Headlines Sunday 15th June

Neal’s staffer sorry for nothing, really
Andrew Bolt
It just gets worse for Labor MP Belinda Neal and husband NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca:

THE mystery woman who apologised to staff at Iguanas after last Friday’s altercation has been identified as an employee of Belinda Neal.

Melissa Batten, of Gosford, was among those dining with Ms Neal and her husband, John Della Bosca, at Iguanas on the Central Coast.

But, unlike four other members of the party, she has not released a statutory declaration defending her boss.
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Can Rudd’s office tell the truth about anything?
Andrew Bolt
This is turning into a circus. If this pack of spinners can’t even tell the truth about the PM’s looks-spinner....

On Friday:

THE stylist ... Nadia Benussi, famous for her work with Hi-5 and Sex and the City star Kristin Davis..., denied working with the now stylish PM… saying it was a “silly” suggestion and was “absolutely not true”.

On Saturday:

But now she has admitted she is behind the PM’s new look…

“Yesterday, I was not expecting a call from a media outlet and I was not ready to answer questions,” she said in a statement supplied by the ALP National Secretariat.
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Ireland defends European democracy
Andrew Bolt
A stronger European mega-government - a project beloved by politicians, bureacrats, the Left and others who love paper schcemes - is once more rejected on one of the rare occasions when the public is consulted:

Irish voters tore up the European Union’s blueprint for the future yesterday in a dramatic and decisive rejection of the Lisbon treaty.

The result leaves Brussels’ plans to streamline EU power – creating a president and foreign minister and reducing the influence for smaller countries such as Ireland – in tatters.

The 53.4 per cent “no” vote should in theory sign the death warrant of the treaty, which has been eight years in the making, since it requires ratification by all 27 members. Gordon Brown faced immediate calls to scrap British ratification.
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Lepers glad of column
Andrew Bolt
Brian Stedman read my column last Friday, which brightly began:

ALWAYS happy to donate to a worthy cause - widows, orphans, lepers. But to give $70 million to the emperors of Toyota
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ICAC called in on Iguanagate
The investigation into the Iguana's nightclub scandal is stepping up with the corruption watchdog now called in to take charge of inquiries.
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Men who brought Della down
THESE are the men standing firm against one of the most powerful couples in Australian politics.
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Man, 92, banned from marrying teenage bride
EGYPTIAN authorities have banned a 92-year-old Saudi man from marrying a poor teenage girl 75 years his junior, a judicial source said.

The justice ministry made its ruling under a law designed to prevent wealthy Arabs from the Gulf from snapping up young Egyptian girls and which forbids marriage when there is an age gap of 25 years or more.

The unidentified Saudi holidaymaker proposed marriage to a 17-year-old village girl and offered a dowry of about $US28,000 ($30,000) as well as gold jewellery, the source said.
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Rudd had better sober up
Andrew Bolt
As if the Rudd Government doesn’t look dumb enough over binge-drinking after its alcopops farce:

THREE glasses of wine during dinner is about to be redefined as a binge-drinking episode under the Federal Government’s new official drinking guidelines to be released next month.

That means I went on a binge last night. If this goes through, the Government will be a laughing stock.