Thursday, September 26, 2013 Tuesday, World Bank released the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development. In discussing Iceland, it suggests mandatory paid parental leave for mother and father have played an important role in changing norms in the country. Parents have a government mandated nine months leave, three for the mother, three for the father and three to to distribute between the two. Leave is paid at 80% of their wages. The report describes the changes in gender relations in Iceland as “promising” in terms of impact at work and at home. Iceland’s boys and girls mean scores for the Programme for International Student Assessment mathematics test…

Wednesday, March 1, 2006 A suspected case of BSE, better known as mad cow disease, has been discovered in Sweden at a farm near Västerås some 80 kilometres west of Stockholm. The affected farm has been quarantined and no ruminants from the farm are allowed to be sold or transported. The cow was destroyed earlier after symptoms of calving paralysis had been discovered, and the tests where carried out in accordance to rules set by the European Union (EU). The Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) analysed a specimen from the cow at the farm this weekend. The tests confirmed the presence of BSE and the specimen was sent for further…

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Last night HBO premiered I Am An Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. Since its inception, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has made headlines and raised eyebrows. They are almost single-handedly responsible for the movement against animal testing and their efforts have raised the suffering animals experience in a broad spectrum of consumer goods production and food processing into a cause célèbre. PETA first made headlines in the Silver Spring monkeys case, when Alex Pacheco, then a student at George Washington University, volunteered at a lab run by Edward Taub, who was testing neuroplasticity on live monkeys. Taub had cut sensory…

Saturday, March 14, 2009 Rico Daniels is a British TV presenter living in France who is known for his two television series — The Salvager — whilst he still lived in the UK and then Le Salvager after he moved to France. Rico has been in a variety of jobs but his passion is now his profession – he turns unwanted ‘junk’ into unusual pieces of furniture. Rico’s creations and the methods used to fabricate them are the subject of the Salvager shows. Rico spoke to Wikinews in January about his inspiration and early life, future plans, other hobbies and more. Read on for the full exclusive interview, published for…

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 A reporter from Wikinews recently interviewed Brooks Lindsay, who is the founder of the online wiki Debatepedia, which claims to be the ‘Wikipedia of Debates.’ Brooks told Wikinews that “Debatepedia is a non-profit, free wiki encyclopedia of debates, pro and con arguments, and supporting evidence and quotes from scholars, experts, and op-ed writers (those figures that are actively engaged in these public debates).” He continued with “some people have called it the ‘Wikipedia of debate’, which is a pretty accurate description of what we are trying to do.” He finished by stating that the site is “trying to cover all of the pro and con arguments…

Thursday, September 4, 2008 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may not have dropped the writ for an election yet, but his party is airing advertisements on both television and radio. Canadian Federal Elections 2008 Day Stories from the 2008 Canadian Federal Elections 13 October 2008: CanadaVOTES: Libertarian John Kittridge in St. Paul’s 13 October 2008: Canadian scientists protest Harper’s attacks on science 10 October 2008: CanadaVOTES: NDP candidate Paul Arbour in Carleton—Mississippi Mills 10 October 2008: CanadaVOTES: NDP candidate Jo-Anne Boulding in Parry Sound—Muskoka 10 October 2008: CanadaVOTES: NDP candidate David Sparrow in Don Valley West National Parties Because the election is not yet official — though it is scheduled…

Monday, January 23, 2006 A mutated form of the Avian (Bird Flu) virus has been found in a sample taken from a Turkish patient. The mutated form is said to make the virus easier to attach itself to humans rather than animals says a report in the Nature journal. The situation is being monitored by the World Health Organization but says “it is too early to know whether the virus is changing in ways that would signal the start of a human flu pandemic,” says Maria Cheng a spokeswoman for the WHO. “It’s one isolate from a single virus from Turkey. The sample suggests the virus might be more inclined…

Friday, September 28, 2007 Bat for Lashes is the doppelgänger band ego of one of the leading millennial lights in British music, Natasha Khan. Caroline Weeks, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey comprise the aurora borealis that backs this haunting, shimmering zither and glockenspiel peacock, and the only complaint coming from the audience at the Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday was that they could not camp out all night underneath these celestial bodies. We live in the age of the lazy tendency to categorize the work of one artist against another, and Khan has had endless exultations as the next Björk and Kate Bush; Sixousie Sioux, Stevie Nicks, Sinead O’Connor, the list…

Saturday, May 19, 2007 Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani commemorated the “the glories of the Islamic Revolution, the Sacred Defense in particular” during Friday prayers. He used the occasion “especially at a point when Iran’s defensive powers might be underestimated.” On 24 of May 1982, Iran drove Iraq out of Khorramshahr near its border with Iraq. Ayatollah Rafsanjani has been the chairman of the Expediency Council which resolves government disputes arising out of legislations and advises Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani chided the Western countries for equipping Iraq during the war and said the Iraqi army used “hideous chemical weapons of the most destructive kind and that they targeted Iranian cities, ships…