See the discussion page for instructions on adding schools to this list and for an alphabetically arranged listing of schools.

Due to the damage by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the New Orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. It is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. [1]. In response, institutions across the United States and Canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. Some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. At some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Children who spend more time playing with other children are less likely to end up getting childhood cancers, a UK study published today in the British Medical Journal has found. The finding supports the researchers’ theory that reduced exposure to common infections in the first year of life increases the risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

A total of nearly 10,000 children took part in the study, located in 10 regions across the UK. Amount of time spent in daycare and social activity, during the first year of life, were used to gauge the level of exposure of the infants to common infections such as cold and flu.

Day care in the first year of life for at least two days a week, with at least three other kids, halved a child’s chance of contracting ALL. Those who were rated in the category “any social activity” still had an improvement over the children rated as “no social activity”: they had about 3/4 the chance of getting the disease.

The study describes that effect was “more striking” for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia — a cancer affecting blood and the immune system — than it was for the set of all other cancers. Increasing levels of activity saw decreasing chances of childhood cancers, when compared against children who during their first year had no regular social activity outside the home.

Theories have been around since the 1940s that childhood exposure to infection was related to the development of childhood leukaemia — one, like the working theory of the UK study, said that lack of immune challenge was a factor, another that leukaemia developed as a delayed result of some type of infection.

The research was conducted by the Institute of Cancer Research in London and in Sutton, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of York, Christie Hospital and Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trusts, and the University of Edinburgh.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard says the refugees he falsely accused of throwing their children into the ocean deserve no apology because they did the next worst thing – “they irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water”.

The “children overboard” affair became a controversial focus in the 2001 federal election campaign, when the Prime Minister was roundly accused of cynically exploiting Australia’s fears of illegal immigrants by demonising asylum-seekers. Mr Howard and senior ministers falsely claimed on the eve of the election that children had been thrown in the water to guarantee their rescue by the Australian navy.

The boat sank, and the crew of HMAS Adelaide saved 219 asylum-seekers. The then Defence Minister, Peter Reith, released dubious photos of the rescue as evidence that children had been thrown in the water. The Australian government only corrected the record after the election.

Mr Howard says: “They irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water. I’m sorry, if I had have been told definitively, if I had been told that that story was completely wrong, I would have said so, but I wasn’t,” he says in the book ‘The Howard Factor’.

“And my last act before the election was to put that video in the public domain so that I wasn’t accused of concealing it, because it was ambiguous. Watching that video, you couldn’t tell whether people were being thrown in the water or not, it was just impossible. But after all, they did sink the boat.” Mr Howard said the refugees “don’t carry any visible signs of being demonised”.

Figures from the Department of Immigration (DIMIA) about the 219 mainly Iraqi asylum-seekers, shows the group wound up with the highest success rate for all refugee claims made under the so-called Pacific solution. DIMIA 96.5 per cent of the Iraqis who were awarded humanitarian protection, though most have since been settled in New Zealand, not Australia.

Refugee rights advocate, Jack Smit, from the West Australian-based group Project SafeCom says: “Refugees don’t sink damned boats, Mr Howard!” He said in a media statement: “The Prime Minister remains one of the very few politicians in Australia who maintains the slandering descriptive word ‘illegals’ to denote boatpeople.”

“Refugees rarely sink their boats,” said Mr Smit, “Usually it is the people smugglers who do the sinking, sometimes the sinking is due to physical sabotage by sting operators working from countries such as Indonesia, and sometimes these sting operators are contracted by countries such as Australia.”

Saturday, October 1, 2005

New Zealand has relaxed the safety rules imposed on internal airlines in 2002, once more allowing passengers to carry pocket knives with blades less than 60mm long and knitting needles.

Other larger items remain banned, including ice-skates, pool cues, hockey sticks, skateboards, cricket bats and harpoons.

Other countries more at risk from terrorism such as the United States of America and Australia will maintain their stricter rules and continue to ban a range of small, sharp objects from their internal flights.

The airlines have also agreed to help return items seized from passengers before boarding.

Friday, January 19, 2007

A Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, was assassinated today at the age of 52 in front of the Agos newspaper office, at the Istanbul district of Osmanbey, where he worked as the editor and a journalist. Witnesses say that after being shot, he was able to stand up for a while, extending his hand in search of help, which never came.

Dink, a brave journalist who was not afraid to discuss one of Turkey’s most controversial issues, clearly called what happened to Armenians in 1915 when the land was being governed by the Ottoman Empire the Armenian Genocide. As BBC reports, he

His body was kept for an hour on the pavement by Turkish security forces.

The assassin was reported to be about 18-19 years old, wearing a white hat and jeans. Two other suspects were taken into custody at the Taksim district. A Turkish TV station broadcasted the images of the killer. Click here for the broadcast.

Following his father’s assassination, Dink’s daughter, referring to the fascist obsession with pure blood, said:

All vacations were canceled for Turkish security forces in Istanbul.

The patriarch of Turkish Armenians, Misrob Mutafyan, announced a 15-day mourning following the assassination. Mr. Mutafyan called the assassination “barbarian, treacherous, and dastardly”.

While the body was taken away, a group applaused Dink, uttered “Long live peoples’ brotherhood”, “The assassin government will pay”, and “Hrants will not die”. They then marched to the Taksim Square. Another protest march was organized at the capital of Turkey, Ankara.

Turkey witnessed 62 journalist assassinations after 1909, the last before Hrant Dink being Ahmet Taner K??lal? in 1999.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A deadly hotel bombing in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has killed at least fifteen people, including three Somali Cabinet ministers, earlier today. Some reports say the death toll could be higher. The blast targeted a university graduation ceremony being attended by a number of government officials.

The Shamo Hotel was hosting a graduation ceremony for Banadir University. Eyewitnesses reported that a suicide bomber gained access to the venue dressed as a woman, donning a full abaya and a veil. The attacker was wearing an explosive strapped to his torso, but was not patted down by security.

The director of Median Hospital, Ali Yusuf, commented that “forty people with shrapnel wounds, including students and medical doctors, have been hospitalized today. Six people died at the hospital.”

Former Islamic Courts Union members at the scene identified the bomber, whose head and face had been completely shaven, as a member of al-Shabab, the ultra-conservative Islamist group believed to have links to al-Qaeda.

Somali Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdullahi Waayeel, and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Adow were killed in the attack on Hotel.

Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman, the Somali presidency’s director of information, commented on the incident. “This is a national tragedy for the Somali people. The blast rocked inside the hotel, killing three ministers and wounding another one.”

Adow served as the foreign secretary of the insurgent Islamic Courts Union when it took power in 2006. The Somali minister for sports is also reported to be hospitalized and in critical condition.

Mohamed Mohamoud, an attending graduate of the ceremony, said that he personally saw the remains of the health minister on the ground, as well as the corpses of other government officials. “The situation has dramatically changed from happiness to heartbreak. I am really discouraged for my colleagues. They have been studying in such a horrific environment, and today they passed away without benefiting from their education. May Allah give them his paradise,” Mohamoud said.

Two journalists, a reporter for Radio Shabelle and a cameraman with al-Arabia TV, were also found dead from the explosion. The National Union of Somali Journalists has issued a statement condemning the attack and expressing outrage at the loss of their colleagues. Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists to work. Eight have been killed in Somalia since the beginning of 2009.

Hotel Shamo is often chosen by government officials to host events and at one time was a popular lodging option for foreign journalists. Recently-released Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan were staying at the hotel before their capture last year.

The hotel security staff say that they were kicked out of the room prior to the ceremony, as government security officials wanted sole handling of the event. The government officials were attending the graduation of 43 students from the local Banadir University.

The official death toll from the blast is expected to continue to rise, with some reports indicating that more than 60 people have been found dead.

The attack is the latest in a string of incidents linking al-Shabab to common insurgent tactics used by Islamist terrorist groups in other parts of the world. Until recently, suicide bombings were an unusual practice in Somalia.

In September, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a bold attack on a meeting between government officials and the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, which killed 17 peacekeepers, including the top Burundian commander. Two vehicles containing explosives were given entry to the AMISOM base and subsequently blew up.

The rebel group is battling for control of the war-ravaged nation against the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government, led by former Islamic insurgent Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Rebel groups control much of southern and central Somalia, as well as significant portions of Mogadishu.

The government is being bolstered by the continuing presence of the peacekeeping force composed of Ugandans and Burundians. The AMISOM forces are mandated with the protection of key city sites such as the airport, seaport, and presidential palace.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actively pushed for a military strike on Iran, according to a report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Thursday.

A document revealed by Wikileaks, dated July 20, 2007, shows that Mr. Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, urged an attack on Iran in exchange for joining the government at the time, led by Ehud Olmert.

Mr. Netanyahu’s request was made as part of discussions to form a government of national unity between Likud and Mr. Olmert’s Kadima party, according to the leaked cable, classified as “confidential” and penned by Marc. J. Sievers, who was at the US embassy in Tel Aviv as a political counselor.

An advisor to Mr. Netanyahu told American officials at the time that the Likud leader was willing to take the post of foreign minister, while Mr. Olmert would have become prime minister.

However, Mr. Netanyahu demanded military action against Iran as the price for his participation in the proposed coalition. According to the advisor cited in the US cable, Mr. Netanyahu urged the Kadima leader to “galvanize Israel for action against Iran.”

Israel has previously entertained the possibility of military strikes to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons capability. In November 2010, Iran announced uranium enrichment activities had been disrupted by the Stuxnet computer virus. The Iranian government later accused the US and Israel of responsibility for the malware.

Israel and Western powers have accused Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” of seeking to obtain nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Channel Nine in Brisbane has fired two journalists and a producer for faking two live news crosses to aerial footage above the site of a search. In a live news cross, journalists broadcast back to the newsroom in real time when an event is happening.

Melissa Mallet and Cameron Price and Producer Aaron Wakeley were sacked by the Nine Network after rival Channel Seven filmed footage of the Nine News helicopter sitting on the helipad at the time it was supposed to be in the air on a live cross near the site of a search for the remains of a missing schoolboy, Daniel Morcombe. Evidence emerged the helicopter had not been near the site of the search during a live cross on the previous day, as well.

Channel Nine began an investigation after the footage came to light.

The incident, labelled “Choppergate”, has lead to the network’s credibility being questioned. Following the scandal, Lee Anderson, Queensland news director, resigned after 25 years at the network.

The Nine Network boss, David Gyngell, issued an apology. “The integrity of the Nine news brand is the value of Channel 9. Integrity is paramount. … Staff made a massive mistake, and on my watch. That will never, ever, happen again. I am truly sorry.”

The network has said that the decision to sack the journalists and producer was necessary for the network’s credibility and the trust viewers place in their information.

Cameron Price said he was considering legal action against his dismissal. “Thanks for all the support”, he tweeted to his followers. “I believe what happened today is completely unfair … And I am seeking advice on the matter.”

Bruce Morcombe, Daniel Morcombe’s father, said of his family, “We genuinely see it as a storm in a teacup and feel quite sorry for the loss of those people’s jobs”.