BRISBANE, Australia — The Queensland government has been accused of hiding data about the performance of the state’s hospitals, which the opposition says are simply not coping. The latest published data on key indicators such as wait times for emergency department care and elective surgery are from the December quarter of 2020. The opposition says residents of Western Australia and New South Wales have access to live emergency department wait times at all hospitals, but Queenslanders are being denied contemporary data on the health system they rely upon. “We haven’t seen any new data this year, and we’re nearly halfway through the year,”…
Author: zenger.news
YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — People in the West African nation of Nigeria are excited about Germany’s decision to send back valuable artifacts looted from ancestors by British soldiers and sailors during the European colonization of Africa. Known as the Benin Bronzes, the priceless artworks—made of brass and bronze—are a group of sculptures including elaborately decorated cast plagues, commemorative heads, animal and human figures, items of royal regalia, and personal ornaments. The Linden Museum is among several museums in Germany that have items known as Benin Bronzes in their collections, as do other museums across the world. (Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)They are named after the historical Kingdom…
GABORONE, Botswana — Could the innate animal tracking skills of Botswana’s Kalahari Bushmen save them from poverty? Researchers and conservationists think so. The art—honed and passed from generation to generation—is slowly disappearing, replaced by modern counting methods such as aerial surveys. Bushmen, also called San, are indigenous people of Southern Africa. Njoxlau Kashe, 58, an accredited master tracker, fears that the tracking skills among Kalahari Bushmen are being forgotten quickly due to the rapid evolution of their culture. “Tracking skills among Kalahari Bushmen was important since most trackers eked a living from the craft,” he told Zenger News. “In the past,…
GABORONE, Botswana — Growing up in the dusty village of Ledumadumane a few miles outside Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, Kgomotso Phatsima dreamed of being a pilot. As a young girl, she would watch with fascination as planes flew above her mother’s thatched house outside Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, the thought of one day being inside one enveloping her. “I always wondered how it would be to be in the sky like a bird, flying that huge machine,” Phatsima, now 38-year-old and a captain at Botswana air force told Zenger News. “At the time, as a girl in my community, the best…
Three Quokkas enjoy some vegetation in the Australian Reptile Park in this video from the Australian Reptile Park, an interactive zoo in Somersby, on May 17. Basil, Clover and Coco eat veggies along with various flowers. Before eating, they shoo away all the pigeons hanging around their cage. Quokkas, a type of small wallaby, are small macropods — plant-eating marsupial mammals. Their diet includes grasses and leaves and their favorite flowering plants of the genus Guichenotia. They are mainly nocturnal. They can reach the size of a domestic cat and weigh between 5.5 and 11 pounds. They are 16–21 inches…
CANBERRA, Australia — New figures show almost a quarter of all available doses of the Covid-19 vaccines are not being used in Australia. The federal health department, on May 17, released data comparing the availability of vaccine doses and the number of jabs delivered. Nationally, dose utilization as of week 12 of the vaccine rollout was 77 percent. The Northern Territory had the worst lag of all the jurisdictions, with 47,652 doses available and 22,953 administered, giving it a utilization rate of just 58 percent. Queensland was the worst-performing state, with 317,810 doses available and 170,330 delivered — or a usage rate…
SYDNEY — Indigenous children continue to be disproportionately represented in Australian out-of-home care statistics, despite overall rates remaining steady. A 118-page annual report, released on May 18 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, shows one in four of the roughly 46,000 children in out-of-home care in mid-2020 were Indigenous. At the time there were about 18,900 Indigenous children in out-of-home care, which includes living with a relative or foster carer. That represents one in 18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia and is 11 times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous kids. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of that group were living with…
MELBOURNE, Australia — Two men will stand trial over the abduction and rape of teenage girls in the 1980s, including one on the eve of a Melbourne bombing. Convicted Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue was committed to stand trial on May 17 morning over alleged attacks on two women, aged 18 and 19, in November 1985 and March 1986. Peter Michael Komiazyk, who was acquitted over allegations he was involved in the 1986 bombing, was also ordered to stand trial in Victoria’s County Court. Both of the men are facing 38 charges, including abduction by force and rape. It’s understood a…
ADELAIDE, Australia — More job cuts are being planned in South Australian public hospitals, with doctors and nurses in the firing line, the state opposition says. Labor says consultancy group KordaMentha has outlined the second tranche of savings measures which recommends staff cuts at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals. It says the Salaried Medical Officers’ Association has advised its members the document includes cuts to clinical staff including doctors, nurses, allied health, and administrative positions. Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said at a time of increasing stress on the health system, and ambulance ramping at unprecedented levels, more staff cuts were “incomprehensible”.…
ADELAIDE, Australia — More people across South Australia are using the coronavirus Quick Response (QR) check-in codes amid a police blitz following concerns about a recent fall in compliance. The codes are mandatory across most businesses and venues, including retail outlets and pubs and restaurants. But police recently expressed concern that the number of people checking in had dropped because of a degree of complacency. They launched Operation Trace earlier this month to remind the public and businesses of their responsibilities in the continued fight against Covid-19. The campaign includes the use of plain-clothes police officers to watch for people failing…