* Senior Athlete Drug Issue Continues
* Victorian Premier Coralled by Angry Farmers
* Bank mistake costs customer $15 million
* Judge throws out video murder evidence
* Marine in murder inquiry
* Korea paid for hostages, confirming terrorists only want money.
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Bikini-clad bunny chases Rudd
By Danny Rose
KEVIN Rudd's boozy visit to a New York strip club returned to haunt him today when a woman wearing Playboy-style bunny ears stripped in front of the Labor Leader in a Sydney Harbour car park.
Mr Rudd had just wound up a news conference when he was targeted in an apparent prank by ABC TV's The Chaser's War On Everything.
The young woman stripped down to lingerie while The Chaser's Chas Licciardello also disrobed to reveal a fluorescent orange G-string and nipple tassles.
"I went up to him and said, 'You know Kevin, I know you don't remember so I just thought I'd help refresh your memory,'" Licciardello later said on Southern Cross radio.
"I was wearing a G-string, there was also a lady stripper there as well, a burlesque stripper.
"He (Mr Rudd) got out of there in an awful hurry."
Licciardello said the incident was taken in good humour, but a smiling Mr Rudd did manhandle him out of the way to get to his car.
"He's said, 'I've got to go' ... and then he physically pushed me out of the way. He obviously hasn't learned his lesson."
Earlier this month it was revealed Mr Rudd was taken to Scores Night Club in New York while he was on a taxpayer-funded trip to the United States in 2003.
Mr Rudd, who was in New York to represent Australia at the United Nations, has said he was too drunk to remember details and that he regretted the incident.
Johns's drug-taking well known, says Masters
from news.com.au
THE rugby league community has long known former Australian captain Andrew Johns was a drug taker, ex-coach and current commentator Roy Masters has said.
"It's been well known in the league community for a long period of time that Andrew Johns was a drug taker," Mr Masters told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"I've confronted him with it, confronted his manager with it, defamation laws prevent you from writing it," he said.
Johns last night said he took drugs, had a problem with alcohol and suffered bouts of depression during his stellar on-field career.
Johns' drug use came to light after he was arrested and cautioned in London on Sunday over an ecstasy tablet in his pocket.
His brother Mathew said thought Johns was dead when he received the phone call from a former teammate about a drugs arrest at the weekend.
Mr Beattie today described himself as a fan of Johns, but said the footballer was no role model for children.
"I understand from a personal point of view that he was a man who became a star at 19, and I know how difficult that is, fame, fortune and all that sort of stuff," Mr Beattie said on ABC radio.
"I can understand the point about pressures and what that meant, and therefore I have some sympathy for him as an individual.
"But I have to say as a parent, this is a dreadful role model, and no one can say otherwise."
Mr Beattie said footballers often achieved instant star status and heavy paypackets, making it difficult to resist the temptation of drugs.
"I don't want to be pious about this, but there is a real problem because of what that does for young people who look up to him," Mr Beattie said.
"He's one of those guys all the kids know."
Brumby freed from bush corral
from news.com.au
VICTORIAN Premier John Brumby has been freed after being barricaded in a machinery yard in rural Victoria by farmers angry at the State Government's water plans.
Mr Brumby, Rural and Regional Development Minister Jacinta Allan and a handful of advisers and media representatives were trapped inside the yard for 75 minutes by about 70 irrigators.
The angry locals were protesting about the Government's move to pipe water from the Goulburn Murray region to regional cities and Melbourne.
The blockade happened just outside Colbinabbin, east of Bendigo, where Mr Brumby had gone for a media conference to turn the tap on a $98 million new water pipeline.
Police negotiated with the protesters, who had formed a ring of tractors around the yard. The blockade started just after 1.30pm (AEST).
The protesters, some carrying placards reading "irrigation feeds the nation", screamed and interjected as the premier tried to reason with them over the merits of the plan.
Water today begun flowing from the pipeline, which will pump water south from the Goulburn system to the Bendigo region.
Twenty billion litres of water will flow to the region annually via a 46.5km pipeline.
Mr Brumby said the superpipe would provide water security for the region at a time of unprecedented climate change.
"The Goldfields Superpipe is vital to the future growth of the Bendigo region," Mr Brumby said.
"The superpipe will provide water to Bendigo to successfully manage supplies through the challenges of drought, climate change and population growth."
Customer ordered pay bank $14.7m
from news.com.au
WESTPAC has won orders against a customer to return $11 million accidentally transferred into his account, plus $3.7 million in interest.
The banking giant took real estate agent Victor Ollis to the NSW Supreme Court over the money, which was mistakenly transferred into his business account.
Mr Ollis, of Kempsey, on the NSW mid-north coast, had an automatic transfer facility which topped up the business account from his personal account.
The top-ups should have ceased in February 2004 after his personal account became overdrawn, but a computer glitch allowed replenishment to continue, using Westpac's own funds.
Between June and December 2005 the bank honoured cheques issued by Mr Ollis totalling $11 million before they realised the error.
Westpac also sued Mr Ollis's partner Gail Shields over $4.8 million he transferred to her.
Justice Clifford Einstein today found in favour of Westpac, saying Mr Ollis's "unconscionable" conduct was "not merely amoral, it was dishonest".
He ordered Mr Ollis to repay a total $14,692,968.03 to Westpac.
An argument on costs, and additional interest to be calculated, will be decided next Wednesday, September 6.
Judge throws out Sofia murder video evidence
from news.com.au
POLICE bungling has forced a judge to throw out video evidence of a man telling Perth police it was possible he had done something to the eight-year-old girl he is accused of raping and murdering.
Dante Wyndham Arthurs, 22, sought this week to have his admissions to police on a three-hour video declared inadmissible for his October 8, 2007 trial by judge alone.
He has pleaded not guilty to the wilful murder, sexual penetration and unlawful detention of Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu on June 26, 2006.
Her naked body was found in a disabled toilet at Livingston Market Shopping Centre in Canning Vale just minutes after she died.
Arthurs' lawyer Bob Richardson asked the West Australian Supreme Court to declare inadmissible all or part of the interview his client had with police after his arrest on June 27, 2006.
Prosecutor Sam Vandongen told the court Arthurs admitted on the video he was at the shopping centre but did not remember what he did there.
"He said 'I try to remember but it just gets blacker and blacker'," Mr Vandongen said.
"He admitted it was possible that he did something to the little girl."
Mr Richardson says the video should be thrown out as evidence because the information was not given voluntarily.
He said police ignored Arthurs' three requests for a lawyer and "pushed and pushed" him to talk to them.
Mr Vandongen insisted Arthurs was not pressured by police because he was assertive during the interview, correcting detectives and occasionally exercising his right to silence.
Justice Peter Blaxell ruled most of the video interview should be excluded from the trial.
Marine 'ordered to kill women and children'
By Rob Woollard at Camp Pendleton
A US Marine was ordered to execute a room full of terrified Iraqi women and children during an alleged massacre in Haditha that left 24 people dead, a military court was told today.
The testimony came in the opening of a preliminary hearing for Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faces 17 counts of murder over the Haditha killings, the most serious war crimes allegations faced by US troops in Iraq.
Sgt Wuterich, spoke confidently to confirm his name as the hearing to decide if he faces a court martial began at the Marines' Camp Pendleton base in southern California.
The 27-year-old listened intently as Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza recounted how Marines had responded after a roadside bomb attack on their convoy in Haditha on November 19, 2005 left one comrade dead.
Lance-Cpl Mendoza said Marines under Sgt Wuterich's command began clearing nearby houses suspected of containing insurgents responsible for the bombing.
At one house Sgt Wuterich gave an order to shoot on sight as Marines waited for a response after knocking on the door, said Lance-Cpl Mendoza.
"He said 'Just wait till they open the door, then shoot'.".
Lance-Cpl Mendoza then said he himself shot and killed an adult male who appeared in a doorway.
During a subsequent search of the house he received an order from another Marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum, to shoot seven women and children he had found in a rear bedroom.
"When I opened the door there was just women and kids, two adults were lying down on the bed and there were three children on the bed ... two more were behind the bed,'' Lance-Cpl Mendoza said.
"I looked at them for a few seconds. Just enough to know they were not presenting a threat ... they looked scared.''
After leaving the room Lance Cpl Mendoza told Lance-Cpl Tatum what he had found.
"I told him there were women and kids inside there. He said 'Well, shoot them,''' Lance-Cpl Mendoza told prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Sean Sullivan.
"And what did you say to him?'' Lt-Col Sullivan asked.
"I said 'But they're just women and children.' He didn't say nothing.''
Lance-Cpl Mendoza said he returned to a position at the front of the house and heard a door open behind him followed by a loud noise. Returning later that afternoon to retrieve bodies, Lance-Cpl Mendoza said he found a room full of corpses.
Prosecutors allege Marines went on a killing spree in Haditha in retaliation for the death of their colleague in the bomb attack.
Defence lawyers will argue that sgt Wuterich followed established combat zone rules of engagement.
A total of eight Marines were initially charged in connection with the Haditha deaths.
Four were charged with murder while four senior officers were accused of failing to properly investigate the killings.
Of the four Marines charged with murder, two have since had charges withdrawn, while allegations against Lance-Cpl Tatum are also expected to be dismissed.
Sgt Wuterich also faces charges of making a false statement and asking another Marine to do the same. He faces a life sentence and dishonorable discharge if court-martialled.
South Korea paid $2.4m for hostages - report
from news.com.au
SOUTH Korea paid $US2 million ($2.46 million) to Taliban extremists in Afghanistan to secure the release of 19 hostages, a Japanese newspaper reported today.
Citing unidentified sources in Afghanistan, the Asahi Shimbun said Afghan mediators persuaded South Korea's ambassador in Kabul that there was no other way to end the six-week kidnap ordeal.
"Two million dollars were paid to release all 19 people," an Afghan mediator was quoted as telling the influential Japanese daily.
The Asahi Shimbun said both a South Korean official and a Taliban spokesman contacted by the newspaper denied any payment.
The Taliban, who earlier killed two of the hostages, freed the 19 Christian aid workers this week after South Korea promised to withdraw its military from Afghanistan as planned and ban missionary groups from the Islamic country.
South Korean officials have not commented on whether a payment was made to any party to help secure the release.
Asked about the Asahi report, a presidential spokesman said today that there had been no discussions with the Taliban apart from those on the troop withdrawal and the missionary issue.
The foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Canada have criticised South Korea for negotiating directly with the insurgents, saying it could embolden them.
The Taliban had initially demanded the release of captured fighters from Afghan jails in return for the hostages' lives, but the government in Kabul refused.
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