably less enthusiastic and more wary of what Trutex has admitted they see as a “big brother” concept.

However, Trutex has claimed the tracking devices would bring about worthwhile benefits, including being a valuable resource for parents who wanted to keep a close eye on where their children were at all times.

“As well as being a safety net for parents, there could be real benefits for schools who could keep a closer track on the whereabouts of their pupils, potentially reducing truancy levels” says Rix.

Each year, Trutex supplies 1 million blouses, 1.1 million shirts, 250,000 pairs of trousers, 20,000 blazers, 60,000 skirts and 110,000 pieces of knitwear to the UK.

It is not the first company to manufacture school uniforms with a central focus on child safety; last week Essex firm BladeRunner revealed it was selling stab-proof school blazers to parents concerned about violence against their children. The blazers were outfitted with Kevlar, a synthetic fibre used in body armour. It has already received orders internationally, including Australia.

If the Trutex tracking devices go ahead, it is unclear where in the uniform they will be located.

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Wikinews extended invitations by e-mail on March 23 to multiple candidates running in the Texas’ 6th congressional district special election of May 1 to fill a vacancy left upon the death of Republican congressman Ron Wright. Of them, the office of Democrat Daryl Eddings, Sr. agreed to answer some questions by phone March 30 about their campaigns and policies. The following is the interview with Ms Chatham on behalf of Mr Eddings, Sr.

Eddings is a federal law enforcement officer and senior non-commissioned officer in the US military. His experience as operations officer of an aviation unit in the California National Guard includes working in Los Angeles to control riots sparked by the O. J. Simpson murder case and the police handling of Rodney King, working with drug interdiction teams in Panama and Central America and fighting in the Middle East. He is the founder of Operation Battle Buddy, which has under his leadership kept in touch with over 20 thousand veterans and their families. He was born in California, but moved to Midlothian, Texas. He endeavours to bring “good government, not no government”. Campaign manager Faith Chatham spoke to Wikinews on matters ranging from healthcare to housing.

An Inside Elections poll published on March 18 shows Republican candidate Susan Wright, the widow of Ron Wright, is ahead by 21% followed by Democrat Jana Sanchez with 17% and Republican Jake Ellzey with 8% with a 4.6% margin of error among 450 likely voters. The district is considered “lean Republican” by Inside Elections and voted 51% in favour of Donald Trump in last year’s US presidential election. This is down from 54% for Trump in 2016’s presidential election, the same poll stated.

Friday, January 9, 2009

An Israeli rocket has struck the Press TV building in the Gaza Strip. According to the news agency, other television news stations called Al-Alam and Al Arabiya are also based inside the building. At least two people have been injured. The attack occurred at about 15:40 GMT.

There was no warning prior to the attack and only journalists were inside the building when the rocket hit. Press TV states that some of their broadcasting equipment on the building’s roof was damaged in the blast. According to live video being broadcast by Press TV, journalists on the roof are marked with ‘TV’ or ‘press’ on their coats and helmets. Press TV uses the roof of their building to broadcast most of their live video feeds of Gaza.

The agency claims that they were given assurance by the Israeli military that the building would not be targeted. The agency also states that coordinates of the building were given to the Israeli military everyday so they would not attack the building or mistake news crews for Hamas militants.

Despite the claim by witnesses and Press TV employees, a spokesperson for the IDF states that the building was not a target and was likely a result of “collateral damage.” There are no reports of other buildings having been hit in the area around the Press TV building.

Press TV states that regardless of the attack, they are still “prepared to show the horrific attacks by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) with graphic images of children being killed”.

Press TV, an Iranian based news agency, is one of few international news agencies broadcasting live video feeds of Gaza and currently has more journalists in Gaza than any other world news agency.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced its first national authority for scientific research (NASR) to coordinate and fund scientific research in the country.

The national authority for scientific research was announced on March 7 by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE minister for higher education and scientific research. NASR will begin with an annual budget of AED100 million (approximately US$27.2 million). The authority hopes to receive additional contributions from the public and the private sector.

NASR will look to fund research projects in various fields, including engineering, technology, medicine, water and agriculture, proposing specific projects to be competed for by researchers at universities and private research institutes.

“Projects are going to be selected to help promote scientific research and the growth of UAE society and we will compare them with international scientific research criteria,” Gulf News quoted Al Nahyan as saying at the launch.

NASR will also train scientists and develop programmes for promoting public science awareness. It will also coordinate with government authorities on the issue of intellectual property rights, by providing advice on how companies and research centres should go about protecting their discoveries in the form of patents or licenses. It will also provide scholarships for researchers in the UAE to work on international research programmes, and organise national scientific conferences. NASR forms part of the UAE’s strategic plan to improve higher education and scientific research.

Zakaria Maamar, associate professor at the College of Information Technology at Zayed University, UAE, told Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) that, “This initiative is another boost to the research and development activities that are carried out in the UAE. It will definitely provide researchers with the appropriate funds to sustain such activities and promote best practices in the community.”

Said Elnaffar, assistant professor at the college of information technology at the United Arab Emirates University, told SciDev.Net that, with this initiative, the UAE is taking the lead and setting a good example by building a strong development infrastructure founded on knowledge discovery and research.

This article is based on UAE launches national authority for scientific research by scidev.net (Wagdy Sawahel) which has a copyright policy compatible with our CC-BY 2.5. Specifically “CC-BY-2.0 UK“

Monday, May 9, 2005

In the recent UK general election, Craig Murray stood as candidate against Jack Straw in the Blackburn constituency. Murray was attempting to bring about public debate and public knowledge of Straw’s alleged complicity in Uzbek CIA torture. Straw retained his seat with 17,562 votes (42%), while Murray came fifth with 2,082 votes (5%).

Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002 and 2003. A career diplomat, Murray had a good record of success behind him, but was withdrawn from Uzbekistan after he publicly decried the widespread use of torture in that country. He was quoted in the Financial Times as claiming the MI6 used intelligence gained by the Uzbek authorities by torture.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) stated at the time that “It’s now felt it’s no longer possible Mr. Murray can do his job effectively so he’s been withdrawn.” Mr. Murray was receiving medical treatment at the time for on-going ill health, including a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. He had previously been flown to London after collapsing during a medical check in Uzbekistan.

Craig Murray’s campaign website says, “A vote for Jack Straw is a vote for torture. Jack Straw expressly agreed that MI6 should use intelligence material obtained under torture, in tyrannical regimes like Uzbekistan.”

Two months before the UK election Channel Four premiered the program “Torture:The Dirty Business” which showed that the Uzbekistan government routinely uses torture to interrogate prisoners. It showed that CIA had sent prisoners to that country to be tortured in a procedure known as rendition.

The program alleged that UK’s MI5 received information obtained by torture. The FCO released a statement to the program claiming that they would never do anything to encourage torture, but that it would be “irresponsible” to rule out the use of any information received from a foreign government if such information could help protect British citizens. In the same program Craig Murray stated that after he raised objections to the use of information extracted under torture, his superiors informed him that Jack Straw had personally authorised the policy.

According to the program, confessions from tortured prisoners that suggested a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda could have contributed towards the case built by the government for going to war in Iraq. Information extracted under torture is known to be unreliable because prisoners can be coerced to say anything.

Craig Murray’s Blackburn campaign received widespread media attention around the world, although coverage was more limited in the UK (see below for links to some articles covering the Craig Murray campaign).

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Queensland Greens will run an environmental lawyer against incumbent treasurer Andrew Fraser at this years Queensland state election in Australia. Larissa Waters will be the party’s candidate for the seat of Mt Coot-tha.

Ms Waters says she is hoping that the premier does not call the election in May, as she [Ms Waters] is expecting her first child that month.

“I am giving that a fair bit of interest,” she said. “Luckily we have a pretty good branch in Mt Coot-tha.”

Ms Waters received a 6 per cent swing at the 2006 election in the Brisbane Central electorate, which was then held by then premier Peter Beattie. She then missed out on a federal senate spot by a narrow margin.

While acknowledging Mr Fraser’s abilities, Ms Waters questions whether he was still in touch with the electorate.

“This has been the greenest electorate in Queensland is the past few elections,” she said. “And Andrew Fraser is just not green enough for this electorate. It think it is more important that he is more connected with the people of his electorate than schmoozing.”

The Greens unveiled its policy to open two solar power stations last weekend.

“We can tackle climate change and create long-term jobs, but Labor can’t see that because they are blinded by the interests of their big donors – the urban development and coal industries,” Ms Waters said.

“The Greens want to give the community and the environment a voice back in State Parliament.”

Queensland’s unicameral parliament is currently made up of 58 Australian Labor Party (ALP) members, 25 Liberal National Party (LNP) members, one member each from The Greens and One Nation and four independents.

Ms Waters believes there is a general dissatisfaction with both the ALP and LNP and promotes the Greens as an appropriate balance of power, similar to that of the party’s federal senate members.

Acknowledging the steps taken by the premier on reforming laws to protect the Great Barrier Reef, she has said that “[i]t is long overdue. But the package doesn’t cover the complete range of issues. We need both ‘stick and carrot’ in our approach in this area.”

Her campaign will be officially launched today on Mt Coot-tha.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Mobile phones are to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Health-care workers will be able to report current health data from the field to a central database using their mobile phones, under a project to be launched with the help of leading phone companies and the U.S. government.

The US$10 million project, called “Phones-for Health”, was announced on Tuesday at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The software used in this project is loaded on to a standard handset developed by Motorola. The information will be transmitted with the help of the standard GPRS mobile data communication protocol or, if this is not available, by the ubiquitous SMS.

Africa lacks fixed-line telephone as well as Internet connections. Most often people use pen and paper to record the spread of disease. However, today more than 60 percent of people living in Africa have mobile phone coverage and the number of areas to have mobile phone coverage is expected to increase up to 85 percent by 2010. This data was provided by the GSM Association, which is a global trade group that represents some of the leading operators of mobile telephony.

The scheme, under which the project will be launched, was designed after the success of another project launched earlier in Rwanda. It will focus mainly on fighting HIV/AIDS in 10 African countries. The first to enter the program is South African mobile phone operator – MTN.

The new scheme hopes in long-term to be spread from Africa to Asia so to turn its attention towards other diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.