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Sunday, August 6, 2006

A man who fell ill after participating in a drug trial at Northwick Park Hospital in north-west London earlier this year has revealed he has the early signs of an “aggressive” form of cancer.

David Oakley was one of six men who volunteered to take part in a trial of a drug intended to cure conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia in March. But after taking the drug, the thirty-five year-old suffered multiple organ failure and prominent inflammation.

Mr Oakley, who lives in west London, told today’s Mail on Sunday that doctors have informed him he has “definite early signs” of lymph cancer. He also fears he could develop other debilitating illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and lupus. He will now undergo tests to see what treatments will be required. “It’s very frightening,” he told the newspaper. “I’m trying not to be too down about the thought of having chemotherapy or that I might die.”

Mr Oakley was paid £2,000 for his involvement in the trial, and that money subsidised his marriage to wife Katrina in June. He now fears their hope of having children has been jeopardised as a result of his ill health. “Katrina and I had planned to start trying for children six months after getting married, but we can’t do that now. Everything is on hold.”

There is nothing to suggest that Mr Oakley’s cancer was triggered by the experiment. He is now seeking compensation from Parexel, the company which organised the drug trial. “Really, I’m just trying to do my bit and pointing out their mistake. If someone doesn’t point it out it could happen again and there’s no way I would like to see someone else go through what we’re going through right now.” Earlier this year, six men had to be admitted to an intensive care unit at the same hospital, in another Parexel drug trial which caused much upset.

Sunday, August 6, 2006

A man who fell ill after participating in a drug trial at Northwick Park Hospital in north-west London earlier this year has revealed he has the early signs of an “aggressive” form of cancer.

David Oakley was one of six men who volunteered to take part in a trial of a drug intended to cure conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia in March. But after taking the drug, the thirty-five year-old suffered multiple organ failure and prominent inflammation.

Mr Oakley, who lives in west London, told today’s Mail on Sunday that doctors have informed him he has “definite early signs” of lymph cancer. He also fears he could develop other debilitating illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and lupus. He will now undergo tests to see what treatments will be required. “It’s very frightening,” he told the newspaper. “I’m trying not to be too down about the thought of having chemotherapy or that I might die.”

Mr Oakley was paid £2,000 for his involvement in the trial, and that money subsidised his marriage to wife Katrina in June. He now fears their hope of having children has been jeopardised as a result of his ill health. “Katrina and I had planned to start trying for children six months after getting married, but we can’t do that now. Everything is on hold.”

There is nothing to suggest that Mr Oakley’s cancer was triggered by the experiment. He is now seeking compensation from Parexel, the company which organised the drug trial. “Really, I’m just trying to do my bit and pointing out their mistake. If someone doesn’t point it out it could happen again and there’s no way I would like to see someone else go through what we’re going through right now.” Earlier this year, six men had to be admitted to an intensive care unit at the same hospital, in another Parexel drug trial which caused much upset.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Andrew Martinez, a former student at the University of California at Berkeley who was better known as “The Naked Guy” in the early 1990s, committed suicide on Thursday. He was 33.

Guards at the Santa Clara County Jail reportedly found Martinez unconscious in a jail cell, with a plastic bag cinched around his neck, at about 11:19 p.m. Wednesday. Martinez was taken to a local hospital where was pronounced dead early Thursday. He had been incarcerated since January 10 on charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Martinez is best known for attending his classes in the nude in the fall of 1992. He became an instant celebrity, appearing on national television talk shows where he defended his practice as a form of free speech and a challenge to sexual repression in Western society.

Martinez was eventually expelled from UC Berkeley for violating the school’s code of conduct, and Berkeley city officials passed a strict anti-nudity ordinance.

Family and acquaintances report that Martinez had been suffering from undetermined mental illness over the past decade for which he never found comprehensive treatment, and had been in and out of halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, and jail.

Said close acquaintance Bryan Schwartz, a civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C., “He was a person with tremendous gifts and charisma who could have been a great asset to our society, but instead I feel like society — me included — failed him. It’s such a waste.”

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Monday, October 14, 2013

Half-a-million people have fled their homes in and around the Indian state of Orissa after Cyclone Phailin made landfall.

Wikinews interviewed specialists in meteorology about the devastation the cyclone has caused.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

An advertisement for Dove beauty products has been viewed by well over three million people, without ever being on television. A copywriter from Ogilvy Toronto, the advertising agency that created a spot named “evolution”, uploaded the advertisement to video sharing website YouTube.

While the official upload of the ad itself has been viewed 1,119,262 times, there are dozens of copies of the ad on YouTube, adding to a minimum of 3,059,546 views. The official copy of the video is the website’s 12th most viewed this month, 53rd of all time.

Unofficial uploads have each received high levels of viewership, with 449595, 445322, 207906, 201670, 195265, 116501, and 102634 plays.

The agency did not originally intend to upload the video to YouTube, only display it on the company’s homepage. Staff member Tim Piper uploaded it to his account on October 6, about a week before it first got media coverage on Good Morning America.

The ad begins with a woman walking into a photo shoot. From there, she is primped and plucked by hair and makeup artists, then tweaked on a Photoshop-like program. The photo-manipulation is then posted on a billboard for the fictional “Easel Foundation Makeup” brand. Two young, teenage girls walk past, glancing at the board. “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” ends the ad in text, “Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is.”

The creative team for the ad included Tim Piper, Mike Kirkland, Janet Kestin, Nancy Vonk, directors T Piper (treatment and post production) and Yael Staav (live action) from Reginald Pike, Soho post production, Rogue editing, Vapor music, Gabor Jurina and Make-up: Diana Carreiro, and Reginald Pike.

The official French copy of the ad has only received 132 views, although it was only uploaded on November 2, 2006.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly left multiple phone messages with a local animal shelter in Brooksville, threatening to blow them up. Peter Dalessandro, 52, surrendered himself to authorities around 11:00 p.m. (local time) on Wednesday.

Dalessandro has been charged with multiple counts of threatening to place or discharge an explosive device and multiple counts of assault. Dalessandro allegedly made six calls after a puppy the shelter had taken in was euthanized quickly. He called the shelter several times on April 20 and threatened to kill anyone who was there and stated that a bomb was on the property. A search of the property, however, revealed no bomb.

Allegedly, Dalessandro was angered about a recent incident involving euthanizing of an eight-month-old puppy at the shelter within fifteen minutes after the dog’s arrival. According to reports, it is the animal shelter’s policy to euthanize animals as soon as possible if there is no room to house them. However, The Miami Herald reports a shelter volunteer’s claim that there were at least ten kennels open at the time the dog was taken in. An investigation has been opened into the incident and is ongoing. Several employees of the shelter have been relieved of their duties until it has completed.

The director of the shelter called the euthanizing a mistake. Further reports reveal that Dalessandro allegedly called the shelter staff “scumbags” and told them, “I don’t know how you can make an error like that. I’m going to place a bomb and kill everybody.”

Dalessandro has reportedly made threats of a similar nature not related to this case. According to police, Dalessandro has a history of harshly reacting to news of animals dying or which have suffered abuse and has a rap sheet dating back to 2001. Some of the accusations against him include calling individuals who have been accused of killing animals and calling an attorney defending an individual accused of killing a dog.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.

Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Five people have died and at least 13 are injured after a car plowed into a crowd in front of Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands during celebrations of Queen’s Day. At around 11:50 local time a black Suzuki Swift went through barriers erected to separate the onlooking crowd from traffic, subsequently striking a monument. Members of the Dutch royal family watched the incident take place from the open-topped bus. The incident was witnessed by many onlookers and photographers as well by media covering the pageant.

“He came out of nowhere and dragged ten to fifteen people. There is blood everywhere and people being resuscitated,” a photographer following the parade for De Telegraaf said.

At around 12:00, all official activities in Apeldoorn were cancelled. Other Dutch cities have also cancelled or scaled back activities, such as the Radio 538 concert in Amsterdam and all celebrations in Rotterdam. The mayor of Apeldoorn stated that, “A good day has ended as a drama.” Offical Flags throughout the Netherlands have been placed at half-mast. The Queen responded in a video speech and expressed her sympathy for the victims.

During a press conference held at 15:45, police reported that the man, who was still conscious but heavily injured after the accident, had told police that it was a deliberate act. It was also reported that the 38-year-old, a Dutch national, had not been in contact with the police until earlier that day when he was stopped at one of the barriers. He has no prior history of psychological problems and there are no indications that any sort of terrorist group was involved.

The Queen’s Day celebrations, observing the birthday of the Dutch monarch, take place annually on April 30. Citizens of the country traditionally celebrate by holding late-night markets and decorating the streets of the Netherlands in orange bunting, honoring the House of Orange.