Wikinews:Briefs/February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014

Promo
(Music)

Today on Wikinews: We briefly recap some of the stories appearing on Wikinews last week and from around the world.

Today is Friday, February twenty eighth - twenty fourteen. We are Meredith Harris and Justin Law and this is Wikinews.

Indiana legislators vote for state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage
Indiana's Senate passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, which is already prohibited by law, on February seventeenth. Both chambers removed a sentence banning civil unions from the proposed amendment. The proposed amendment now has to pass through the next elected legislature with this exact same wording &mdash; possibly in twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen &mdash; before Indiana voters have a chance to weigh in on the issue.

UK's Northumbria Police arrest, bail man over murder of seven-year-old
Twenty-two years after the murder of child Nikki Allan a suspect has been arrested and released on bail last week. The seven-year-old's body was found close to her home in the Old Exchange Building in Sunderland, England with thirty-seven stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head from a brick. Two years after the murder, a male neighbor who had been charged with Allan's murder was found not guilty.

Researchers survey planet-sized space weather explosions at Venus
Scientists from three continents have discovered Hot Flow Anomalies at Venus, which were observed seven times during the two year observation period. Hot Flow Anomalies are discontinuities in the solar wind, which Venus does not have adequate protection against. "... as Venus doesn’t have a magnetic field to protect itself, the hot flow anomalies happen right on top of the planet. They could swallow the planet whole", Glyn Collinson of NASA said.

Researchers identify protein responsible for malaria transmission
UK research councils, the Spanish government, the U.S. National Institute of Health, and the European Commission, among others, have funded scientific research that has helped to identify the protein that transmits malaria to mosquitoes. Malaria is transmitted by a parasite to the mosquitos by the sex cells of the parasite. Two groups of independent researchers discovered the AP2-G protein is directly responsible for transmission.

Arabs react to Israeli debate on Jerusalem's Holy sites
Control of holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem was debated by Israeli parliament. The area is significant to both Jews and Muslims, however Muslims currently have control there. This being a topic up for debate, could get in the way of peace talks. The parliament did not vote on the issue.

Thai school bus crash kills fifteen
A girls' school bus wrecked on the way to a field trip due either to bad brakes or the bus driver falling asleep, which killed fifteen students in Thailand today. The students ranged from ten-years-old to early teenagers. Forty-seven people were injured, with twenty-three of them hospitalized.

Researcher discovers 39 new cockroach species, increasing genus Arenivaga fivefold
Taxinomic researcher Heidi Hopkins, at the Museum of Southwestern Biology of the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, discovered thirty-nine new cockroach species in the genus Arenivaga which, prior to the four year study, was thought to contain only nine species. The new species were separated from the previously known species of cockroaches by their genitalia.

Evidence of natural gas deposit found off Gaza Coast
What was originally mistaken for fish bubbling underwater was announced this week to be evidence of natural gas in the Gaza Strip. This region, which has been experiencing its worst energy crisis to date, is hopeful this new discovery will provide potential solutions to the crisis. Deputy Hamas Prime Minister Mr. Ziad Al-Zaza said, "[W]e need to conduct further studies to confirm that there is any gas...This requires probing by specialist companies because we don't have the adequate laboratories and experts here".

Outro
And those are the headlines from Wikinews.

This has been the Audio Wikinews brief. To receive the latest news, please visit wikinews.org, presenting up-to-date, relevant, newsworthy and entertaining content without bias. Wikinews is a free service and it is funded by your generous donations. Click on the donate link on our homepage to learn how you can contribute. This recording has been released under the Creative Commons 2.5 License.