Thursday, July 20, 2006

In the continued conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, six Canadians, including four children who were killed on Sunday by an Israeli missile hitting a house in south Lebanon have been identified.

Saja Al-Akhrass (8), Zeinab Al-Akhrass (6), Ahmad Al-Akhrass (4), and Salam Al-Akhrass (11 months) were in Lebanon for a summer holiday, visiting their extended family. They were killed when their house collapsed after being struck by an Israeli bombardment. Their parents, 36-year-old Ali Al-Akhrass and his wife Amira (23) were also killed in the attack. The family were residents of Montreal.

Six others were reported wounded in the attack.

“I lost my brother, I lost my sister, my nephew, the family of my nephew, my aunt, my uncle. Oh God,” said Hussain El-Akras, brother of one of the victims. He told a Montreal news conference Monday that his family were begging the government of Canada to “put pressure on Israel to stop this barbaric behaviour.”

The Israeli military statement on the incident said “The responsibility for any civilian casualties rests entirely with the Hezbollah terrorist organization” and “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) requested and warned residents of the area not to stay within range of the launch sites”. Israel says that Hezbollah disperses its weaponry among supporters in residential neighborhoods to avoid being targeted by the much larger, better-equipped Israeli Defense Forces.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Australian Minister for Vocational Education and Training, Gary Hardgrave has announced the government will provide AU$15.8 million to establish an Australian Technical College in North Adelaide. The minister said the government was entering into a partnership with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and consortium of industrial and manufacturing companies.

The North Adelaide college will be located in Elizabeth and be operated as an independent non-government school. The college is one of 25 to be established across the country.

Enrolments at the college will begin in 2007 and will offer courses in areas where identified skills shortages exist in the North Adelaide region, specifically – engineering, construction, electronics and cooking.

Mr Hardgrave said that the proposed college had been popular among the North Adelaide business community. “This important initiative has been well received by North Adelaide business and industry, and will help to address skills needs and provide opportunities for those in greatest need, including a lot of Indigenous students in the region,” Mr Hardgrave said.

“The fact that this College is being led by local employers, local government and other key stakeholders, means it will be truly industry and community driven,” he said.

Australian Technical Colleges were established to cater for year 11 and 12 students who wish to do an apprenticeship as part of their school education.

The Australian Education Union has expressed a number of concerns about the model put forward by the government. In a report, they claim that trade facilities at TAFE colleges (operated by state governments) will deteriorate as funding is diverted to the ATCs. The union is also concerned that ATCs are supposed to be selective VET schools. According to the union they will have selective entry and preferential funding. It is feared that teachers will be lured away from schools and TAFE colleges to higher paid positions in ATCs.

The Education Union suggested that the government invest in schools that already offer vocational education programs.

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, August 11, 2008.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

BEIJING, China –Chinese Communist leaders and the family of the late purged party chief, Zhao Ziyang, have agreed to bury him on Saturday, nearly two weeks after his death. The burial has been delayed over disagreements between Mr. Zhao’s family and the government over the funeral arrangements.

For many in China and overseas, the former premier of Communist Party general secretary symbolized the drive for a reassessment of the government’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

In the two weeks since his death, police have been posted outside the Beijing home where Mr. Zhao spent his last 15 years under house arrest and where hundreds have been assembling to pay tribute. Agents have been turning many of the mourners away.

The leadership wants the ceremony on Saturday to take place out of the public eye and officials announced Thursday that foreign journalists would not be allowed to cover it. However, Mr. Zhao’s family has asked for appropriate honors in keeping with his status as a former party chief.

Instead of being given the customary state funeral to reflect his former positions, he will be given a more low-key ceremony.

Disagreement between the family and the government about what should be said at the funeral was part of the delay. Zhao’s family disagrees with the government over the correctness of Zhao’s actions regarding Tiananmen Square.

State-controlled newspapers and broadcasts have been devoid of news on Zhao’s death and on what his eulogy will say.

Cheng Li, a professor of government at Hamilton College in New York, says the Communist leaders have been trying to ensure that Mr. Zhao’s funeral and eulogy do not ignite what might be an explosive new debate.

“They don’t want to see it widely publicized,” he said. “Certainly, they don’t want to repeat what happened 16 years ago because of the emotions and other things could lead to a very sustained, prolonged event.”

Analysts say the government sees a parallel with the death of another reformer, party leader Hu Yaobang, which sparked the demonstrations in May and June of 1989.

Mr. Zhao, then the Communist party chief, went to the square two weeks before the crackdown and tearfully urged the students to abandon their protest.

Shortly after, the leadership accused him of sympathizing with the demonstrators and trying to split the party. He was ousted as party chief and placed under house arrest until his death on January 17th at the age of 85.

While many young people in China today do not remember Mr. Zhao as an advocate of reform, emotions remain high among those who do recall his role. Witnesses on Thursday said guards beat a number of people – some of them elderly – who have been trying to pay tribute to the late leader outside government offices in Beijing over the past few days.

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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Zork Hun is running for the Libertarian party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Parkdale-High Park riding. 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.