National Education Association, Court TV Present Nationally Televised One-Hour Special on Media Literacy

News Advisory:

The National Education Association (NEA) and Court TV will co-produce a national television special to communicate with teachers,other education staff, and parents about media literacy. Medialiteracy initiatives are designed to help children and teensdistinguish between the positive and negative images that they seein all forms of media, to understand the real-world consequences ofactions that may seem inconsequential on screen, and to recognizeforms of manipulation.

The one-hour, commercial-free special, entitled "Mind Over Media:Helping Kids Get The Message" will air at several times:

-- On Thursday, May 24, at 2 p.m., the NEA, the nation's largesteducation employee organization, will use its Safe Schools NowNetwork to air the special via its satellite feed to schools acrossthe nation and public access television stations.

-- On Saturday, May 26, at 1 p.m., Court TV will air the shownationally.

-- Every Saturday in June, the special will also be transmittedto 85 percent of the nation's schools through Court TV's Cable inthe Classroom time slot at 4 a.m.

Guiding viewers through the show will be the following hosts:Rikki Klieman, Court TV anchor, Al Roker, of NBC's "Today" Show, andMaurice DuBois, news anchor on WNBC-TV in New York. Also featured onthe show will be nationally recognized experts, Renee Hobbs, aleader in the field of media education, and Ronald G. Slaby, alecturer of education and pediatrics at Harvard University.

The special is being produced as part of the NEA's Safe SchoolsNow Network, created to continue to keep schools the safest placesfor kids, and of Court TV's, Choices and Consequences programming.The show includes four pre-produced segments offering real-worldexamples of promising classroom education and community programsbeing used by NEA educators in Worcester, Mass., Capitol Heights,Md., Concord, N.H., and Salinas, Calif.

"Young people absorb thousands of negative media messages aboutviolence, sex, race, gender, ethnicity, and other critical socialissues every single day," said Bob Chase, NEA president. "The NEAmay not be able to change the media, but, we can teach our childrenhow to view the media critically. Teens must learn to make sense ofthe messages being promoted -- sometimes even directly to them --via television, movies, Internet sites, video games, music lyrics,magazines, advertising and all other forms of media."

The NEA is providing a free resource guide for "Mind Over Media:Helping Kids Get The Message," including Tips for Parents andResearch on Media and its Effect on Students, at http://www.safeschoolsnow.org. Videotapes of the program will also beavailable at cost.

The National Education Association is the nation's largestprofessional employee organization, representing 2.6 millionelementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty,education support personnel, school administrators, retirededucators, and students preparing to become teachers.

KEYWORDS:

ADVISORY, EDUCATION, MEDIA, POLICY

Oly: Kenteris fiasco leaves Greeks with flame game

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2004
Oly: Kenteris fiasco leaves Greeks with flame game

ATHENS, Aug 13 AFP - The controversy surrounding the failure of Greece's Olympic sprint
champion Kostadinos Kenteris to attend a drugs test and his subsequent motorbike crash
left organisers facing an opening ceremony poser - who would light the Olympic flame?

Kenteris, who stormed to 200m gold in Sydney four years ago, had been widely expected
to be given the honour of being the final runner of the global, five-month long torch
relay.

But his road accident has left him hospitalised, forcing the organisers into a possible
late rethink.

Athens Games organisers did manage to name six Greek sporting legends, five men and
one woman, as the penultimate runners of the torch relay.

They will be Georgian-born, three-time Olympic weightlifting gold medallist Akakios
Kakiasvilis, 35; Ioannis Melissanidis, 27, gymnastics floor gold medallist in the 1996
Games -- Greece's first gymnastics medal in 100 years; Nikos Kaklamanakis, 36, Olympic
windsurfing gold medallist in the 1996 Atlanta Games, and Paraskevi Patoulidou, 39, who
memorably surged past the stumbling Gail Devers to claim gold in the 1992 Barcelona women's
100 metre hurdles final.

The others will be Greek-American basketball legend Nikos Galis, 47, who led Greece's
basketball national team to the European Championship in 1987 as well as football veteran
Mimis Domazos, 62, who was Panathinaikos skipper when the Greek club reached the 1971
European Cup final where they lost 2-0 to Ajax Amsterdam.

The Olympic flame was lit at the ancient Games' birthplace in Olympia, southern Greece,
on March 25, and has since made a 34-city trip across the world's five continents, by
plane, car, ship and foot.

In mid-July it returned to Greece for a frenetic, 7,000-runner tour through the country
before arriving in Athens for the Games.

Last night, it lit up the ancient Acropolis before beginning its final journey today
to the Olympic Stadium.

AFP sp

KEYWORD: OLY DOPING FLAME

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Vic: Oil workers to fight Bass Strait lockout

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2004
Vic: Oil workers to fight Bass Strait lockout

Bass Strait oil rig workers will seek a Federal Court injunction tomorrow to lift a
lockout by subcontractors on Esso's offshore platforms.

The legal bid against the three-week lockout due to begin on Tuesday is the latest
chapter in an twelve-month dispute over roster changes.

Esso and its subcontractors want to replace the current seven-days-on, seven-days-off
roster with a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off system.

Australian Workers Union national secretary BILL SHORTEN says the lockout could jeopardise
Melbourne's gas supplies over the winter months.

Esso spokesman CHRIS WELBERRY says there is no way in the forseeable future the lockout
will affect gas supplies.

AAP RTV nl/lm

KEYWORD: ESSO (MELBOURNE)

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Vic: Hookes is dead says brother

AAP General News (Australia)
01-19-2004
Vic: Hookes is dead says brother

The brother of DAVID HOOKES says the former Test cricketer …

Nortel aims to support 3G rollout

Cheah Chor Sooi
New Straits Times
03-07-2002
Nortel aims to support 3G rollout
Byline: Cheah Chor Sooi
Edition: 2*
Column: e-world

NORTEL Networks aims to bring its high-capacity optical Internet technology to Malaysia by the fourth quarter of this year to support the rollout of third-generation (3G) telecommunications technology.

Nortel Malaysia managing director Cheam Tat Inn said the company had responded to a number of tenders awarded by local telecommunication service providers vying for the three 3G licenses to be awarded by the Government by July this year.
"Optical Internet complements the 3G technology by enabling the latter to deliver multimedia services, which require very high bandwidth capable core network.

"Optical Internet is a prerequisite of 3G. A very solid optical core network is all that is needed to reap the fruits of investment in 3G," he said, noting that Nortel is the only player worldwide who is able to deliver an end-to-end optical Internet solution.

Cheam said Nortel would also be rolling out a number of optical Internet pilot sites by the end of the second quarter.

"Telecommunications service providers need not lay new fibre cable, hence no messy digging of roads. It allows them to deliver high bandwidth services on the same existing fibre.

"For businesses, optical Internet reduces telecommunication costs of end users and offers the ability of subscribing to high bandwidth type of services such as multimedia broadcasting, integrated voice and data communication and video conferencing in a cost-effective manner," he said.

Currently, the optical Internet technology is available in the United States, Europe, Australia, Korea, China and India.

Nortel currently holds the biggest market share in the worldwide optical networking market. bizdesk@nstp.com.my

Illustrations/Photos:
Cheam ... responded to tenders.

(Copyright 2002)

Fed: Aust scientists to infect animals with SARS

00-00-0000
Fed: Aust scientists to infect animals with SARS

SYDNEY, April 24 AAP - Australian scientists will import a SARS virus specimen andinfect animals with the sample in a bid to identify the link between animals and humans,a media report said today.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that scientists at the CSIRO's animal health laboratorywould join forces with Canadian colleagues to monitor the progress of the virus in chickens,pigs and cats.

The paper said the project would be undertaken at the request of United Nations healthagencies to determine if the virus originated in animals and if so, how it is spread.

The director of the CSIRO's laboratory, Dr Martyn Jeggo, said identifying how the viruswas spread meant infecting animals with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

A "P4" level laboratory in Geelong - the highest security level for dangerous biologicalsamples - was ready to receive the sample, Dr Jeggo said.

The revelation of the research project follows warnings yesterday by NSW health officialsthat the SARS virus would almost inevitably hit Australia.

NSW Health's director of Communicable Diseases Dr Jeremy McAnulty said Australia hadbeen lucky to avoid a SARS outbreak so far, but it was unlikely the state could remainfree of the disease for much longer.

"I think it's likely that as this has been going on for the last few months, it's likelythat Australia won't be immune and will get travellers (from) the affected areas who maywell get infected," he said.

However Premier Bob Carr and Health Minister Morris Iemma reassured the community thestate's health system was ready to cope, announcing the availability of 900 beds to treatSARS patients.

The government has officially listed SARS as a category four medical condition underthe Public Health Act - along with tuberculosis and typhoid - allowing authorities tocompel a person suspected of infection to undertake medical testing and treatment, andto place them in quarantine.

Non-compliance penalties include up to six months jail and/or up to $5,500 in fines.

Mr Carr defended claims by civil libertarians the move was a heavy-handed over-reaction,saying the community deserved to be protected.

"We've got to protect ourselves, it's as simple as that, we are entitled as a communityto protect ourselves from what is emerging as a very serious outbreak of an infectiousdisease in our region," he said.

NSW Opposition health spokesman Barry O'Farrell said while it was important to havea plan in place to deal with an outbreak, Labor's moves raised questions about how itmanaged the health system.

"In eight years under Labor, Bob Carr and three successive ministers for health haveclosed a staggering 4,527 hospital beds across NSW," he said.

"Yet now the new minister tells us that 900 beds can be made available immediatelyif they are needed to deal with an outbreak of SARS," he said.

AAP ld/pa

KEYWORD: SARS AUST DAYLEAD (REISSUING)

NSW: Woman dead after head on collision

00-00-0000
NSW: Woman dead after head on collision

SYDNEY, Feb 11 AAP - A woman is dead after a head-on collision with a four-wheel drivein the NSW southern highlands.

The Blackbutt woman was driving a Toyota sedan on Kangaloon Road in Bowral when itcollided with a Land Rover 4WD at around 3.55pm (AEDT).

The 49-year-old woman died shortly after the accident at Bowral District Hospital whilethe Land Rover driver, a 62-year-old woman from Bellevue Hill, escaped with only bruisingand shock.

AAP jh/rs

KEYWORD: TOLL NSW